Here's your chance to scale the Mount Everest and contribute towards the progress of science at the same time. A British research team is looking for over 200 healthy volunteers to study how the human body utilizes oxygen when it is available in low concentrations. The study will be carried out in the Everest base camp, which is 5,300 meter above sea level, and would involve using exercycles there. Ten of the team members would try to scale the mountain peak.
Usually, low levels of oxygen in the blood are found in seriously ill patients in intensive care units, especially those suffering from lung and cardiac ailments. “The levels of oxygen in the blood when we will be on Everest will be similar to those levels if you were in intensive care. We will be conducting several tests like measuring cardiovascular levels when people use an exercise bike at various heights up the mountain, together with measuring oxygen levels in the body and brain. We will use the results to find out why some people can use oxygen more efficiently to help patients in intensive care use their oxygen levels better,” said Kay Mitchell, the project manager of the Xtreme Everest team's expedition.
The focus would be on using oxygen in an efficient manner. “If you think of a car, if you put a fancy carburetor into a car, it uses the fuel more efficiently. Although it's been possible to simulate low oxygen levels in specially designed, low pressure chambers, studies are expensive and can produce variable results. As well as having various exercise bikes at four sites including base camp to test the volunteers, we will also take identical exercise equipment to the South Col where we will set up a lab to examine lung, brain and heart function,” said Dr Mike Grocott, a University College London's Institute of Human Health and Performance expert who is leading the research team.
Dr Grocott added that it is difficult to study the body's responses to low oxygen levels in ICU patients because they are afflicted by other complications. “We commonly see, almost universally in critical care patients, low oxygen levels. The problem in studying them is that they have a whole lot of other things going on and it's simpler, strange as it may sound, to look at healthy people ascending to high altitude levels, where the main factor is low oxygen levels, rather than critical care patients where there are so many things going on,” he said.
According to Mitchell, the study is a historical one and the volunteers would get to be a part of 'history in the making'. “Taking part in this expedition is something that will still be talked about in the next 20 to 30 years. Some of the results we will obtain will be in medical textbooks for several decades to come,” she said.
Of the 208 volunteers required, 85 have already been found, in spite of a fee of almost 3,000 pound attached to the participation. A 73-year-old is the oldest volunteer to sign up. One enthusiastic volunteer is 27-year-old Kent software consultant Tariq Sheikh. “I've been snowboarding in the Alps and trekking in New Zealand. Since then it has been my goal to climb Everest by the time I reach 30. I am really looking forward to meeting the other people on the trip, experiencing the stunning views from the mountain and helping out with the medical research,” he said, at the same time keeping his fingers crossed that he returns alive and healthy.
If successful, the study can go a long way in helping critical patients. “By observing healthy individuals at high altitude where oxygen is scarce, we can learn about physiological changes that can improve critical care at the hospital bedside. Conditions that will be helped by the research range from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) to 'blue babies', cystic fibrosis, emphysema and septic shock,” Dr Grocott said.
