Lower O2, it seems.
Here's why living in the mountains could be best thing for your health - Study Finds
If you want the secret to a healthier life, it might be a move to the mountains. A new study finds the two million people who live at an elevation of more than 4,500 meters — about the height of Mount Rainier, Mount Whitney, and many Colorado and Alaska peaks — appear to have lower rates of metabolic diseases such as diabetes and coronary heart disease.
The new animal study suggests it’s not just the daily treks up the mountains that leave them in tip-top shape. Researchers in California say the reason behind their good health stems from the low oxygen levels from living at higher elevations. Understanding how low oxygen levels affect health could lead to some new strategies for treating metabolic diseases.
“When an organism is exposed to chronically low levels of oxygen, we found that different organs reshuffle their fuel sources and their energy-producing pathways in various ways,” says study senior author Isha Jain, PhD, a Gladstone assistant investigator, in a statement. “We hope these findings will help us identify metabolic switches that might be beneficial for metabolism even outside of low-oxygen environments.”
At sea level, oxygen makes up 21 percent of the air. For those living above 4,500 meters (14,764 feet), however, oxygen makes up only 11 percent of the air. Living in these areas for long periods of time forces the human body to adapt to the shortage of oxygen — otherwise known as hypoxia.
Could less oxygen actually be good for you?
Hypoxia is an area of interest for biologists who have observed it among isolated cells or within cancerous tumors. In the current study, Jain and her colleagues looked at how long-term hypoxia impacts organs all over the body.
“We wanted to profile the metabolic changes that take place as an organism adapts to hypoxia,” says Ayush Midha, a graduate student in Jain’s lab and lead author of the study. “We thought this might provide some insight into how that adaptation protects against metabolic disease.”