well I read about the two drugs, aceta is to help adjust faster and dexa is to hide the symptoms. my question are I know dexa is a steroid I can get that easy with a doctor, what about aceta is over the counter or medicated? the other question is what about side effect's on the 2 drugs? the thing with this trip time is not on my side and I want to take full advantage of my few days of ridding and if drugs can help me feel better that would be a nice help. Any personal experiences with this 2 medicines? good bad advice??
Drugs like that are risky. So is altitude sickness. When comming up in elevation...try these instead. 24 hours of limited activity (if possible). Assuming you arrive at DIA and rent a car and drive into the hills you should have 16 to 20 hours before you are active.
NO ALCOHOL for the first night, and limited on the 2nd.
Lots of water. Drink, drink, drink.
Advil or asprin: take 2 every 8 to 10 hours. start as you get on the plane (it thins the blood and allows it to move oxegen around the body more easily.
Benadryl: 1 pill, 1 hour before bed will make sure you get GOOD sleep
More H2O
Are they just to come up to Co and go skiing? If so you dont need either of them. I dabbled with both for climbs above 20,000' and they didnt really help then. if your coming up, be in shape, drink water and dont party too hard, but that said altitude affects each person diffrently, each time, so you might get screwed, but most likely will be fine. oh, and dont huck on your first run!
Using drugs like these to speed up your body's adjustment or worse, hide the symptoms of AMS is a horrible idea. From sea level to anywhere in CO (or the lower 4 you should not take these. As previously stated, lots of water and zero alchohol intake will help a lot. Diamox (acetazolamide) is only available by prescription as far as I know. Dexamethasone (or any steroid) should only ever be used as an emergent drug or if nothing else works (IE: descend, extra oxygen, etc..). Glucocorticoids wreak havoc on your body's normal system of checks and balances if taken by someone who is not very, very ill and would most likely make you feel worse than just a little mountain sickness. Remember, no powder is worth getting very ill from Acute Mountain Sickness.
Thanks for the advice, well yeah I decided to take the first day of that way we reduce the chances of things going wrong, plus i dint know that the Vail pass is good for keystone at night, that right there will save me some money, thats always a good thing. I got out of the family reunion crap so that gives me 3rd day of ski thats nice too. well thanks again.
a good alternative is loading up on garlic. a bunch of studies have shown that it has serious good effects on preventing minor altitude sickness. Take the tablet form though, not just eating cloves of it...everyone else will thank you.
On another note I met some guys that swore by a couple of baby aspirin two times the day before heading up and then twice the day they went up. That was for quick trips to peaks around 14 or so. I've tried it and had pretty good luck and I used to always suffer from huge headaches despite liberal use of water and good food.
fet123, your are one crazy mother. I've never seen someone do so much research for a ski trip. Do you have all your runs for the day mapped out? Specific routes based on snow conditions, run openings/closures, wind conditions, lighting? I expect to see a full report after your trip.
My advice is skip the drugs and start running, biking, swimming, playing basketball, whatever with increasing intensity to increase your body's ability to process oxygen. If your body is well conditioned, you stay hydrated while you're here and get some sleep chances are plenty good you'll dodge the altitude sickness.
yeah, dex is some serious shit, dude and is used AFTER the shit is hitting the fan with HAPE or HACE. It's not a casual preventitive.
I'd skip the drugs. Not worth messing with for a couple days of skiing. AS stated before, keep hydrated and eating and if you start feeling like shit then take it easy and relax back in town.
Google "pressure breathing" too. It's the most effective thing you can do to get rid of AMS type symptoms. Some people think it's BS but they are clueless wanks who don't know how to do it properly.
you should not take these. As previously stated, lots of water and zero alchohol intake will help a lot. Diamox (acetazolamide) is only available by prescription as far as I know. Dexamethasone (or any steroid) should only ever be used as an emergent drug or if nothing else works (IE: descend, extra oxygen, etc..). Glucocorticoids wreak havoc on your body's normal system of checks and balances if taken by someone who is not very, very ill and would most likely make you feel worse than just a little mountain sickness. Remember, no powder is worth getting very ill from Acute Mountain Sickness.
Linear Mode
