Question

What is high altitude sickness? Write its symptoms.

Answer 1

Introduction:

High altitude sickness is the sickness or physiological changes experienced by an individual at high elevations like mountains.

Underlying reasons:

Moving to higher altitudes, the density of gases in air decreases gradually. The availability of oxygen at higher altitude is also less. The low atmospheric pressure (low partial pressure of $O_2$) at high altitudes deprives the body of enough oxygen. This causes the people moving to places at higher elevations to initially experience altitude sickness.


Symptoms:

The symptoms of altitude sickness include the following:

$\bullet$ Nausea
$\bullet$ Vomiting
$\bullet$ Problem in breathing
$\bullet$ Dizziness
$\bullet$ Headache
$\bullet$ Heart palpitations
$\bullet$ Fatigue etc.

These symptoms pass with time as an individual gets acclimatised to the high altitude.