Hypoxia and Medicine

How long does it take you to adjust to high altitudes?

For me, from my experiences going hiking and wilderness camping in the Sierra Mountains on the California/Nevada border, it takes a day or sometimes more for me to adjust. Anything over 5000 ft. or so, and my joints ache, I'm out of breath, my fingers and toes get puffy, and when sleeping I have vivid and unpleasant dreams. However, after I adjust, the symptoms go away completely - almost always within 48 hours. Does anyone else have experience with this? How long does it take you to adjust? .

Public Comments

1. What you are talking about is called altitude sickness. I don't have personal experience in this but medically speaking it will take 24-48 hr (looked it up) to adjust the all natural way. If you want to help out your body during this process you can have your doctor prescribe acetazolamide (Diamox) and supposedly it cut recovery time in half. Hope that answer your question.
2. I live in a city that's over 7,000 feet in altitude. When I go to a place at sea level and stay there for a month or more, I always get sick coming back. I feel nauseous and tired every time. Sometimes the feeling lasts for up to 2 weeks and disappears. Your body takes 6 weeks to fully adjust to the new altitude.
3. In Lebanon we have very high mountains as a child I remember hiking up every day but I don’t remember adjusting we always chew gum maybe that’s the trick.
4. It took me 2 days from detroit mi to denver colorado to adjust.