Are the Mountains Killing Your Brain?
转这篇来自磨坊的译文是想给去高海拔的人提个醒,怎么减少高海拔对脑的损伤.作者是有37年登山历史的神经医学学者. 文章固然长,但列出了如何把这种损害下降甚至完整防止的有效道路.
Outside Magazine, October 2009
户外杂志,2009年10月号
Are the Mountains Killing Your Brain?
高海拔会损害你的大脑吗?
Alarming new science shows that thin air can wreck brain cellsmat lower altitudes than you'd think. Here's how to protect yourself. 近来的研讨成果令人担心:在你料想不到的低海拔地带,粘稠的空气也可以捣毁脑细胞.下文将探讨如何维护你本人
By Douglas Fields 译/枫叶红了
Intro(引文)
Pro climbers like Conrad Anker know the secrets of adjusting to thin air. But new science shows that ill-prepared amateursmor anyone who ascends too fastmmay be putting their brains at risk (Photograph by Jimmy Chin)
图片阐明:登山者的支撑者好比Conrad Anker(康拉德b安科尔,美国职业登山家)懂得适应稀薄空气的机密.但是新的研究显示,筹备不足的业余喜好者-或任何攀升速渡过快的人-或者会把他们的脑部置于险境.
"YOU HAVE TO BE poco loco to be a climber," says Dr. Nicholas Fayed. A neuroradiologist at the Clinica Quiron de Zaragoza, in northern Spain,传奇超级变态私服, Dr. Fayed leads me into his office and pulls out a collection of MRI images. They're brain scans,　　18.如果可能, taken from amateur and professional mountain climbers after they came back from major expeditions, and the results aren't pretty.
"成为一个登山者,你一定有点儿猖狂."Nicholas Fayed(尼古拉斯b法耶德)博士说.他是西班牙北部的Clinica Quiron de Zaragoza(萨拉戈萨的凯龙诊所)的神经放射学科医生.他领我走进他的办公室,接着抽出了一叠核磁共振成像扫描图片.这些脑部扫描图片,是在一些业余的以及专业的登山运发动从重要的探险运动返回之后拍摄的,这些扫描结果并不乐观.
"Atrophy of the frontal lobes," Fayed says, pointing to a black-and-white slice of brain on one MRI. The frontal cortexmthe region just behind the forehead that handles higher-level mental functionsmlooks like a piece of dried fruit. This kind of damage can leave patients with an impaired ability to plan, focus, and make complex decisions. And it's permanent.
"frontal lobes(额叶,也叫大脑前庭)萎缩."Fayed(法耶德)指着一张核磁共振成像扫描图片图片上的脑部黑白截面说.掌控高等神经功效的The frontal cortex(前额叶)正好位于前额后面,它的样子好像一片干果.这种损伤导致病人的规划能力,集中留神力的能力以及在复合决议才能受损.这是一种永恒性的损伤.
"Cortical atrophy, subcortical lesion..." Fayed continues, pointing to the scans of eight amateur climbers whose MRIs were taken in 1998, just after a trip up Argentina's 22,834-foot Aconcagua. "This guy suffered the most serious damage," he says. He hands me a picture of a robust young climber standing on the mountain's snowy slopes, looking fit and determined. "When he came back, he couldn't remember his own phone number. His wife would send him to the store for a loaf of bread and he would forget why he was there and come home without it."
"皮质萎缩,皮质下的破坏h h" Fayed(法耶德)指着八名业余登山者在1998年攀登阿根廷的海拔高度为22,834英尺(约6,959.8米)的Aconcagua(阿空加瓜山,阿根廷西部安第斯山的高峰,也是西半球最高峰)之旅刚停止后拍下的核磁共振成像扫描图片持续说道."这个家伙遭受的损害最严峻."他递给我一张照片.照片上一个强壮的年青的登山者站在有积雪的雪山斜坡之上,看起来动摇而有力."在他回来之后,他甚至想不起自己的电话号码.他的妻子让他去商店买长面包,而他到了那里想不起他到商店做什么,而后空手而回."
Fayed is an internationally recognized scientist who studies abnormalities and damage in the brain caused by various health disorders. Since 1992, he and his colleagues, neurologist Dr. Pedro Modrego and neuroradiologist Dr. Humberto Morales, have been collecting these scans of 35 climbers returning from peaks like Aconcagua, Everest, Kilimanjaro, and Mont Blanc. The scans are giving us the clearest picture yet of what happens to the brain at altitude, and it's fair to say the results won't make you want to scamper off to Everest. But the good news for most climbers is that Fayed's studies also suggest that proper acclimatization can reduce the risk of brain damage a great deal.
Fayed(法耶德)是国际著名的研究由多方起因引起的健康失调导致的脑畸变以及脑伤害范畴的学者.从1992年开始,他跟他的共事神经病学者Pedro Modrego(佩德罗b莫德雷戈)博士,还有神经喷射学者Humberto Morales(汉博托b莫拉莱斯)博士着手收集35名从Aconcagua(阿空加瓜山), Everest(珠峰), Kilimanjaro(乞力马扎罗山), 以及 Mont Blanc (勃朗峰,位于法国、意大利边疆,是阿尔卑斯山脉的最顶峰)等峰顶归来的登山者的脑部扫描图.这些扫描让我们看到迄今为止最清楚的高海拔带给脑部损害的图像,客观的说这个结果将不会让人乐意奔向珠峰.然而,好新闻是,Fayed(法耶德)的研究也揭示出 ,准确地适应(高海拔)环境在很大水平上可以减少脑部受损的危险.
SCIENTISTS HAVE long known that the brain can be harmed by extreme conditions such as high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), in which blood vessels leak fluid into surrounding tissue, causing the brain to swell and press against the skull wall. But Fayed's scans are the first to indicate that brain damage can show up even in people who displayed no symptoms of altitude sickness during their climbs, or had just the usual nausea and lethargy familiar to any hiker in the mountains. And, disturbingly, it seemed to happen to climbers going not much higher than 15,000 feet.
迷信家们很早就晓得,大脑可以被恶劣状态损害,比如High-Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE,高海拔脑水肿),1.85英雄合击,在这种状况下,血管渗血到周围组织,引起脑肿胀,英雄合击发布网,并压迫颅骨.但是,Fayed(法耶德)的扫描图首次指出,期近使攀登过程中没有出现任何高山病症状的登山者,或仅仅出现过被任何一个在山地的徒步者熟习的恶心以及昏睡症状的登山者中都可能发生脑损害现象.而且,更令人不安的是,haom6M2,那些攀升高度不超过15,000英尺(4,572米)的登山者中仿佛也会产生脑损害景象.
On 15,771-foot Mont Blanc, for example, seven trekkers reached the summit in 1998 without experiencing any symptoms of mountain sickness. When scanned a few days later, three showed major abnormalities. Two displayed enlargement of their brains' Virchow-Robin (VR) spaces, gaps in the brain matter surrounding blood vessels that look like white birdshot on MRIs. (Enlarged VR spaces are found in the elderly and in people with Alzheimer's disease, but they don't normally show up in people in their twenties and thirties, the age of these climbers.) One trekker had cortical atrophyma permanent loss of gray matter that can cause "spaciness" and other problemsmand one had a subcortical lesion, damage to the network of neural pathways in the white matter, which can cause any number of serious issues.
比方在15,771英尺(约4,807米)的Mont Blanc (勃朗峰)上.7名旅行者在1998年登顶,他们并未感触到任何深谷病的症状.多少天后的扫描发明,有三人出现主要的畸形.其中两人表示出脑部VR空间扩大,在MRI扫描图上,脑血管四周的脑白质中的裂口看起来就像白色的鸟子弹孔( 扩展的 VR空间常见于老年人以及患有Alzheimer's disease(早老性痴呆病)患者中,然而却不常见于20~40岁的人群中,这些登山者就在这个年纪段).一人涌现脑皮层萎缩-一种可以引起""spaciness(精力恍惚)"以及其余问题的脑灰质丧失-还有一人呈现大脑皮层下的伤害.这种侵害损坏了脑白质中的神经信号传递通道组成的网络,能够引起良多重大的疾病.
Similar effects were seen on Aconcagua. Most of the eight amateur climbers never got above 21,000 feet, and one reached only 18,000 feet. Still, none of the scans came back normal. Four of the climbers suffered multiple subcortical lesions, seven had widespread enlargement of their VR spaces, and all showed signs of cortical atrophymeven though half of the team displayed either no symptoms of mountain sickness or mild ones during the climb.
相似的效应在Aconcagua(阿空加瓜山)也被发现.8位从未攀过21,000英尺(6,400.8米)高度的业余登山者中,有一人仅仅达到18,000 英尺(5,486.4米).即使如斯,韩版传奇,他们的扫描结果没有一个是畸形的.其中的4人遭遇复合的大脑皮层下的损害.7人出现VR空间扩大.所有人均出现脑皮层萎缩-即便半数的队员在登山进程中既不出现过高山病的症状也没有出现过轻度的高山反映.
The risks at extreme altitudes are clear. A few studies have shown that climbers who spend years in the Himalayas without supplemental oxygen frequently have problems that can be seen on an MRI. But the effects found at moderate altitudes are much more disconcerting.
极高海拔的风险是显明的.一些研究发现,在喜马拉雅地域勾留过数年而没有频繁地输氧的登山者存在MRI可以扫描到的病变.但是,这种效应在绝对较低的海拔高度上被发现却是更令人不安的.
"It's easy to understand illness at 23,000 feet," says Dr. Gianni Losano, director of the Angelo Mosso Institute, one of the world's leading high-altitude-research laboratories, located in the Alps near Turin, Italy. "But on Mont Blanc?"
"在23,000英尺(7,010.4米)的高度上出现病变是可以懂得的 ."the Angelo Mosso Institute(安杰洛莫索研究所)的所长Gianni Losano说.安杰洛莫索研究所是世界上当先的高海拔研究工作室,位于意大利都灵附近的阿尔卑斯山上."但是在勃朗峰上?"
I READ ABOUT FAYED'S work in a 2006 issue of The American Journal of Medicine, and,传奇超变态私服, being a climber and a neuroscientist, it disturbed me. I've never scaled anything like Aconcagua, but, at 56, I've spent 37 years tackling peaks around the U.S. and the Alps, all below 14,500 feet. Like most normal climbers, I've had my share of altitude sickness, so Fayed's work made me wonder: Had all that time in the mountains damaged my brain? To find out, I decided to use myself as a test subject, doing one popular climbmon Washington's Mount Rainiermand then flying to Spain to meet Fayed and have my brain scanned.
我读过Fayed(法耶德)2006年发表在The American Journal of Medicine(美国国度医学杂志)上的论文.我也是一名登山者,同时仍是一名神经医学学者.他的文章使我觉得不安.我从未攀登过类似Aconcagua(阿空加瓜山)这样的山峰.但是,今年56岁的我把37年的时间用来驯服美国四周的山峰以及阿尔卑斯山.这些山峰均低于14,500英尺(4,419.6米).和个别的登山者一样,我有过自己的高山病症状.所以Fayed(法耶德)的论文让我困惑:是否所有在山地的时光段里我的大脑均在受损?为找到谜底,我决议把自己当做测验对象.我在The Washington's Mount Rainier(华盛顿州的雷尼尔山)完成了一次惯例攀越后,飞到西班牙,访问Fayed(法耶德),做了脑部扫描.
Rainier is a good place to court altitude sickness. The glacier-draped volcano rises steeply to 14,410 feet, and most of the hundreds of amateurs who attempt it each year start their trips by flying in to nearby Seattle, at sea level. Like Mont Blanc, Rainier is often attempted in a weekend push that happens too quickly for the body to acclimatize.
Rainier(雷尼尔山)是一个很轻易引发高山病的处所.呈褶皱状垂下的冰川笼罩的火山陡然升高到14,410英尺(约4,392.2米).每年度试图过来攀登的数百名业余登山者中的大多数人的登顶旅程是在乘坐飞机抵达(雷尼尔山)邻近,海拔高度濒临海平面的西雅图后,再从此开始的.和Mont Blanc(勃朗峰)一样,Rainier(雷尼尔山)老是被登山者盼望在一个周末实现攀登打算,也因而会强迫身材十分敏捷地适应高山环境.
My 26-year-old son, Dylan, came with me, and on our first night out we slept at 3,180 feet, at a roadside campsite near the base of the mountain. The next day, we drove to a trailhead at 5,420 feet and started climbing in a whiteout. A storm forced us to bivy at 8,440 feet,微变传奇, where we waited out 50-mile-per-hour winds overnight.
26岁的Dylan(狄伦)是我的儿子.他陪同着我 .到达那里的第一个晚上,我们在海拔高度为3,1.76复古传奇发布网,180英尺(约969.3米)一个路边营地里过夜.这个营地间隔山下不远.第二天,我们驱车前往登山小道的起点.出发点的海拔高度为5,420英尺(约1,652米).在一片白茫茫中,我们开端向上攀缘.一场风暴迫使我们在8,440英尺(约2,572.5米)的海拔高度上宿营,在哪里一全部晚上咱们都在等候50英里/小时(约80.5公里/小时)的暴风结束.
The next morning, we followed our compass needle through the white blur to the public shelter at Camp Muir, where we found a few teams and four guides from International Mountain Guides, one of the commercial outfits on Rainier.
越日一早,依附指南针的唆使,我们在一片白雾中穿过,来到设在缪尔营地里的公共包庇所.在哪里,我们碰到一个新的团队以及四个International Mountain Guides(国际山地指南,雷尼尔山的贸易性向导机构中的一个)的向导.
One guide, Karl Rigrish, estimated that about 40 percent of the company's clients suffer at least mild altitude illness on Rainier. The key to avoiding that, he and other guides said, is taking it slow. Gary Talcott, a guide with Rainier Mountaineering Inc., recommends doing no more than 2,000 feet per day and staying hydrated, which helps thin the blood by replacing lost fluids.
Karl Rigrish(卡尔b雷格里希)是其中一名向导.他估量他们公司的40%的客户在雷尼尔山至少有过轻度的高山病.他和其他向导说,避免这种情形出现的要害是,缓缓来.Gary Talcott(加里b塔尔卡特)是Rainier Mountaineering Inc.(雷尼尔山登山国际)的一名向导.他推举天天回升高度不超过2,000英尺(609.6米).同时保持体内水分,坚持水分可以使身体...