High altitude and oxygen

[triple8s]

Just watched an episode of Stan Lee's super humans and there was a fellow on there who was placed in a high altitude chamber. They had him and 3 others in one was to make sure everyone was ok and he stayed on oxygen the altitude was taken to 28500ft and the three test subjects removed their oxygen. As we would guess the effects didn't take long on two but the one fellow had zero hypoxia effects. They placed the masks in the two that were effected and took the altitude to 30500 and kept it there for 24 minutes and the one fellow still had no effects of hypoxia. They didn't go higher because the test administrators didn't want to go further with it. Was pretty amazing.

[yvesg]

I saw it too. The guy is a sherpa. They are genetically different than the average dude. I would like to see him compete with the best apnea divers, see if he could stand longer then them.

Yves

[cliffy]

His blood chemistry is different either from genetics or adapting to high altitude over time. He probably has much more hemoglobin than any of us.

[omega708]

I had a Tibetan co-worker several years ago and I remember him telling me that when he moved to Beijing, to attend college, he joined an intramural soccer (football) team and that he was able to run for hours and hours on end without ever getting winded.  After a few months of living in Beijing he gradually lost this super-human ability.  The altitude of his hometown sits at around 11,000 feet above MSL, Beijing is about 150 feet above MSL however.

[Marauder]

His blood chemistry is different either from genetics or adapting to high altitude over time. He probably has much more hemoglobin than any of us.

Either that or he has pumped himself up with EPO and/or transfused himself with his own blood like Lance.

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[AndyFromCB]

His blood chemistry is different either from genetics or adapting to high altitude over time. He probably has much more hemoglobin than any of us.

 

Actually, doesn't have much to do with hemoglobin. Excess hemoglobin causes some major side effects, so even as us flat landers acclimatize to high altitudes when climbing 8,000 meter peaks, this increases our risk for hypertension, stroke and other cardiac events considerably. 

 

The way the Sherpa people cope with it is via a a special mutation in EPAS1 protein and actually have less hemoglobin in the bodies than flat landers and their bodies have considerably lower cell level oxygen saturation. Nobody actually quite understands how it functions but current theories are that the mutation allows for much higher balance and duration of anaerobic activity. It's quite a unique adaptation, different from people living in high Andes mountains.

 

It's been genetically traced to interbreeding with another humanoid specie approximately 30,000 years ago, called a Denisovans.

[yvesg]

About: their bodies have considerably lower cell level oxygen saturation...

I recal that during the show the sherpa had lower saturation level than what I would expect. Looks like their oxygen requirement is much lower.

Yves

[rainman]

Bottom line here folks is use a pulse oximeter. Just because you don't show symptoms doesn't mean you're not impaired. Lot's of folks/docs use 92% as the low end. The devices are cheap and accurate. It's really the best way to make sure you're thinking straight .