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| Everest hosts some truly breathtaking medical research | Everest hosts some truly breathtaking medical research |
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| It is a disconcerting feeling, not being able to breathe. It wasn't as though I was running for a bus or anything like that either; I was simply walking to the lab – a gentle 50 or so metres up a very shallow incline. Yet, every few steps I found myself buckled into an almost vertical foetal position, trying to suck the cold, thin air deep into my lungs. | |
| It shouldn't have been a surprise. I was higher than I'd ever been in my life, bent double on a point that would soar over anywhere in Europe, even the snowy peak of Mont Blanc. The lab, my home for a short stretch in April this year, was at Everest Base Camp, 5,364 metres above sea level. Here, a lungful of the thin air only contains half of the oxygen it would at sea level. That oxygen is crucial to making me function, and my body didn't like it. | It shouldn't have been a surprise. I was higher than I'd ever been in my life, bent double on a point that would soar over anywhere in Europe, even the snowy peak of Mont Blanc. The lab, my home for a short stretch in April this year, was at Everest Base Camp, 5,364 metres above sea level. Here, a lungful of the thin air only contains half of the oxygen it would at sea level. That oxygen is crucial to making me function, and my body didn't like it. |
| "The lab" doesn't really do the Xtreme Everest 2 expedition justice. Picture two giant tents, double-skinned to keep the heat in, packed with the latest medical technology — including two exercise bikes with full gas analysis systems, centrifuges, blood sampling kits and much more — all powered from a smaller tent next door that housed scores of car batteries. | "The lab" doesn't really do the Xtreme Everest 2 expedition justice. Picture two giant tents, double-skinned to keep the heat in, packed with the latest medical technology — including two exercise bikes with full gas analysis systems, centrifuges, blood sampling kits and much more — all powered from a smaller tent next door that housed scores of car batteries. |
| Oh, and the whole set-up was perched on top of a moving, groaning ice sheet that, at night froze the electrics inside and, at midday, threatened them with an icy meltwater deluge. That's just part of the risk when you set up camp at the infamous Khumbu Icefall. Or "home" as we came to call it. | Oh, and the whole set-up was perched on top of a moving, groaning ice sheet that, at night froze the electrics inside and, at midday, threatened them with an icy meltwater deluge. That's just part of the risk when you set up camp at the infamous Khumbu Icefall. Or "home" as we came to call it. |
| For two months earlier this year, this was the world's highest, fully-functioning medical research laboratory, home to a dozen doctors and scientists from University College London, the University of Southampton and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. | For two months earlier this year, this was the world's highest, fully-functioning medical research laboratory, home to a dozen doctors and scientists from University College London, the University of Southampton and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. |
| Many of the team work in intensive care units and were interested in examining what happens to the body when there is not enough oxygen reaching the vital organs. These medics are tragically familiar with the situation in their day job — 90% of their patients, whether they have lung failure, or have had a heart attack or stroke, suffer from the effects of a shortage of oxygen. | Many of the team work in intensive care units and were interested in examining what happens to the body when there is not enough oxygen reaching the vital organs. These medics are tragically familiar with the situation in their day job — 90% of their patients, whether they have lung failure, or have had a heart attack or stroke, suffer from the effects of a shortage of oxygen. |
| The Xtreme Everest project was designed as a way to work out the underlying physiological reasons why some people can cope better with low oxygen conditions than others. Experimenting on people in intensive care units is, of course, impossible. So the Xtreme Everest team took healthy volunteers (including me) up to an environment with very low oxygen, and subjected us to a battery of exercise tests. | The Xtreme Everest project was designed as a way to work out the underlying physiological reasons why some people can cope better with low oxygen conditions than others. Experimenting on people in intensive care units is, of course, impossible. So the Xtreme Everest team took healthy volunteers (including me) up to an environment with very low oxygen, and subjected us to a battery of exercise tests. |
| In 2007, one of the doctors on the original Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition, Dan Martin, was part of a small team who climbed to the summit of the world's highest mountain with the aim of carrying out scientific experiments. When he was on his way back down, having ducked out of the gale force winds at the top, he pulled out a syringe and stuck it into his groin. A Sherpa rushed his blood sample down the mountain and the amount of oxygen crawling through his arteries was measured. The result stunned the whole scientific community — Dan's results were the lowest seen in any human. Ever. | In 2007, one of the doctors on the original Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition, Dan Martin, was part of a small team who climbed to the summit of the world's highest mountain with the aim of carrying out scientific experiments. When he was on his way back down, having ducked out of the gale force winds at the top, he pulled out a syringe and stuck it into his groin. A Sherpa rushed his blood sample down the mountain and the amount of oxygen crawling through his arteries was measured. The result stunned the whole scientific community — Dan's results were the lowest seen in any human. Ever. |
| It raised a question: if someone with such a low amount of oxygen in his system could climb Mount Everest – an obviously incredible physical challenge – then surely just focusing on the amount of oxygen in critically ill patients' systems would overlook what was really going on in their bodies? Furthermore, administering risky treatments to bump up a patient's blood oxygen levels just to increase this figure might be unnecessary. | It raised a question: if someone with such a low amount of oxygen in his system could climb Mount Everest – an obviously incredible physical challenge – then surely just focusing on the amount of oxygen in critically ill patients' systems would overlook what was really going on in their bodies? Furthermore, administering risky treatments to bump up a patient's blood oxygen levels just to increase this figure might be unnecessary. |
| That realisation drove the research focus for the 2013 expedition. As you'll see in our video, Dan and his team have no longer been focusing on the amount of oxygen you can get into your system, but on how well you can deliver that oxygen to where it's needed and how efficiently your body then uses that oxygen. The knowledge they can gain on Everest could dramatically increase the chances of their patients in intensive care. | That realisation drove the research focus for the 2013 expedition. As you'll see in our video, Dan and his team have no longer been focusing on the amount of oxygen you can get into your system, but on how well you can deliver that oxygen to where it's needed and how efficiently your body then uses that oxygen. The knowledge they can gain on Everest could dramatically increase the chances of their patients in intensive care. |
| Being up at Everest Base Camp with the Xtreme Everest 2 team was a once in a lifetime experience. Not only was I surrounded by the most breathtaking scenery I'd ever seen, I was also at the centre of cutting-edge medical research in action. | Being up at Everest Base Camp with the Xtreme Everest 2 team was a once in a lifetime experience. Not only was I surrounded by the most breathtaking scenery I'd ever seen, I was also at the centre of cutting-edge medical research in action. |
| Struggling to breathe throughout was totally worth it. | Struggling to breathe throughout was totally worth it. |
| For more on the science of high-altitude survival and Xtreme Everest 2 research, including the Young Everest 2 study that took a group of children up to 3,500 metres, Greg launches his new live show on 8 June at Cheltenham Science. For more about the show, which also features in a schools tour in September, visit Greg's website | For more on the science of high-altitude survival and Xtreme Everest 2 research, including the Young Everest 2 study that took a group of children up to 3,500 metres, Greg launches his new live show on 8 June at Cheltenham Science. For more about the show, which also features in a schools tour in September, visit Greg's website |