Oxygen Levels and humans

Short Term High Altitude Climbers Effects

Short Term High Altitude Climbers Effects

Some critics of those who have taken a line similar to ours have used the studies or the Everest and K2 mountain climbers to suggest that it demonstrates that people can live with low levels of Oxygen. They however fail to mention that these climbers only spent relative short times of approximately 15 days. Some deterioration in density and volume of grey and white matter was found. Their studies indicated that for most the motor areas of the brain were the most affected. The study found that some subjects showed abnormal scores on neuro-psychological tests. It was considered that these abnormal results were not the result of a single expedition "but are most likely to be due to progressive, subtle , brain insults caused by repeated high-altitude exposure". It would therefore reasonable to assume that humans who survived an ELE which would be unlikely to have any short or medium term solution, could be expected to suffer from a decline in motor skills, verbal, visual and spatial skills. This is likely to be compounded by difficulties with immediate memory recall, and executive skills such as the ability to anticipate outcomes and adapt to changing situations. Those who might survive a severe oxygen level decline would therefore be greatly handicapped in attempting to successfully adapting to the new conditions

Long Term High Altitude Effects

In the 16^th century the Spanish went into the high Andes to take the Gold, silver, and copper being mined by the people there. The local people had lived there for many centuries and had managed to adapt to the very low levels of oxygen there. The Spanish were used to the oxygen levels at lower altitudes and they found the living there difficult. One of the worst things for them was the fact that Spanish women there found that all of their pregnancies either ended in having their children stillborn or dying within days of birth. The records indicate that it was more than half a century before any of the so called Conquistadores had children. It is believed that the successes were through intermarriage with the indigenes. The reason was of course that the Spanish could not cope with the low oxygen levels at 4 or 5 thousand meters. At those altitudes oxygen levels are about half those at sea level.