Altitude Sickness
25% of individuals who go above 2,000 meters and more than half of those who ascend above 4,000 meters have altitude sickness. Symptoms usually appear within hours of its rise and it seems that in addition to the altitude there is individual susceptibility favors the appearance of them.
Altitude sickness is mild weakness, usually self-limited and improves after acclimatization, and is prevented by gradual ascent. We also know that some medications such as acetazolamide are used to avoid the appearance of symptoms.
A group of American researchers wanted to prove whether a mild diuretic, the “ginkgo biloba” – better to avoid altitude sickness. This study included 57 subjects, 20 were given acetazolamide, 17 “ginkgo biloba” and 20 placebo. The subjects were healthy volunteers between 18 and 65 years living below a height of 1,200 meters and went to climb at least 3900 meters.
All subjects answered a test which reflected the signs related to the slight altitude sickness: headache, nausea or vomiting, fatigue and dizziness, tiredness, difficulty sleeping. Also included more serious disorders involving as altered mental status, ataxia and leg edema.
Individuals treated with acetazolamide were clearly less and less severe symptoms when compared with those treated with placebo or the herb. But there were no differences between the placebo and ginkgo biloba.
The study authors acknowledge that “the number of patients studied is not enough statistical power to exclude definitely the herb for prevention of altitude sickness.” However, the data imply that today has proven to be better than acetazolamide in preventing this problem.
The major disadvantage of the use of acetazolamide is that need a prescription and that one of every three patients has an adverse effect paresthesias. By contrast, the “ginkgo biloba is an herbal medicine that can be bought without a prescription and has no side effects practically, except in very rare cases in which bleeding favors
