Anthropology 1027A/B Chapter : High Altitude Populations
9 Feb 2012
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Document Summary
Studies of high altitude residents have greatly contributed to our understanding of physiological adaptation. Altitude studies have focused on inhabited mountainous regions particularly in the himalayas, andes, and rocky. Of these three areas permanent human habitation probably has the longest history in the himalayas. Today perhaps as many as 25 million people live at altitudes above 10,000 feet. In the andes settlements can be found as high as 17,000 feet. Because the mechanisms that maintain homeostasis in humans evolved at lower altitudes we re compromised by conditions at higher elevations. At high altitudes many factors produce stress on the human body. Of these hypoxia exerts the greatest stress on human physiological systems, especially the heart, lungs, and brain. At high altitudes reproduction in particular is affected through increased infant mortality rates, miscarriage, low birth weights, and premature birth.
