Next, have some water and an over-the-counter painkiller to help with the headache. First, find somewhere that you can sit down and relax. If you believe you’re experiencing the early signs of altitude sickness, don’t ignore it.
Don’t push yourself too hard physically.Here are some other tips that you can use to reduce your risk of struggling with altitude sickness: Physical activity increases the amount of oxygen that you need, and with less oxygen in the air at higher elevations, this can cause feelings of unease. Similarly, when you get to the mountains, try to spend a day or more relaxing and exploring town before you go hiking or skiing. Once you arrive in Colorado, spend a few days at these lower elevations before venturing to higher elevations in the mountains. For instance, most people will not experience troubling symptoms of altitude sickness when they come from sea level to Denver or Colorado Springs. The best thing you can do to prevent altitude sickness is to give your body time to adapt before moving to a higher elevation. Headaches, fatigue, and general unease are no way to enjoy the best that Colorado has to offer. Yet, these early symptoms can quickly ruin a vacation. More serious symptoms, such as mental confusion, trouble walking, and chronic shortness of breath, tend to occur only at even higher elevations. In Colorado, these early symptoms of altitude sickness are usually all that occurs. Early signs of insufficient oxygen include sleepiness, physical fatigue, headaches, nausea, dizziness, a fast heartbeat, shortness of breath, and vomiting. When you travel somewhere at a much higher altitude, low oxygen levels can cause trouble. And when you fly or drive somewhere new, your body doesn’t always have the time it needs to get accustomed to lower oxygen levels. This is why you can survive at sea level and on the top of a mountain.īut there is one caveat-it takes time for your body to adjust to lower levels of oxygen in the air. Over tens of thousands of years, it’s evolved to deal with varying levels of oxygen in the air. The rule is this: the higher you go, the less oxygen is in the air. As your heart beats, it delivers oxygen-rich blood to your brain and body, giving you the fuel you need to think and move.ĭifferent locations around the world contain varying levels of oxygen in the air. Blood picks up oxygen from your lungs and delivers it to the rest of your body. When you breathe, your lungs extract oxygen from the air.