Latest / Stuff You Should Know / How do Tibetans avoid altitude sickness?

Transcript

How do Tibetans avoid altitude sickness? · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: from house Stuff works dot com. This podcast is brought
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: to you by Go to Meeting, the best way to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: hold meetings over the Internet. Reduce travel expenses, save time.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Just hold an online meeting with Go to Meeting. Try
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: it free, visit go to meeting dot com slash stuff. Hey,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh. There's Chuck where
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: right there? Oh, how's it going, Chuck? That's going great? Good.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: I'm glad to hear it. I'm glad. I don't know
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: how many times a year you go to Tibet. These days,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: I've cut it. I had to cut back to two
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: just because of finances in the economy. Yeah, I mean,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: jet fuel is very expensive, very Do you ever fly
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: first class business class? Nothing? But oh wow, sometimes I
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: fly it in the cockpit that's awesome, which is above
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: first class? Actually, oh yeah, definitely. That's like pilot class.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Do you know a pilot is how you get in
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: or do you just kind of break in? You just
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: show up like, Hey, how's it going. I'm an amiable guy,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: and they just they let me in there. Then they
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: locked the door, of course for safety reasons after you're in. Yes, yeah,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: I can see that. Well, when you've been to Tibet, which,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: as I'm sure you know, is the rooftop of the world. Right, Uh,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: there's all sorts of villages like high up on these mountains,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: and you toured any of them. No, I've never been
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: to Tibet. Okay, Oh, that all that was alive. Then
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: I thought you meant Tibet Georgia. You fly to Tibet, Georgia.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: That's a short flight, it is. Okay. Well, no, no, chuck,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: We're talking about Tibet, the the the much disputed province
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: outside of China, right, I'm not entirely certain is it
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: a part of China yet? I don't know, and I
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: actually look today and to see if it was in
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: fact a country, and I think technically they still have
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: to call it a region or a province. I got you,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: And I know they have the government in exile right
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: by the Dalai Lama, who I actually saw once. Did
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: you know that, Yeah? I did. Yeah, Okay, So anyway,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: we're that's the Tibet we're talking about where the Dalai
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Lama hails from Okay. Um. Well, it turns out that
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: there's there's villages everywhere. I've never visited either, I've just
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: read about it. There's villages on the tops of these mountains,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: which is why it's called the roof top of the world. UM.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: And these people are living at like sixteen thousand feet
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: above sea level, which is really high. Denver are mile
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: high city, it's like five thousand feet above sea level.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: So these people that make Denver look like nothing. It's
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: technically I think that the three point zero three mile
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: high country in the region, right, that's that's that's what
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: it's more commonly called. UM. So if you go, if
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: you're just you know, a regular sea level dweller like
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: you or I, uh, and we go visit to bed.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Especially when we're visiting like these highest villages, UM, generally
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: we would get hypoxia altitude sickness, which is like nausea, dizziness, vomiting,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: shortness of breath. You can actually die from it. UM.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: And so you're sitting there puking your guts out, wishing
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: you were dead. And all of these Tibetans are running
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: around happy as clams, spas are laughing at yet sure, yeah,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: they're they're doing somersaults and pointing and laughing yet um,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: and and so you're wondering what it's going on here,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: like why aren't these people all, you know, dropping dead
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: of heart attacks left and right? And what's going on?
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: And obviously what you would think is, well, they're used
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: to it, which makes sense, right, Yeah, that's kind of
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: an easy way to explain it. It It is. It is,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: but when you think about it, they shouldn't be used
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: to it. Humans shouldn't be used to hypoxia. So have
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: have you heard about how Tibetans avoid altitude sickness? I have, Josh.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I read your awesome article and it actually was really interesting.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: I thought, oh yeah, I did too. Actually it was
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: one of those assignments where I was thinking this is
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: gonna suck, but it turned out really well. And that
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: actually has been my experience. The more I thought the
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: article was gonna suck, the better it turned out. Yeah,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I had the same experience. Actually, yeah, it's kind of cool.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: So chuck a little background on hypoxia, right, All it
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: is is um, it's it's a lack of oxygen in
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: the blood, right, and of course we need oxygen to
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: carry out all sorts of vital processes that you know,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: staying alive and metabolization and all that. Sure, okay, um
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: so these people have been trying to figure out how, uh,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: the Tibetans aren't hypoxic. Okay, yeah, I know it's coming.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: They actually are hypoxic. I was kind of amazed by that.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: It is. It's a little amazing these people are running
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: around their hypoxic that they're not displaying any symptoms. So
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: this of course raises a little bit of curiosity among researchers.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: If Tibetans are hypoxic, how are they you know, not
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: showing symptoms right? Why aren't they just vomiting NonStop? What
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: a bad country that would be if I don't think
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: people would want to go to Tibet if that was
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: the case. The national flag is some guy like just
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: you knowing projectile vomitation. Um. So these researchers, they think
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: they were from the I can't remember where they were from,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: maybe Emery or Case Western, Case Western, same thing. Yeah.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Um So these guys from Case Western go and they
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: actually they did this really hands on um investigation. They
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: used instruments that that can sense different types of particles
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: in air, and they asked Tibetans to breathe into this
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: to mouth briefly, and it's one of your favorite subjects, breathers. Right. Yeah, Well,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I mean if they're if they're being asked to mouth
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: breathe that as long as it's not like your default setting,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: I don't have a problem with. Right. So they weren't
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: like your your arch enemy key for Sutherland famous mouth breathing. Yeah,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: um yeah, so okay, they were mouth breathing, agreed, But
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: they were mouth breathing with case Western instruments in front
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: of them. Sure, and this is what the people found. Uh,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: this mystery has been solved, and it's pretty interesting stuff. Um.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: When we exhale, you know, we we exhale carbon dioxide.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: That's like the big star of our exhalation. That's what
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: everybody knows about. We also exhale this stuff called nitric oxide,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: which our body gets rid of as a as a
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: waste product right through respiration. Um. The thing is is
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: nitric oxide actually helps dilate blood vessels. Okay, so the
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Tibetans of actually their bodies have acclimated to hypoxia by
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: keeping more of the nitric oxide in the body, so
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: their blood vessels are dilated more all the time, which
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: means their heart has to work class right, which it's
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: It makes it easier to deliver the oxygen throughout the body.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: It's pretty cool. It is very cool. And Okay, so
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: now we have a perfect example of UM evolution and isolation. Okay. Uh,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: some humans have gone up to where humans aren't supposed
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: to be and have adapted. Uh, They're not the only
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: group that's done that. There's some other groups, right indeed,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: So uh, my hypothesis would be that that these other
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: groups would display the same phenotype, the same trait, right,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: you would think people anyone living at a high altitude
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: anywhere in the world, because we evolve more or less
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: at sea level. Is that correct? Yeah, And we're we're
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: sea level species and we're a subtropical species. Yeah, that's
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: where we're supposed to be. We're beach commerce essentially pretty much. Yeah. Yeah,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: but of course, you know, we've got the our Nordic
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: friends up north, you know, and uh, we have um
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: our friends down in Chile and and and these you
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: know people in Tibet. Humans live where we're not supposed
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: to live, and the Tibetans show that we can adapt exactly.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: But when you think that we would all adapt the
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: same way given the similar situations, I would think so.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: But we found out, or you found out through your research,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: that's not the case. Yes, And actually this has been
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: known for a while. The Tibetan case, Western study was
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: I think it's in the last decade two five. There's
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: this Frenchman named Francois of y'all I believe, um. And
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety he visited the Andies. This is another
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: high altitude mountain and dwelling people martu Pechu, you know,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: way back on the hills south right. Um. So he
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: goes down there because he had the same question you know,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: a century or so ago. He wanted to know how
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: these people were living at high altitudes when you know
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: they should be suffering from hypoxia. Do you know what
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: he found out? I do? And was it that they
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: keep more nitric oxide? No, Actually he theorized and was correct.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: They um had more red blood cells, higher red blood
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: cell count. And that's important because red blood cells um
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: contain hemoglobin, which is sort of like the FedEx man
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: of your body. Hemoglobin delivers oxygen, right, so they have
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: their bodies produce more red bloods, more red bloods, so
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: it can. I guess every part per million of blood
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: can hold more oxygen than you know, yours are mine, right,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: So okay, so we've got to um, high altitude dwelling
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: groups of people that have evolved in isolation but have
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: evolved to have a differently. Yeah, that's pretty interesting. Yes,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: And there's a third. There is a third you want
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: to tell them about it? Yeah, this is the highlands
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: of Ethiopia, which I didn't realize Ethiopia had highlands. I
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: don't know much about that place, and I didn't either
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: actually until this very article, which is a great part
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: about our job. We learned things all the time. Um.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: So they don't have either one of these, as you know. No,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: and they're living in a high altitude as well. I
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: think the Tibetans live the highest up. But both the
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Andean dwellers and the people who live in the Ethiopian highlands,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: they're living in a high enough altitude that they should
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: be hypoxic. Right. And also with studies of them, they
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: haven't turned up any of the Ethiopian Highlanders, they haven't
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: turned up any kind of adaptation. Yeah, that's the one
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: that really is strange. They don't. They don't have any
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: kind of oxygen delivery system like extra red blood cells.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: They don't maintain their and O levels more than normal people.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: And it's possible that we just haven't found the fee
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: know type this this adapt taste true, we haven't figured
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: it out yet. But for all intensive purposes, these people
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: should be you know, dead, dying or you know, vomiting
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: at the very least, all right, but they're not. It's weird.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: It's weird. Yeah, and you know, Josh, reading this article,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: it made me wonder, um, and may there may be
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: studies on this. If if people from tibet um and
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: the Ethiopian highlands, if they have trouble when they come
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: down to sea level or below. Let's say they went
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: to Amsterdam for the weekend, which is half of Holland
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: resides below sea level. Yeah, I wonder if they have
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: problems breathing, or if if their body adapts to that
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: quickly or what, or if there'd be like a rush
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: of oxygen. Yeah, exactly, they get too much of it, right,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: they might feel high all the time or something which
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: would be kind of cool. Of course it is answered
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: in yeah, right right. I think that they would probably
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: feel high no matter what. Yeah in hello to our
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Dutch friends, we love you alright. So other than the
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Ethiopian Highlanders, I mean, the questions have been asked and answered.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: We know why the Tibetans aren't hypoxic, and we also
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: know why the why the andy and dwellers aren't hypoxes.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Right well, actually Tibetans are hypoxes, yes, how they deal
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: with it right, sure, So I think we'll probably revisit
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: it once we finally figure out what's going on with
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: the Ethiopian Highland. I think that's a great idea. And
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: stick around to find out which article that Chuck and
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: I think you should read in these trying economic times.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: They'll save your finances. What's that article that that we
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: teased all of our listeners were right and these trying
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: economic times, I think one article people should read is
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: uh tent Top five things that devalue your house by
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Jessica Toothman. Jessica Toothman fellow writer, and uh, now is
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: not the time to devalue your home. Everyone knows you
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: want to add value to your home or at least
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: you know, total line and keep it dead even exactly
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: and Toothman can tell you some some easy steps you
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: can take to keep your house from devaluing, depending on
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: how you read it, If you're looking to devalue your
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: house for semina farious reason, this could be a how
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: to guide for that as well. Like spite fantastic Well,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: you can find all this stuff everything we've talked about
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. For more on this and
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Let us know what you think. Send an email to
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: podcast at how stuff works dot com. Brought to you
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: you