Mountains cause brain damage? (duh!)
Here’s a recent article in Outside documenting how rapid changes in altitude have been shown to cause brain damage in some otherwise healthy individuals who showed no signs of illness (e.g. AMS, HAPE, HACE) otherwise. The damage can occur even at moderate altitudes like 14,000-15,000 ft. Apparently amateurs don’t spend the time necessary to acclimatize on mountains like Rainier and just shoot up in two days, potentially leading to enlarged VR spaces (like in Alzheimer’s patients) or even partial frontal cortex atrophy (dead gray matter). Whoa.
