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Leeds Beckett and Military team embark on Himalayas research expedition
The research is being carried out by the Centre for Sports Performance at Leeds Beckett, in collaboration with the Defence Medical Services. Dhaulagiri 2016 is proudly supported by HRH The Duke of York and the Surgeon General. For more information, please visit http://dhaulagiri2016.com/.
The Defence Medical Services is responsible for promoting, protecting and restoring the health of service personnel and encompasses the entire medical, dental, nursing, allied health professionals, paramedical and support personnel.
Speaking about the research, John O’Hara, a Professor in Sport and Exercise Physiology at Leeds Beckett and leader researcher, said: “This research provides us with the opportunity to build on our previous research, and further our understanding of the best strategies to minimise an individual’s susceptibility to acute mountain sickness, which is relevant to recreational climbers and military personnel. This medical research expedition also further develops our important research collaboration with the Defence Medical Services.”
Leeds Beckett researchers involved in the project include Professor David Woods, Dr Matthew Barlow, Mark Cooke, Dr Sarah Clarke, Dr Kevin Deighton and Jamie Matu, who will be working in collaboration with the Defence Medical Services Hypoxic study group. The Leeds Beckett team will be conducting four research studies during the trekking expedition around the Dhaulagiri circuit in Nepal in April 2016.
The first study will focus on optimising acclimation and in-country acclimatisation to reduce the probability of Acute Mountain Sickness, High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema and High Altitude Cerebral Oedema and improve performance and function at altitude. The study will see participants use Intermittent Hypoxic Exposure (IHE) with exercise training prior to the expedition in order to evaluate whether it can reduce acute mountain sickness and enhance physiological performance during the expedition.
The second study will monitor changes in balance, walking and jump performance during the Dhaulagiri 2016 expedition. Balance and walking movement patterns have been shown to worsen with increasing altitude and the specialist measurement of balance and movement patterns which will be undertaken in this project has not been performed previously during a high altitude expedition. The participants will be asked to perform a number of tests including standing balance, a maximal jump test, a knee joint position test, a walking movement pattern test.
The third study will investigate the potential benefits of breathing techniques used by free-divers as a way to prepare for a high altitude expedition. Competitive Apnoea, or breathhold training, involves free-divers holding their breath in water and they are known to have larger lungs and better oxygen carrying capacity than the average person and breath hold diving improves the contractility of your spleen. The spleen contains a store of red blood cells and when the human body is in a hypoxic situation it contracts to release its red blood cells to help cope with the lack of oxygen. By increasing the contractility of the spleen through breathhold training in participants on the expedition, the researchers hope to reduce the effects of the low levels of oxygen associated with high altitude.
The final study will investigate changes in appetite and body composition (fat mass and muscle mass) during the Dhaulagiri 2016 expedition. The researchers will measure feelings of appetite twice per day using a simple questionnaire, allowing them to discover how appetite changes during an expedition and whether any changes are related to the development of acute mountain sickness. The findings from this project will help to provide guidance to expedition teams and military personnel in the future. This may help to maintain physical performance and reduce the risk of illness.
In 2015, the team prepared a team of British Army soldiers for an attempt to climb the North Ridge route of Mount Everest using a pre-acclimatisation protocol, allowing the expedition team to experience and acclimatise to the physiological challenges of climbing at an extreme altitude.