Science! (someone's got to do it)

So apparently they actually want me to work pretty hard up here. Since last I posted, we've been hard at work in the laboratory. The team which will be doing research at Everest Base Camp is currently staying here at the Hotel Sherwi Khangba with our Namche Lab team. In order to stave off symptoms of AMS, Acute Mountain Sickness, everyone stays two nights in Namche Bazaar. While they're here we test them for two reasons: a) many of them are experts and we can troubleshoot and b) as my mentor back at Duke often says, "You can never have too much data."

So here, in brief, is a Welcome to the Namche Laboratory:

At altitude, the low pressure of air means that with each breath of gas, there is a lower pressure of oxygen filling your lungs causing lower amounts of oxygen to filter into your blood which means that less oxygen flows through your vessels and less oxygen arrives at each of your cells in your muscles, brain, and various other organs. It is this eventual result, less oxygen arriving at the cell level, that we are primarily concerned about in medicine. Less oxygen in cells, called hypoxia, means cells shift their energy production to different chemical pathways which, if left to run, will exhaust themselves and cause a number of medical problems. It isn't just high altitude trekkers and climbers who get hypoxic. Understanding the mechanisms behind this phenomenon could shed light on how our bodies act when faced with a number of conditions from sepsis to cyanide poisoning. If you really want to see some of the science we're doing here, check out some of Xtreme Everest's past publications dating back almost ten years: http://www.xtreme-everest.co.uk/article.php?newsid=66

Our day of science starts out from the moment my alarm sounds at 6:00 am (although, jet lag has usually got me up a bit earlier, reading my fancy new Kindle - thanks Mom). Every morning we complete a diary which consists of listing mountain sickness symptoms followed by a measurement of basic vital signs - heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure. Both before and after a rigorous exercise seen here:

Stepping Your Way To Science - apart from being a fantastic aerobic program for physiology nerds, it's how we start each day.

Now that all sounds quite nice but, in truth, studying physiology at altitude is no small undertaking. Cold breaks things. Altitude breaks things. Needless to say, we've broken a lot of things. We are, slowly but surely, making headway and we actually got a bit of fantastic data today. I can't divulge our secrets (hint: get creative with blow-dryers, electric blankets, and a couple of doctors who are impromptu electricians on the side) but here is a shot of our exercise bike guru, Phil, getting some hearty encouragement from yours truly:

We wear several layers in the lab, because it is usually about 6 degrees Celsius in the morning. I don't remember what that is in fahrenheit but y'all can look it up because your Google definitely runs faster than mine.

I should also mention that I am apparently one of the best motivators for the bike tests (which take a considerable amount of effort). One participant said, "It was so great. I felt like I was on an American sports team!" I'm not quite sure what that means, but I'll take it.

Lastly, no good science can be done on an empty belly. There is a lot of great food here, but I don't support taking a picture of everything you eat (I'm looking at you Instagram). I couldn't pass this one up:

Popcorn and soup? For an appetizer? Don't mind if I do!

Well that's it for science. This weekend we'll have some free time to explore the mountains that I so longingly look at through our lab window. Cheers!