Physiological adaptation to altitude. Possible therapeutic implications

Abstract

High altitude is characterised by hypoxia; low levels of oxygen in the atmosphere create a deficiency in oxygen reaching the tissues. Hypoxia creates a stress in all aerobic bodies, leading to physiological, metabolic and genomic changes to adapt to this new environment. As there are some high-altitude adapted populations, we are going to make a difference between adaptation and acclimation. Adaptation is referred as the long-term evolutionary changes which affect the whole population and acclimation are the short-term changes which lowland adapted newcomers undergo to adapt to a new environment. In this final degree work, we will identify the main changes produced by hypoxia and other altitude-related factors in different states of the human body. We will resume physiological changes, deleterious effects in other pathologies, altitude training, as well as a review of the actual treatment and prophylaxis of the unpleasant symptoms lead by an incorrect short-term adaptation to hypoxia. We will speak about pathologies and special situations like pregnancies, hypoxic adaptations lead to changes in these illnesses situation, some of them get improved and some of them get aggravated by altitude’s hypoxia. Recently, high-altitude and hypoxia are seen as a new pathway for the treatment of some pathologies such as obesity, diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases and can open up some new fields for future studies.