Prep for Ski Holidays

Thanks for all advice, having reached the over 50 stage I really should start doing something about it.
The one problem I have had for several years, is the first two or three days of any holiday I suffer from dizziness. I know altitude affects things but I dont really go to high altitude places. It passes after a few days and its not only during activity.
My hubby thinks its after a flight my balance is a bit affected.
But I learnt something back in June when I had surgery and a lot of blood tests, that I am severely anaemic. I should have spotted this, because I know anaemia causes tiredness, dizziness and breathlessness. So have been having iron injections and tablets so will be interested to see next year if these problems stop. If not I am not sure what it is. I eat well and always drink plenty, so its not dehydration.

RosrR wrote

having reached the over 50 stage I really should start doing something about it.

Rose, you are just a young thing.

There seems to be something odd about your description of when your dizzyness occurs.

Were there to be a defiency of some kind, you might expect the dizzyness to be persistent. However, you report that it occurs during the first three days of a holiday. Almost as though there is a trigger.

Dizzyness from altitude is not something normally suffered from at typical Tyrolean altitudes. Many of us suffer to varying degrees at 3000m to 4000m.

Trencher, I had a look at the Clarence Bass site. Although I have no interest in maintaining a "six pack", there were some interesting aspects. I was surprised at the treadmill reading by Jenson on Bass at 183bpm. On a recent hill walk in Scotland, I hoofed it up to the ridge, in a quite competitive stretch with other walkers. While waiting at the top for the others, I was surprised that my pulse rate was up at 160 bpm. My view was that this was too high, and that it was a reflection on a state of unfitness.

The casebook stories are interesting, though.

We might be a healthier lot if it was routine for everyone to have a full health & fitness MOT every 5 years. I once put this to my GP, and he rejected it as not cost effective.

Dave Mac wrote:RosrR wrote

having reached the over 50 stage I really should start doing something about it.

Rose, you are just a young thing.

There seems to be something odd about your description of when your dizzyness occurs.

Were there to be a defiency of some kind, you might expect the dizzyness to be persistent. However, you report that it occurs during the first three days of a holiday. Almost as though there is a trigger.

Dizzyness from altitude is not something normally suffered from at typical Tyrolean altitudes. Many of us suffer to varying degrees at 3000m to 4000m.

I do get dizzy spells occasionally over here and do get out of breath and dizzy just on a walking holiday in Cornwall. But apart from surgery which was completely successful have a clean bill of health.
Also I dont get up to the heights that you guys do. But I do know that severe anaemia does cause problems it could just be the altitude exacerbates it. We shall see, I do know that taking Bucastem gets me through those first couple of days.
It could also be the Gluwein 'tho :lol: Just have to wait and see, also next years hols will be very low altitude.

Dave Mac wrote:.

We might be a healthier lot if it was routine for everyone to have a full health & fitness MOT every 5 years. I once put this to my GP, and he rejected it as not cost effective.

You are right. There is nothing like an annual physical to focus your attention on your deficiencies. It's great to go back a year later and see your scores improving. I have not been for mine in a couple of years and it is starting to show :(

Here in the Sates, there has been some good moves toward prevention as a way to curb the huge increases in health care cost. Many insurances will subsidise gym (fitness centre) membership. You need to go x times a month for the subsidy to kick in and it is funny to see people sign in, walk around the corner, then leave when they don't have time to exercise.

Trencher

It is about time this country invested money into yearly health checks. They would save millions just by prevention rather than cure. Ailments are so much cheaper treating early stages of illness rather than full blown. You would be amazed at the cost of some medicines. There are some people that have about three grands worth of medicine a month, because their problems went to full stage, but an early diagnosis with early treatment would have saved all this expense.

Dave Mac wrote:
Dizzyness from altitude is not something normally suffered from at typical Tyrolean altitudes. Many of us suffer to varying degrees at 3000m to 4000m.

Dizziness from altitude is one of the symptoms of AMS, that does occur from 2000m upwards. Even at 2000m there's only 80% the oxygen in air that you get at sea level which is enough to make you dizzy. Normal is a bit hard to define but it's a pathological condition so there's literature.

Using the Lake Louise scale we're looking for (degrees of) :

- nausea or vomiting
- fatigue or weakness
- dizziness or lightheadedness
- difficulty sleeping

Obviously it's not a factor for people like me but generally anyone arriving from nearer sea level not scoring a couple of points on the Lake Louise between 2000 and 3000m would be unusual. And you'd expect them to be having reduced performance anywhere over 1500m. In fact VO2max, I mentioned above, will decrease about 3% for every 100m over 1500m.

That's why I pointed out that aerobic fitness is the most important factor, far less than burst strength. Some Austrian stations (with fine snow records) are a lot lower than we ski in the high alps though.

Rose, you live at sea level, so it's harder for you to get acclimatised at altitude. Plenty of aerobic work for you in the autumn.

I get plenty of minor symptoms of AMS over 2000m if I'm sleeping at that altitude. It suits me to ski high and sleep low. These days, I find that Gingko Biloba cuts down on headaches and nosebleeds which I found to be a PITA for my 1st week in the mountains. Not sure why it works though!