altitude sickness?

indianprincess

anyone know any good pills for altitude sickness? im trekking up the mountians, someone said just use travel sickness tablets?

adri

Travel sickness pils are of no use for AMS. To avoid AMS you should slowly gain altitude, maximum 400 meters per day. Also drink a lot that will help to acclimatize. In case you develop mild AMS you can consider taking Diamox. If symptons persist or get worse, descent.

vistet

Myself , I´ve never used any pills against AMS.I`ve felt that packing these would indicate a willingness to take risks (by not acclimatising before ascending 3000+).
The reasoning behind travel/motion sickness medication would be that both (normally) involve nausea. The nausea in AMS has a very serious background , and any attempt to keep gaining altitude will guarantee you a really bad experience... and at worst can end fatally.
Of course motion sickness can happen at an altitude and in a jeep/bus : the Manali-Leh Road will pitch and roll you a lot . Just dont take the chance that it`s just motion sickness. The only safe assumption for nausea, headaches or any other neurological symtoms after ascending these altitudes is that they are caused by the alttitude , which means stop! and preferably descend.
My personal preference when travelling is to go fast up to 2000+ (examples : Manali, Darjeeling, Dharamsala) , make a acclimatisation stop, then go on to 3000+, stop and take it very easy and listen closely to what my body tell me.
There are other threads here on the subject ; Avid Trekker has loads of knowledge on prevention, MountainGirl would be another favorite co-survivor of mine should the plane crash between Nun and Kun. Do a search on AMS, altitude sickness here on the site.
high-altitude-medicine.com is a very good resource.

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