Teleporting to the Top of Mount Everest?

That’s the opening premise of this TED-Ed video from cardiopulmonary and respiratory physiology expert Andrew Lovering about how the human body copes when it finds itself at extremely high elevations:

Took me back to my 2015 Nepal hike, when, obviously, my carotid chemoreceptors were working overtime. I recall hiking to 13,000 feet with a headache and being unable to sleep at night. I had a constant sensation of light-headedness. Admittedly, the elevation fell short of Everest by several thousand feet, but then, I’m no mountaineer. The whole experience played a role in sparking the poem in two voices that ended up becoming Two at the Top: A Shared Dream of Everest.

When we hiked up to 13,500 ft but returned to 13,000 to sleep, I can see, we were working on “ventilatory acclimatization.” Now there’s a term to breathe in and relish.

In all, there’s a nice amount of succinctly packaged information here. The enjoyably zippy animations invite listeners to imagine themselves into the iconic setting of the summit of Mount Everest. Thanks to Stephanie Farrow for the link.