New Understanding of Heart Function at High Altitude
Researchers have found reasons why high altitude reduces the amount of blood pumped throughout the body.
If you live at sea level and you've ever traveled to the mountains you know all to well how altitude can affect your ability to breathe and exercise. What you normally might not have difficulty doing at home, when traveling can seem extremely difficult. Scientists have known for a long time that the amount of blood your heart pumps throughout the body is reduced but haven't known exactly why, until now.
New research published in The Journal of Physiology has found a reason as to why blood flow is reduced when at high altitude. They found that the altitude causes the blood pressure in the lungs to increase, that combined with the lack of oxygen present in the air the volume of blood pumped is reduced. This information is important in our understanding of how the body adapts to altitude changes and it's relation to exercise performance. In this study they tested people at a private research facility in California using echocardiography to look at the vascular system which is a non-invasive method. The sample size of this study was also very small, but it brings us closer to understanding our bodies and how to have them functioning at peak performance no matter what the circumstance.
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