Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGrimm
I just think it's effin funny how we all consider it a huge deal while the sherpas call it a job and do it all the time.
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It's not funny. They have undergone thousands of years of evolution and picked up genetic survival traits have adapted their population to thrive at high altitudes where as most people from around the world lack those beneficial genes.
Among many other adaptions, they are genetically adapted to that environment to prevent polycythemia (a process in which the body produces too many red blood cells in response to oxygen deprivation), as well as other health abnormalities such as swelling of the lungs and brain (edema) and hypertension of the lung vessels leading to eventual respiratory failure.
Even at elevations of 14,000 feet above sea level or higher, where the atmosphere contains much less oxygen than at sea level, most Tibetans do not overproduce red blood cells and do not develop lung or brain complications.