1.
Adjustment
to high altitude is one of the adaptations that humans have overcome in recent millennia.
The higher the altitude, the less air pressure there is, the less oxygen there
is in the air for our lungs. This lack of oxygen disturbs our homeostasis.
Humans
have adapted to high altitudes many different ways:
High altitude populations
may have 10 oxygen-processing genes not normally found in sea level populations.
Increased heart rates to process more oxygen.
An increase in lung size (people
living in high areas of Peru can produce more hemoglobin in their blood to
increase their lung expansion capability) to process more oxygen.
Producing
more red blood cell to carry more oxygen through the body.
There
are many benefits to studying human adaptation to different stresses such as
altitude. By knowing how humans react and adapt to different altitudes we learn
more of the limits of our species and we learn more regarding the inner
workings of our respiratory and cardiovascular systems. By learning about
altitude we learn of rates of and effects of acclimatization. Knowing the
effects of acclimatization has proven helpful in many ways, one such way is
with athletes. Some athletes now use acclimatization at high altitudes to
train. These athletes believe that training at high altitude and acclimatizing
to the high altitude will assist them by increasing their cardiovascular
potential when competing in events at lower altitudes.
When
humans adapt to altitude it has little effect on race therefore it would be
better to use adaptations caused by environmental influences to understand
human differences and variations instead of simply looking and judging by the
color of ones skin.
Victor,
ReplyDeleteHigh altitudes can seriously affect our bodies. I have seen the movies where people die up in the mountains because of lack of oxygen so it really is quite serious. I had no idea though that people living in higher areas have bigger lungs that actually help them to breathe properly in their environment. I have heard of athletes training in higher altitudes and it does help them a lot. By the way, those are good pictures.
-Tiffany
What are some of the side-effects we experiences if we have hypoxia? What damage or dangerous conditions result?
ReplyDeleteThere are four different types of adaptations identified in the guidelines. Which of the traits you listed are which type of adaptation? You've identified four but two of them are the same type of adaptation, so you are missing one kind.
FYI, the increase in hemoglobin doesn't cause an increase in lung capacity. The two adaptations work in concert to deliver more oxygen but don't cause each other to happen.
Good discussion on the benefits of the adaptive approach.
Is it just high altitude that has little affect on race? Solar radiation has a direct affect on skin color, so does that mean you can use race to study solar radiation? How do we come up with our racial categories? Are they biologically based or culturally based? Objective or subjective? All of these questions need to be asked in order to understand if race has any value in understanding human variation.