Healthy Care in Journey

Friday, October 24, 2014


Healthy Care in Journey

Basically, the goal of healthy care in a journey is to achieve as healthy state before and after the trip.
Power of the immune system is influenced by such factors, among others: Here below I resume the imformation about the health precaution needed from several sources:

1.Oxygen demand
Oxygen is the fuel of our bodies. Oxygen is needed by muscles doing any heavy or light activity. The more oxygen  absorbed by the body showed the better performance in the working muscles so that the remains of substances that cause fatigue in number will be less.
VO2 max is measured in the amount of oxygen in liters per minute (l / min) or the amount of oxygen in milliliters per kilogram of body weight in per minute (ml / kg / min). Naturally, the higher the VO2 max, a climber in question will also have the endurance and stamina.
VO2 max is the maximum volume of O2 that is processed by the human body during intense activity. In principle necessary for mountain climbing strength and endurance of specific muscles, as well as having a good VO2 max facility. It is essential to cope with the thin oxygen altitude areas, as well as overcome the burden brought about (backpack).

For a mountain climber, having a good VO2 max is essential, above 5,000 feet, a person's ability to perform activities or jobs began to fail. While every increase of 5,000 feet to 1,000 feet after going to cause a reduction in VO2 max capacity of as much as 3%. And this needs to be considered by mountaineers, because the thin oxygen in the air will cause hypoksia, so climbers will hit Mountain Sickness with one of their characteristics is dizziness and vomiting.

To climb above 4,000 meters above sea level, it is recommended to do acclimatization beforehand. Due to the expected acclimation physiology changes in the body which include early changes and changes in adjustment.

2. Fluid needs
Under normal circumstances a man can not live without water. Some authors say people can live without water for about three days, but some are saying the temperature 20-30 ° C one can survive without water up to 8 days.
As an illustration of the need for water in our body are:
- Temperature 10 ° C is required as much as 1 liter of water for 24 hours
 - Temperature 20 ° C is needed as much as 4 liters of water for 24 hours
 - Temperature of 30 ° C is needed as much as 5 liters of water for 24 hours
- Temperature 40 ° C is needed as much as 6 liters of water for 24 hours.

Water requirements for adult humans is 30-35 ml / kg body weight (1 ° C temperature rise of 37 ° C plus 10-15%). As for replacing water loss from urine, sweat, lungs and feces for adults 1.5 to 2 ml / kg / hour.

So the estimated water demand in adult weighing 50 kg is about 3000-3500 ml / 24 hours.

3. Needs Salt / electrolyte
One of the important electrolytes in our body are sodium chloride or table salt. The need salt for everyone to tropical regions is 15-25 grams per 24 hours, while for sub-tropical area is 10 grams per 24 hour. The best way to keep salt levels in the body is a gift of salt in the food, in this way proved to be more effective than consuming sports drinks or ORS.
Soups, according to some studies is the source of fluid and electrolyte nice. Some sources of electrolytes include:
- Tablet salt
- Sports drinks e.g. gatorade®, pocari sweat® (sodium 10 -25 mmol / L)
- ORALIT® (sodium 60-90 mmol / L) and either used only in the treatment of diarrhea.

4. Environmental temperature.
The human body is designed to operate at temperatures between 36.5 to 37 ° C and easier to adjust to the warmer temperatures of the cold temperatures, this must be taken into consideration as care in journey. The process of acclimatization in hot temperatures usually faster and can be overcome by wearing light clothing, absorb sweat, brightly colored, keep the needs of water and salt balance in the body. While the body to cold temperatures is more difficult to adjust, because the ambient temperature is low resulting in greater calories needed in order to keep the body temperature normal.

5. Food
 For strenuous activity required 2000-2500 calories per day to have secured healthy care in a trip, and  for the strenuous activity required 2500-3500 calories / day (fuller explanation see here). Travel Diseases and Their Prevention Common diseases that often occur when doing adventure activities, including: Mountain Sickness (Disease Mount) The main cause is a decrease in oxygen levels in the blood because it is a certain altitude. Factors that could be the cause is: - Lack of acclimatization (adjusting process two different environmental conditions). - The movement reached a certain height is too fast. The symptoms of mountain sickness include: - Dizziness. - Shortness of breath. - No appetite. - Nausea sometimes vomiting. - Body feels weak, lethargic, lazy. - The heart beats faster. - Patients with difficulty sleeping. - Pale face, nails and lips look bluish. handling: - Rest sufficient, in general, these symptoms will disappear by itself after resting for 24 s / d 48 hours. - If the condition does not improve lower-patient of that height, about 500 s / d 600 meters. Hypotermia 

Hypotermia is a condition where the condition of the body can not produce heat accompanied by the decrease in core body temperature below 35 ° C. This is due to several factors, including: - Extreme temperatures. - Clothing that is not quite so wearing wet clothes. - Lack of high-calorie foods. Symptoms of hypothermia include: - Chills. - Cold, pale, dry skin. - Confused, attitudes unreasonable, lethargic, sometimes want to fight. - Fall of consciousness. - Breathe slowly and short. - The pulse is slow and weak. handling: - Find protection from cold environmental conditions (eg build a tent). - Remove all wet clothing. - Cover the victim with a blanket or sleeping bag dry. Or if there are safety blangket diseliputi with aluminum. - Lay the victim and avoid direct contact with the ground. - Do not let the patient fall asleep resulting in lost consciousness. - Give people food / drinks hot and contain carbohydrate. Do not give air-alcoholic beverages. - Evacuation to a hospital immediately if conditions do not improve.