Do You Consider the Elevation of the Places That You Go on Vacation?
ELEVATION DIFFERENCES (sickness) IN TRAVEL...had me sleeping for 18 hours straight, just to recuperate!
Do you remember the last time that you slept for anywhere near 18 hours?!? Have you ever been in the position to sleep for such a long period of time? I honestly don’t recall ever having done so, before now.
The last time I dealt with elevation sickness, it was 12 years ago in Bogota, Colombia. I still vividly remember lying awake each night there, feeling as if I was suffocating.
However, I was also 6 months pregnant with my daughter, which that pregnancy ended up in an early emergency delivery because of HELLP Syndrome (severe preeclampsia)…
So therefore, ever since, Santiago and I both blamed the experience in Bogota as being more so related to pregnancy, or worse elevation symptoms because of pregnancy.
Bogota’s altitude is about 8,660 feet above sea level.
The main cities in which I have lived in my lifetime are: Chicago, Honolulu, and San Antonio. The elevation of those being…
Chicago = The average land elevation is 579 feet above sea level.
Honolulu = Now this city is on the island of O’ahu, which has some mountain ranges with high peaks, but the general elevation of where I lived (mostly Waikiki and Honolulu), ranges from 0 to 16 feet above sea level.
San Antonio = sits on the Balcones Escarpment, with an altitude of approximately 662 feet above sea level.
As you see, I’ve never lived in relatively high altitude whatsoever. So, could my history play into being more susceptible to symptoms of altitude sickness while traveling?
Altitude sickness, also known as acute mountain sickness (AMS), is a condition that can occur when people travel to or climb to a high altitude too quickly, according to the CDC. It's primarily caused by reduced oxygen levels in the air at higher altitudes, which can affect the body's ability to process oxygen efficiently or just not getting enough oxygen in general with each breath.
Symptoms of altitude sickness can range from mild to severe and may include:
Headache (most common)
Nausea and vomiting
Fatigue and dizziness
Loss of appetite
Difficulty sleeping
In severe cases: Confusion, inability to walk straight, shortness of breath, and blue/gray lips or fingernails (cyanosis)
It can last for days, even if you stay at the same altitude. Altitude sickness supposedly can affect anybody (but I have some theories of who is more susceptible). Even people who are young and in shape can get altitude sickness. Experts do not know who will get it and who will not. Neither your fitness level nor being male or female plays a role in whether you get altitude sickness.
Columbia doctors say: “If you are hiking or camping, you and those with you need to know the symptoms of altitude sickness. People often mistake altitude sickness for the flu, a hangover, or dehydration. As a rule, consider your symptoms to be altitude sickness unless you can prove they are not.”
In very bad cases, altitude sickness can cause:
high altitude pulmonary oedema (HAPE)
high altitude cerebral oedema (HACE)
These are medical emergencies!
On this most recent trip to Mexico City, we landed around 4 p.m. and went to bed at 9 p.m. So, it took about 5 hours for me to start having symptoms. That was the same for my daughter as well—we both felt like we couldn’t catch our breath while trying to go to sleep on the first night. My son however, had a massive headache while we were at our first dinner, so it affected him quicker. Luckily though, he did not feel breathing-related symptoms.
Mexico City was a bucket list place to visit, for mainly culinary reasons, but I had never thought twice to even check the elevation prior to! Mexico City's altitude is 7,350 feet above sea level.
I would describe my altitude sickness while there, as worse at night. Of course during the day there was some lingering differences overall (like getting winded just walking up stairs, legs feeling extremely heavy), but the bad symptoms were mainly at night.
If you’ve ever dealt with a panic attack, the feeling that I experienced is like when you are trying to calm yourself down as to not go into full panic mode. When trying to fall asleep, every thirty minutes I would be abruptly woken up to gasp for air. Normally we don’t think about breathing because it's an automatic, involuntary process controlled by the brainstem. But since my body wasn’t getting enough or the amount of oxygen it is used to, I had to force myself to breathe! All in all, I didn’t sleep longer than 30 minutes at a time for the entire trip—which added to the exhaustion.
Ever since my pregnancy in 2013, my platelets have been always on the lower side of “normal”. But while platelets themselves don't directly carry oxygen, their role in blood clotting can be disrupted when low, leading to potential issues like thrombosis and embolism, which can obstruct blood flow and reduce oxygen delivery to tissues.
Additionally, in some cases, a low platelet count can be associated with underlying conditions like anemia, which directly impacts the body's ability to carry oxygen.
Also, inflammation can lead to low oxygen levels… since during inflammation, the body's metabolic demands increase, requiring more oxygen to support immune responses and tissue repair. If the oxygen supply cannot keep up with the demand, it can lead to hypoxia.
When planning to share my experiences in Mexico City, I knew that I had to start with this information. Although the good still definitely outweighed the bad, I think it’s important to make people aware of the fact that perhaps more often, we should consider the elevation of places in which we plan to visit or stay… and assess our risk factors, in order to have a plan of action in case of needing medical attention or help.
General Tips found online:
Returning to “normal” ended up being even worse than the elevation sickness itself…
The night before our return flight, we all went to bed around 9 p.m. in order to wake up at 3:45 a.m. and be out of the hotel by 4:15 a.m. to arrive three hours early to the airport for our international flight process.
However, my daughter and I were tossing and turning the entire night. The longest stretch actually asleep for me was maybe 25 minutes. But regardless of the exhaustion, the plane ride was very much a welcome refuge as I thought it was only a short time until we were back in our “normal” elevation and hence, relief to the altitude sickness symptoms.
Well, during the plane ride, my daughter and I both started to feel very much out of it (chalking it up to exhaustion of course), but upon landing back in Texas - we did feel immediate relief in terms of “regular breathing”.
Then, we got home and what ensued was definitely unexpected.
My daughter immediately had a fever of 100.3… and as for me— every single muscle in my body was in extreme pain. It was similar to the body aches when you have a severe flu. I thought, well maybe we picked up a virus while traveling. However, it was getting so progressively worse, to the point in which I couldn’t even walk and it hurt to turn my head or move my eyes to the side!! (so scary)
Somehow, I managed to take a shower and then planned to get in bed and rest. First though, I chugged water, took some Vitamin C, Magnesium and Creatine (to help with head pain/inflammation too) and had my red light therapy panel on. I ended up falling asleep at 2 p.m. and didn’t wake up until the next morning around 8:30 a.m.
Nearly EIGHTEEN HOURS of sleep is what my body needed!
When I woke up, all of my pain was gone. I was shocked, as I was sure that I had started to come down with a virus. There is some lingering brain fog, but all in all…I’ve been back to “normal”.
Here is what I figured out most likely caused our return to lower altitude symptoms…
High-Altitude De-Acclimatization Syndrome (HADAS)
Although this more commonly happens after someone has been acclimated to higher elevations first or living there for longer periods of time, it can also occur when individuals return abruptly from a high-altitude environment to a lower altitude without properly acclimatizing to the change in oxygen levels.
Essentially, our bodies were SO CONFUSED. By morning, my daughter’s symptoms were also gone though.
I am so thankful that we are okay now. None of us regret our trip, as we experienced some unforgettable moments and the food was just extraordinary!
Stay-tuned for the good parts— part two of my post-Mexico City trip stories, coming soon!!!
Thanks for reading, stay well.
x. Heather
P.S. I highly recommend adding a pulse oximeter (blood oxygen saturation monitor) to your travel bag!
Wow! Never in a million years would I think to consider the elevation of a location. So glad you were still able to enjoy your trip and that you’re feeling better!