JIA's Dream Tours China Blog

Hi China Tour Dreamers!

This entry is dedicated to understanding high altitude sickness, a concern for a lot of people planning to visit Tibet on their Dream Tour to China. Also known as Acute Mountain Sickness (or AMS), it is estimated that 75% of people will experience mild symptoms of it. As Lhasa sits at 3,490 meters (11,450 feet), and the air only contains 68% of the oxygen compared to sea level, experiencing some form of AMS is a possibility.

It is impossible to predict if you will have any symptoms. It affects everyone differently and there is no high-risk profile like in other illnesses. It can affect the fit and not so fit, young or old, etc. (although some empirical studies actually show that elderly people are slightly less affected, however they cannot determine why) The good news is that if you do exhibit symptoms, most likely they will be mild.

Symptoms usually start 12-24 hours after arrival at altitude and begin to decrease in severity about the third day. The symptoms of Mild AMS does not impede your normal activity, just take steps (i.e. climbing) slowly and don’t exert yourself. Symptoms can be headache, dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, nausea, disturbed sleep, and a feeling of malaise.

The last tour group to Lhasa that I was with ran the gamut from no symptoms to moderate symptoms. The ones that did experience AMS usually had one or two of the symptoms listed above, but no one really suffered excessively. The most common symptoms were shortness of breath, some headaches (easily curable with their preferred OTC pain reliever of choice (aspirin, ibuprofen, etc.)) and fatigue.

For the worriers of you (and you know who you are ), the major hotels all have on-site clinics complete with medical staff. One of our group who had more moderate symptoms decided to use the clinic in our hotel to great success. It was not that the symptoms were overwhelming, rather she just decided that she could get more enjoyment out of the tour if she dealt with the symptoms head-on with treatment rather than wait for her body to acclimate. A very logical choice for her, however for the rest the symptoms were mild enough to be handled with a nap or a couple of ibuprofen.

Just remember to drink lots of liquids and do try and avoid alcohol, at least for the first day or two. Dehydration impedes the body’s ability to acclimate and alcohol acts a dehydrator.

One other note, try and avoid the oxygen bottles that many places will be happy to sell you. While they make it sound tempting, unless you really need it, it will only slow your natural acclimation to the altitude.

If you want to read chapter and verse on the subject of AMS, Princeton University has a great fact sheet on the subject: Outdoor Action Guide to High Altitude: Acclimatization and Illnesses

All the Best!

Jia

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