If you smoke and do not exercise regularly, then there are high chances of your suffering altitude sickness.

This is the conclusion drawn at a programme of discussion organized by Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) here on Sunday.

Professor Dr. Paolo Cerretelli of the Institute for the Study of Molecular Biology, Italy, cited a study which found that 93 per cent of mountaineers and porters accompanying them who smoked and did no exercise suffered from altitude sickness.

Cerrretelli advised those who aspire to become climbers to completely abstain from smoking and the women who spent most of their time in kitchen and aspire to accompany mountaineering expeditions as assistants to use improved oven. He said this was proved by a study carried out from 1953 to 2012.



Professor Annalisa Cogo, Director at the Pulmonary Disease Study Centre at the Ferar University, Italy, said that the findings of the study should be seriously considered not only in terms of the health of mountaineers but also of the health of the people living in the mountain region.



She said of the mountaineers who died in course of climbing 17 different mountains above 8,000 metres high from 1963 to 1968, the highest number died due to altitude sickness.  One hundred sixty-three mountaineers died of altitude sickness in that period.

Ambassador of Italy to Nepal, Deniele Mancini, stressed the need of launching a special programme in the mountainous region of the country for promoting healthy living among the people there. The Government of Italy is willing to provide support to this endeavour, he added.

Vice Chancellor of NAST, Prof. (Dr.) Surendraraj Kafle, Secretary Prakash Chandra Adhikari and Chief of NAST Planning and Monitoring Division, Chiranjivi Regmi also spoke on the problem of high altitude sickness and the ways of mitigating the same. RSS