How to Prepare your body for High Altitude Trips
- Yvonna
- Mar 20
- 2 min read
Sometimes I think people don’t really understand our warning of the elevation in Alma, and rightfully so! If you’ve never been to a high elevation area you have no idea how it feels until you’ve been there. It’s also something that affects everyone differently and what you experience one time may be completely different than the following visit. Common side effects are, shortness of breath, arrhythmia of the heart, dehydration, headaches, nausea, and difficulty sleeping. Oftentimes the first night is not the most restful as your body acclimates. Below I have some tips and resources to hopefully put your mind at rest and set expectations on how you might feel and what you can do to try to feel your best and prepare your body for high altitude trips.
Acclimate slowly! Extend your trip by staying in Denver once your flight gets in or if you’re driving find a town on the way that is higher than where you live and stay for a night or two. This is a natural and gradual way to acclimatize though it does add time and cost.
You can use sauna to help combat altitude sickness. After doing an exercise or active activity followed by a sauna session you can increase available oxygen and efficiency of your body delivering that oxygen. You can read more about its cardiac effects in a simple to read report by UCLA.
Limit your alcohol consumption especially in the first 24-48 hours. We know your on holiday and want to enjoy yourself but alcohol tends to hit the body faster in high altitudes and can make you feel drunk faster and those head aches feel even worse the next day. Alcohol also makes you more dehydrated which is already a problem at altitude. Limiting your alcohol until you feel acclimatized is the best course of action to enjoy your vacation.
Hydration is important! If you're hydrated it doesn’t mean that you won't get sick but it can help with the symptoms. Increasing your total blood volume by drinking enough water can help to better deliver nutrients and oxygen. Utilizing electrolytes is another way to increase your chances of feeling better! Electrolytes allow cells in your body to better perform and absorb H2O and Oxygen, therefore aiding you in hopefully feeling normal.
**Women, please keep in mind your cycle and the role it may play in how you feel at elevation. If you are on your cycle at the cabin chances are you can feel the effects of altitude differently and in a negative way. Staying hydrated with electrolytes is a good chance to decrease exacerbated altitude effects when on your cycle. Unfortunately, research is conflicting in this specific warning so I have no resources to link and am speaking on personal experiences. When cycling at the cabin I feel the effects of altitude sickness, when not cycling I feel normal as my threshold for altitude is around 12-13,000ft before I start to feel the effects of altitude sickness normally. No surprises that women specific study are challenging to fins but, here is the best women specific information I could find that is easy to understand though it focuses more on pregnant women than cycling women.
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