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Climbing mountains, exploring high places and playing music all have something in common…
and your body does it naturally.
Howdy folks, Trace here for DNews.
The human body is amazingly adaptable; we heal after massive injury, we overcome emotional
trauma, and with a bit of training, our bodies can adapt to whatever we throw at them.
Mountain climbing is one of the most challenging outdoor activities I've ever attempted, and
doing some research on it, I've found it's pretty tough on our bodies too.
Firstly, there are no muscles in your fingers or toes.
I know!
Without them, we can't climb anything, and there are NO muscles in there.
Your phalanges (or bones of the fingers or toes) are attached to tendons which pull from
muscles in your palm and forearm.
Spread your fingers out like this, see those taught cables stretching through your hand?
Those are tendons connected to muscles in your FOREARM!
When you're rock climbing, the muscles build up -- as expected, and according to a 2006
Journal of Anatomy study[a], climbers bones are thicker too!
Even those who didn't begin climbing until after skeletal maturity at age 25 had thicker
metacarpals and phalanges.
Of course, those thicker bones won't make any difference if the fingers aren't callused.
Calluses are a form of skin protection.
Perhaps you've shaken hands with a construction worker, a climber, or a guitar player…
Remember those rough spots on their hands?
Those calluses are a result of repeated friction of the skin, and are a natural formation to
protect the body.
The outermost layer of your skin, the stratum corneum, is a layer 25 cells thick of dead
skin.
It serves as a first barrier to UV light, infection and friction.
When a violinist plays a lot, or an auto worker finger-tightens bumper bolts every day, the
skin on their fingertips will respond by thickening the stratum corneum to over 100 cells!
So let's say your muscles are built, your fingers are callused, and you get to the top
of the mountain you're trying to climb…
Once you're there your brain starts freaking out, and not just a little.
A study in the American Journal of Medicine of 35 climbers who didn't take supplementary
oxygen with them, found brain damage in nearly all of the adventurers.
The cause?
Hypoxia, or lack of oxygen to the brain.
Makes sense at altitudes in the study of over 14,000 feet (4267M).
A lack of oxygen on a mountain can cause insomnia, dizziness, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and
headaches; it's called "acute mountain sickness."
And though most climbers know this already, what they don't know is that damage ain't
temporary.
At high altitudes, both professional and amateur climbers know to get acclimated, and some
no longer experience the sickness, but MRI's of climbers brains still showed brain damage.
Over time, the damage worsens and though the body is resilient the brain doesn't recover
so well.
After years of high-altitude climbing the brain damage can screw with VR-spaces in the
brain, or the parts that communicate with the lymph system and drain brain fluid.
Of course, this can all be avoided by bringing oxygen with you, so… do that.
Of course, there is one thing that might help some of you avoid these high-altitude brain
issues… a fear of heights!
According to Evolutionary Psychologists, fear of heights is what kept our ancestors from
getting too close to the edge of a cliff and risking death.
Of course, if it's enough to keep you off a mountain, then it might have blown into
something worse than the evolutionary inborn instinct.
Many primates are comfortable in trees, so why do we get a phobia of heights?
Probably something taught by parents or experiences.
How do you feel about climbing?
Have you ever wanted to challenge your body by climbing a mountain?
Get on belay down in the comments!
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