2024-04-26 13:35:00
One in three people who climb Everest suffer from cardiac arrhythmias. The body’s ability to adapt to high altitude may favor this phenomenon, according to a study from the University of Bern.
The Himalayan range seen from the summit of Everest, May 31, 2021 in Nepal
Until now, small studies conducted at moderate altitudes have indicated a more frequent occurrence of cardiac arrhythmias, the University of Bern said in a press release. In the current study, researchers from the University Cardiology Clinic at Island Hospital and Nepalese researchers looked at the question at very high altitudes.
They equipped 41 healthy volunteers with portable electrocardiograms following assessing the condition of their hearts: 34 of the study participants reached the base camp, 32 the South Col at 7,900 meters above sea level and 14 the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, at 8,848 meters above sea level.
Results: more than a third of them had heart rhythm disturbances during the ascent to base camp at 5,300 meters, which was not the case below 1,500 meters. It was regarding slow disruptions and interruptions. However, tachycardias have also been observed.
However, none of these disorders were clinically serious. In particular, most appeared below 7,300 meters, where most climbers did not use bottled oxygen.
According to the doctors’ conclusions, the disorders are due to the body’s mechanisms for adapting to the rarefied air at high altitude. Breathing patterns during sleep as well as salt metabolism play an important role, according to this work published in the American journal JAMA Cardiology.
Future studies will have to look more closely at the possible effects of these heart rhythm disturbances, to find out whether they constitute an additional and so far underestimated risk for mountain climbing at altitude, writes the university.
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