The History of High Altitude Sickness and Complications

In our episode on the bends, you joined us as we explored how low we can go. Now we’re back with a similar invitation: come along to learn how high we can fly (and what happens to our bodies when we get up there). In this very special episode, we examine the short-term effects and potentially deadly consequences of life at great heights and ask how we came to understand the relationship between altitude, oxygen, and health. This journey begins earlier than you may have guessed, back to a time before oxygen was discovered, and winds through unexpected avenues, including misadventures in hot air balloons and early experiments demonstrating the vitality of air, as we trace how the pieces of high altitude physiology were put together. A big part of what makes this episode so very special is our guest, Dr. Jonathan Velotta, Assistant Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Denver, who joins us to chat about some of the incredible ways that humans and other animals have adapted to live at high altitude. Tune in for a bird’s-eye view of what it’s like to have a high life.

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