Sea sickness, chair lift

snowb4ndit wrote:My son had a nose bleed in Les Men. I read somewhere it's to do with dry air i.e. lack of moisture in ski accommodation. Apparently Vaseline up the nostrils helps prevent the nose bleeds.

The altitude definitely increases the chance of a nose bleed, but I don't know about the effect of moisture. When I was in Zambia, which is on a plateau 6000 feet up, several people had nose bleeds.

Tony,
even in the resort one is usually at a higher altitude than when at home in the U.K. For example, I live only about a mile from the sea, at 100 metres, whereas many ski resorts are at 2000 metres or so.

I think the altitude while ski-ing does affect one's ears, and as well as that, so does the aeroplane on the way out there and back. Flying with a heavy cold is really not a good idea unless you take a powerful decongestant first (we used to use otrivine nose drops).

Kate,
I don't think manflu is caused by ski-ing at altitude :D, but it is amazingly annoying when one gets ill on holiday.

Ally

AllyG wrote:

snowb4ndit wrote:My son had a nose bleed in Les Men. I read somewhere it's to do with dry air i.e. lack of moisture in ski accommodation. Apparently Vaseline up the nostrils helps prevent the nose bleeds.

The altitude definitely increases the chance of a nose bleed, but I don't know about the effect of moisture. When I was in Zambia, which is on a plateau 6000 feet up, several people had nose bleeds.

Even at very high or extreme altitude the pressure difference isn't enough to make blood start spurting from your body :lol: Zambia is good case in point, you're talking around 1800m and that's a level where you need laboratory instruments to detect the altitude effects.

If you read the anecdotes above you see two things that hint what the problem is, it's only nosebleeds and people talk about getting them in the night quite often. That's enough to suggest what's happening is related to respiration. What's actually happening is you're damaging the nasal passage breathing dry air, that's why is happens to some people in deserts as well. The fact the air is often cold obviously makes that much worse.

It's the same reason you tend to get more chest infections at altitude, thin air makes you gasp for air which damages the throat and you bypass your normal nasal filters.

As an aside, actually blood clots better at altitude so bleeds don't get out of control.

My son and husband both got nosebleeds and we were not that high. My son's nose would not stop bleeding and his bathroom looked like a scene from the Exorcist! Neither if them are prone to nosebleeds at home and on the rare occasion they stop very quickly. Not this time. It was during the day- luckily we were back at the hotel but it was quite concerning. If altitude is causing this problem is there anything you can do to help yourself? To stay at a lower resort is not helpful!

My husband did get flu one ski hol after three days and that was the end of skiing that week. He was pretty ill and had we flown home a day earlier the airline would have refused to take him. Still I would have got an extra day's peace. Mmmmmmm!!

Well,
What an interesting sub-topic this has turned out to be!

I have had a quick read through the on-line literature on altitude sickness this morning. There is quite a lot of it. I think the most helpful phrase was 'the causes of altitude sickness are not fully understood'!

It seems to be partly due to the dryness of the air, increasing the likelihood of dehydration and nose-bleeds, and partly due to the drop in air pressure resulting in a drop in the actual number of oxygen molecules available to us in each breath (although apparently the percentage of oxygen in the air remains the same up to 70,000 feet).

I have observed the drop in air pressure by its effect on things like my roll-on deodorant (the ball fell out), pre-packed food in the shop where the plastic bag hugely over inflates etc.

Less oxygen available makes the heart work harder, increasing one's pulse and respiratory rate. I have noticed this myself. Running up the stairs in the apartment in the resort makes me quite out of breath. And presumably it is the reduction in oxygen that causes the mental confusion.

What I didn't know, though, is that altitude can cause swelling of the face, hands and feet and a weight gain of 4-12 Lbs. I also didn't know that it can affect the medication you take - for example, warfarin and other blood thinners may be more active at high altitude.

There are a number of other effects listed as well, like insomnia (I tend to wake up in the middle of the night), drowsiness (another problem I have in the evening), and then rather frightening more severe reactions (which I hope only occur at very high altitudes) like fever, vomiting and even death :shock:

I think myself the nosebleeds are caused by a combination of the dry air and your heart working harder. Apparently there is a high concentration of blood vessels just beneath the lining of the nose, which can bleed relatively easily.

The general advice to reduce the symptoms of altitude sickness is
a) Acclimatize yourself gradually to the altitude (not really practical on a ski holiday, apart from ski-ing the lower runs first)

b) Cut down on your alcohol intake.

c) Drink plenty of water throughout the day - at least 6-8 glasses

d) Use a humidifier in your room, or find another way of increasing the relative humidity of your room (like drying things on the radiator I suppose, or boiling saucepans).

http://www.answers.com/topic/altitude-sickness

Ally

Interestingly, I had the 3 nosebleeds during the night after a sauna. I then didnt use the sauna on the other days when I didnt have nosebleeds. Coincidence? Or is it something to do with the dryness?

Also, regarding ears, I have had a problem with my left ear, being blocked and a buzzing noise in it, since October. Nothing my doctor did could shift it, and the buzzing got worse. Possibly tinitus.

However, since both flying last week and being at altitude, this has completely disappeared.

Therefore, I can only deduce that when I am ill, I need to ski holiday without a sauna.
Is this right?

Not convinced that the altitude per se was the cause of the nosebleeds - more likely your nose got dry & crusty on the flight & similarly in the relatively dry air that you get in air conditioned hotels and the dry air in cold mountains compound this. Crusty noses bleed easily.

Motion sickness can come on quickly for some although most ski lifts are fairly brief so not usually an issue on the mountain. Sometimes the lifts stop for a while but don't rock for long unless someone makes it rock but the possibility of being vomited on would dissuade most from doing this on a lift with strangers.

sued, I've been given different advice by two doctors. My youngest gets extremely bad nose bleeds (usually on the slopes as well as at home), one doc told me to let it bleed and another told us to push the nose to the bone on the bleeding side about half way/two thirds up (you can feel where the nose starts to open up). I prefer the latter, it stops it within minutes. He has had it quarterised but it still happens.

So, apart from said nose bleeds, he was very ill after travelling up the funicular in Tignes to the Grande Motte (plied him with water for half an hour and came back down), he's come back from two trips with a chest infection (a two week stint of bronchitis this time) and I have to stand still for a couple of minutes at the top of every lift to wait for the nausea to subside.

why on earth do we do it :shock:

because its fun!! (well thats what all you guys say. im still waiting to find out!) and if i change the date of my holiday its back to being over a year away!! :( :lol: