High-Altitude Climbing causes Brain Damage

September 30, 2007 in Neuroscience
Tags: , brain, climbing, damage, mountain, Neuroscience

According to this study, high-altitude climbing can cause brain damage. This is not good news for those who wish to climb Everest naked.

Though the expedition suffered no major mishaps and none of the 12 professional climbers suffered any obvious signs of high-altitude illness, only one of the 13 climbers returned with a normal brain scan. The brain scans showed that all but one climber suffered cortical atrophy and enlargement of the Virchow-Robin spaces. These are spaces surrounding brain blood vessels that drain brain fluid and communicate with the lymph system. Widening of these VR spaces is seen in the elderly, but rarely in young people. The amateur climber’s brain had also suffered subcortical lesions in the frontal lobes.