Manali - Leh highway, how to avoid AMS?

vistet

I useed it last time , felt great and attributed it to the Gingko. Afterwards I read the summaries of the large studies that had been recently done - even the one who originally proposed Gingko after a promising pilot study says it doesn´t work , after studies with more than a thousand subjects.

In retrospect I could see that it wasn´t just the Gingko that was a new factor in that trip , but also another ascent profile.

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licinio

Is Diamox available in India? Or an equivalent remedy under a different commercial name maybe? Or is it better to bring it from home?

Yogesh Sarkar

its easily available at most chemist shops.

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himadventures

We all know that AMS can hit anyone irrespective of exposure and experience of himalayas. When one is going on route like MANALI-LEH, some precautions should be taken.

1. Avoid smoking and alcohol. This is again subjective as people had been smoking in high camps of Mt. Everest and stillmanages to summit. But, better if one can avoid atleast ON ROAD to LEH.

2.My experience is that after crossing TANGLANG LA- you will feel fine as climb to this high pass makes sudden changes in blood.

3. Drink lotof water, wear warm clothing and use DISPRIN[ Indian Brand ] if you have started having headache.

soledad

Thank you Yogesh and all others for putting up all those valueable information and the cure of AMS,it's certainly very usueful for first timers those are planning to take a trip down there;

Penultimate Buddha

yogesh you should be awarded a medal for this thread. guys is it possible to lose conciousness while you are driving? hell the thought itself is scary. i have almost made up my mind not to do my trip of leh which is about to start in 12 days. somebody please advice me on my car (see my thread 'delhi to leh')

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soledad

Hello Penultimate Buddha!
Let me tell you,no matter what all is said and done about AMS,once you reach the place, you will see,nothing is going to happen to you or anyone else; I had been there recently and I haven't seen anyone suffering from AMS or anything,neither from our own group of 7,nor any other from any other group. And then,it will make you feel,as if those were all hype and something; So,don't think too much,just go ahead and enjoy your trip;Those enormous high altitude places had been travelled by normal Indian pilgrims since time immemorial,and neither of them were even aware of AMS nor had any protettion,yet they never kept away from their holy pilgrimage then,so it should not be a factor even now; One you start enjoying the beauty of the region,all these things would go away from your mind,as I believe they are mostly mental
Best of luck to you for your trip ahead!

vistet

Yes , I´ve seen that happening to a fellow passenger, among other things.
Among the the recent threads , see for example Roshe´s Driving in Thin Air thread , mentioning nausea and vomiting already in Jispa , at 3200.



I went to one of these classic pilgrimage locations in Nepal last year , Gosaikund Lake.Same altitude as Sarchu and Chandra Tal. The lodge owner where I stayed took for granted that every pilgrim season meant fatalities : "every year many sick , many die." This didn´t surprise me , I had read an article on the subject earlier. See also this and this. I also found left over consent forms from the University of New Mexico : " you have been selected for this study after being diagnosed with High Altitude Pulmonary/Cerebral Edema. Participation or non-participation will not affect the medical aid you will receive ... "
..

Yeah , right , try telling that to this guy :



I´ve been showing this at work lately , which is kind of fun when you don´t have to deal with actually treating it. Practically everyone go very quiet for a moment when first seeing it - and this is a group that is fairly hard to impress.

Group diagnosis .. tricky subject. I´ve learned that without tools I´can make an informed guess on how the person next to me in my bed is doing , and a fair guess on the person next to me in a jeep or a bus - but I still missed all the signs the first hours on the Manali-Leh road , chalking it down to being tired after starting the ride in the wee hours of the morning.

Without actually talking to somebody the only thing that we know is that the person is awake , not vomiting , and have no major balance disorders.

DavorSt

I plan to go Srinagar - Leh via Kargil by road (bus, jeep, I will decide it once I am in Srinagar). How is that road compared to Leh - Manali? I must admit I am rather prone to seasickness and so have a rather great fear of how I am going to stand that trip. On the other hand, I wish so much to go there. After few days spent in Leh, I believe that I will be ready and acclimatized for Leh - Manali.
Actually all I know are stories from forums and travel guides which are rather scary.

errorinu

AVOMINE is my reply to AMS................with lots of water.

DavorSt

As a prevention or cure? Can I find it easily in Srinagar or Delhi?

vistet

Two worlds apart.The highest part of Srinagar-Leh is lower than the tent camps in Pang and Sarchu, and more than thousand meters lower than the highest part of Manali-Leh. Compare road manuals here : Srinagar-Leh, Manali-Leh

After three nights the large majority has made the the first important shift that makes you handle Leh's altitude better, practically all within five nights. Very few reach reach full acclimatization , this takes a lot longer. No new red blood cells until the end of the first week , for example.
Going higher than Leh in this time span should be no problem, sleeping at these altitudes can be a problem even for locals : I've seen a young Lahauli vomiting in Sarchu for example. A visit , not a night stay , to Tso Moriri is a good preparation for the road.

Avomine is against motion sickness , not AMS . No references or even mentions found on medical sites against AMS. By all means take it for it's intended use after talking with a doc , don't expect any effect against AMS.

No need to increase fluid input , you can actually land yourself in new problems from that solution , see here. Monitor input , though , you can't trust the bodys signals at this point.

Penultimate Buddha

hey soledad
thanx for the encouragement..i finally did my trip 3 weeks back. the place is absolutely out of the world. here are my pics if anybody is interested
http://picasaweb.google.com/penultim...a/LadakhTrip08

vistet
I agree with you completely. my dad being a doctor in the army and posted in Leh in the early 90's, had adviced me enough on the seriousness of HAPE and HACE. we took the advice very very seriously.

I believe the difference lies between experiencing AMS and contracting HAPE or HACE. whereas the former is a result of merely being at a high altitude and can be treated/avoided using avomine(not sure)/diamox, the later is a result of exerting your body by climbing or walking without giving enough time to the body for acclaimatization.
AS far as the affect of these go, AMS is limited to causing headache, dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, nausea, disturbed sleep, and a general feeling of malaise. Whereas acute cases of HAPE and HACE can even cause deaths.

soledad

Well, that is pretty serious,and I must admit,I never thought it could be like this,and had I read this post of yours before I started off for my first trip to Leh/Zanskar/Suru valley along with a few elderly persons accompanying me,I would have thought otherwise about going there. And I must tell you,maybe what you found in Gosaikund was due to the fact that conditions were much more intense and tougher,keeping aside the height factor,but,I did enquired about such things in the Chandratal region as well as about going to Leh/Ladak from people in Himachal Pradesh but very few or almost none told me about serious fatalities and problems just because of height, for people comming from plain lands which gave me enough stength to carry on my trip there in Spiti-Leh-Zanskar- Kashmir and I am glad it was so very successful.Later I myself discovered that not only me, even the eldest member of the group could walk steadily and go and see all those places including the tough terrain of Chandratal,and that is what I shared with members here in my above post.

machadinha

That's maybe why it's nice to check around some or make sure you know what you're saying before handing others advice, based on your own limited experiences (I didn't die! Obviously not, that's why you're still typing), that could prove vital to them.

Vistet as far as I know is a medic in his own country and an experienced trekker and possibly mountaineer, and I'd listen to him any day, even though the official medical field may sometimes have it wrong as well. That's still better than the heard-it-through-the-grapevine circuit.

So maybe think again before you advise others to "Don't worry too much,just go ahead!" The question here is never what risk you want to put yourself into (I personally couldn't care less what you choose to do with your life), but how and if you should advise others to do so.

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