Human Variation

When we travel to another country we get sick because of the climate, food, or water. Some people get sick from high altitude. The symptoms one feels can be headaches, decreased appetite, trouble sleeping and shortness of breath. One starts feeling the symptoms a couple days later and doing activities such as walking makes things worse. Human’s homeostasis was evolved at a lower altitude so when we are at a high altitude, stress produces over the body. Such stresses are hypoxia which reduces available oxygen, solar radiation, cold, low humidity, and rough terrain. Hypoxia is what causes the greatest stress to the heart, lungs, and brain.

Short-term

Lack of oxygen causes an increase in breathing rate. the heart beats faster; the stroke volume is slightly decreased; and non-essential bodily functions are suppressed, resulting in a decline in food digestion efficiency (as the body suppresses the digestive system in favor of increasing its cardiopulmonary reserves.

Facultative Adaptation

Reduction in atmospheric reduction Changes include production of red blood cells. Red blood cells contain hemoglobin which is the protein responsible for transporting oxygen to organs and tissues. The lungs enlarge and make it easier to transport oxygen.

Developmental

This occurs in high altitude natives during growth and development. Altitude doesn’t appear to affect reproduction in those who are genetically adapted to high altitude. The way their body processes glucose is different from others. They burn glucose in a way that permits more efficient oxygen use.

Cultural

Tibetans drink butter tea which is warm milk that provides a lot of caloric energy which is well suited for high altitudes. They also wear long thick dresses called chuba.

The benefits of studying human variation is that we are learning what to do ourselves if we ever take a vacation somewhere with high elevation. We know the symptoms and the ways our body reacts. We also know what people use and wear to keep themselves warm. One might think that we wouldn’t get severely sick from high elevation, but we would consider that we are used to low elevation. This information can be used in a productive way if you or someone you know is going somewhere like Tibet, Colorado, Peru, etc. we already know what precautions to take.

I feel like using race in understanding variations in adaptations isn’t correct. There is absolutely no connection to high elevation and race and how our body reacts to it. It is important to study environmental influences on adaptation so one doesn’t confuse race thinking that because you’re from a certain country you won’t have a problem adapting to the environment hence high altitude. Adapting to something doesn’t mean it has to do with race; it has to do with how your body reacts.