There is less oxygen in your blood in mountain- says research

There is less oxygen in your blood in mountain- says research

by

Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi

Climbers summiting Mount Everest have as little oxygen in their bloodstream as residents of coastal areas who are in cardiac arrest- or who have even dead. Four physicians from University College London trekked up Everest and drew their own blood for analysis. They found that because of the altitude, they had about a quarter less oxygen in their blood than is normal for people at sea level. The analysis also confirmed other effects of being at high altitudes, such as the increase in hemoglobin to ferry as much oxygen as possible.

The number of people travelling to the high altitude regions, especially South America, Nepal, and India, has risen enormously in the past 10 years. Without special climbing ability these trekkers can be exposed to altitudes they will not have encountered in their home countries.

In India tourists traveling towards remote areas of Leh and Laddakh region of Jammu and Kashmir state complain of breathlessness and fatigue.

The concentration of oxygen at sea level is about 21% and the barometric pressure averages 760 mmHg. As altitude increases, the concentration remains the same but the number of oxygen molecules per breath is reduced. At 12,000 feet (3,658 meters) the barometric pressure is only 483 mmHg, so there are roughly 40% fewer oxygen molecules per breath. In order to properly oxygenate the body, your breathing rate (even while at rest) has to increase. This extra ventilation increases the oxygen content in the blood, but not to sea level concentrations. Since the amount of oxygen required for activity is the same, the body must adjust to having less oxygen. In addition, for reasons not entirely understood, high altitude and lower air pressure causes fluid to leak from the capillaries which can cause fluid build-up in both the lungs and the brain. Continuing to higher altitudes without proper acclimatization can lead to potentially serious, even life-threatening illnesses.

The major cause of altitude illnesses is going too high too fast. Given time, your body can adapt to the decrease in oxygen molecules at a specific altitude. This process is known as acclimatization and generally takes 1-3 days at that altitude.

Lack of oxygen causes high-altitude sickness. As altitude increases, the air becomes "thinner," which means less oxygen is in the atmosphere. You get less oxygen in your lungs with each breath, so the amount of oxygen in your blood declines. (This is called hypoxia). All people can experience mountain sickness, but it may be more severe in people who have heart or lung problems.

What are the symptoms?
Symptoms usually begin within 48 hours of arriving at high altitude. The higher the altitude, the greater the effects. People can notice effects when they go to an altitude of 7,000 to 8,000 feet. If you have heart disease (such as heart failure) or lung disease (such as emphysema), you may have symptoms at lower altitudes. Symptoms include headaches, breathlessness, fatigue, nausea or vomiting, inability to sleep swelling of the face, hands and feet.
Both heart rate and breathing rate increase as the body tries to send more oxygen to its tissues. At very high altitudes, body fluid can leak into the brain (called brain or cerebral edema) or into the lungs (pulmonary edema). Both these conditions can be serious or even life-threatening.

How can we prevent high-altitude illness?
You can do two important things to prevent high-altitude illness:

1. Take your time traveling to higher altitudes. When you travel to a high altitude, your body will begin adjusting right away to the lower amount of oxygen in the air, but it takes several days for your body to adjust completely. If you're healthy, you can probably safely go from sea level to an altitude of 8,000 feet in a few days. But when you reach an altitude above 8,000 feet, don't go up faster than 1,000 feet per day. The closer you live to sea level, the more time your body will need to get used to a high altitude. Plan your trip so your body has time to get used to the high altitude before you start your physical activity.

2. Sleep at an altitude that is lower than the altitude you are at during the day. For example, if you ski at an elevation of 10,000 feet during the day, sleep the night before and the night after at an elevation of 8,500 feet.

Reference:
L. Jordan, March 2009. Scientific American, India. pp.19
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4618
http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/safety/altitude.html
http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/healthy/physical/injuries/247.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0999/is_n7165_v317/ai_21250857

Kosi floods in Bihar, India- New Big Dam is the only solution.

Kosi floods in Bihar, India- New Big Dam is the only solution.
By
Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi
The swollen Kosi River breaking its embankments and changing course has ravaged many villages on its way to join the river Ganges affecting over a million people in Bihar.
Kosi River flows from Nepal to India and is known as the ''Sorrow of Bihar'' for the havoc it wreaks in many districts of the eastern state each year. The Kosi River, called Koshi in Nepal, is a transboundary river between Nepal and India, and is one of the largest tributaries of the Ganga. The river, along with its tributaries, drains a total area of 69,300 sq. km up to its confluence with the Ganga in India.
The river basin is surrounded by the ridges separating it from the Brahmaputra in the north, the Gandaki in the west, the Mahananda in the east, and by the Ganga in the south. The river is joined by major tributaries, approximately 48 km north of the Indo-Nepal border, breaking into more than twelve distinct channels with shifting courses due to flooding.
India is second in the world after Bangladesh in deaths due to flooding, accounting for one fifth of global flooding deaths.
Every year during the monsoon season, the Bihar region appears in the headlines because of large scale flooding. In general, this is also the time to go through the annual ritual of accusing the peasants of Nepal and the nearby mountain regions for sending down floods in even-higher volumes.
The Kosi river fan located in the northern part of India (in northeast Bihar and eastern Mithila) is one of the largest alluvial cones built by any river in the world. This 180 km long and 150 km wide alluvial cone shows evidence of lateral channel shifting exceeding 120 km during the past 250 years through more than 12 distinct channels. The river, which used to flow near Purnea in the 18th century, now flows west of Saharsa in Bihar.
It is said that due to large scale of deforestation in the Himalayas the rivers bring high influx of water and sediments and create havoc in the Bihar fields just like Kosi river did today. Kosi area is devoid of vegetation. The nature and extent of vegetation have strong control on runoff characteristics of the river catchments. The vegetation generates greater infiltration, and consequently a lesser amount of runoff. in North Bihar except Champaran where forest is significant (10.92%) most districts including Saharsa, Purnea, Supol etc the forest cover is very thin.
Even the areas affected today have very thin forest cover. It is now essential to create more forest cover which I am sure will minimize the flood calamity.
The other important solution to prevent this flood is to build big dams in Bihar bordering Nepal. Seeing the area coming under seismic zones proper precaution must be taken in building the Dams.
The Dam built on the Kosi river in Nepal has now become old and ill maintained. So it has now become essential to build more bigger dam in Bihar compared to Nepal to prevent such calamity.
All the tributaries of Kosi river encircle Mt Everest from all sides and are fed by the world's highest glaciers. These melting of the glaciers contribute high volume of water to the Kosi river with rain water during monsoon. High sediment load with water flow multiply the menace. Every year Kosi contributes heavy sediment in Bihar plains. Owing to extensive soil erosion and landslides in its upper catchment by factors both natural and human, the silt yield of the Kosi is about 10 cubic yard /acre/yr, one of the highest in the world.
Several workers have reported neotectonic movements in north Bihar. On the basis of experimental result it was showed that subsidence in an area causes flooding in the downstream reaches of a braided stream. In case of meandering channel, subsidence results in flooding in downstream reaches at the axis of deformation because of cut offs. The major parts of north Bihar plains are actively subsiding. Further, the neotectonic activities in the Himalayan region have resulted in unstable slopes, loose and fragmented rocks and higher river gradients. All these effects contribute to high sediment load of these rivers and, as a result, the beds of these rivers are rising rapidly. The bed of Kosi in Bihar is now at a higher level than the flood plain. It seems therefore that rapid subsidence combined with very high sedimentation rates have resulted in reduction in carrying capacity of channels in downstream reaches which experience frequent and severe flooding.

Big dams are constructed for the storage of more water so that the stored water is available in non-monsoon months. If the stored water is not used in non-monsoon months, then during the high monsoon with intense bouts of rain water level in these reservoirs will definitely increase the possibility of destructive floods in the river basins. Kosi dam may have faced the same phenomenon as this year Kosi river catchment area in Himalayas received heavy rainfall building pressure on the Dam in Nepal. Most of the big dams in India and Nepal are old and due to lack of proper maintenance they favour such types of devastating floods. As in the case of Kosi river engineers have cautioned about the damage being created due to high influx of water in the dam.
Further, the mountain fed rivers have mixed contributions from snowmelt runoff and monsoonal rainfall. Even during lean periods (summer), runoff contribution due to snowmelt is quite significant. The cumulative effect of monsoon rainfall and snow melt runoff results in sudden increase in the river discharge mounting pressure on the ill maintained dams. The shallow alluvial channels between the narrow banks and embankments cannot effectively carry this sudden jump in discharge consequently resulting in breaches and spilling of banks.
Further, river Kosi and other rivers of Bihar are characterized by high sediment load, mainly wash load which causes rapid aggradation of the river bed. It was observed earlier that at many locations water level in the channel within the embankments is significantly higher than the general ground level in the surrounding areas. Deposition of sediments either within the channels or on the channel margin restricts the passage of water and thus reduces the carrying capacity of the channel. This again results in over spilling of water on the adjacent plains- Kosi being the best example.