Acute Mountain Sickness : AMS
I used to think that why is everyone stressing so much about AMS, when we started climbing uphill, when the altitude started increasing is when I realized what it felt like.
Acute mountain sickness is caused by reduced air pressure and lower oxygen levels at high altitudes.
Symptoms
It’s basically a heaviness in your head, feeling puckish, dizziness, digestion issues and shortness of breath for some people, you better take it seriously. Because you are going to travel through the highest motorable pass in the world.
A true incident
I was warned not to get over excited when we reach any high-altitude place, but who remembers the instruction when your adrenaline is rushing to the peak. So that what happened with me. When we reached the second highest pas Tanglang la (elevation 5,328 meters (17,480 ft), I got super excited and I wanted to take a picture with the board and I Ran.
I took the picture stayed there for 2 minutes and as soon a came back to the car: blackout
I fainted; the next point I remember is literally puking after drinking the pungent garlic water.
I had lost my consciousness because of AMS and my friends helped me regain my consciousness by taking away all the extra layer of clothing and making me drink the garlic water.it was not more than 2 mins so it’s ok.
After regaining my consciousness, I was feeling super drowsy so I dosed off for an hour and then I was feeling much better.
Tips
The best medicine to this is drink water in regular intervals and have proper sleep at night.
The locals say that Garlic is very helpful for combating AMS and its tried and tested: its true.
Camphor also helps to sustain oxygen levels to some extent.
It’s very very important to acclamatize with the altitude.So climb slowly.Dont try to cover more than 2000 ft per day.
Inform your group member if you feel any of the symtoms and dont take it lightly.
There are few medicines you can carry along as prescribed by the doctor. We had carried Diamox and a homeopathy medicine with us during the trip.Please consult your doctor for the dosage as it differs from person to person.
Disclaimer
It’s not as easy as it looks, don’t believe social media for the merry trip for Ladakh. It is super tiring if you are driving or not. You need to be physically fit in order to enjoy the trip. The place has different effects on different body types so you have to be careful about yourself.
One thing is guaranteed for sure: the beautiful and surreal landscapes will blow your mind and it will stay in your memories forever.
Moral of the story is : don’t get super excited as excitement generates adrenaline rush ; your heart starts beating faster; which needs more oxygen and there is shortage of oxygen in the environment, so you get AMS
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