 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
XTREME EVEREST
|
 |
|
 |
MISSED A PROGRAMME?
Go to the Listen Again page |
|
|
|
|
Climbing to the top of the world to further medical research. |
|
|
|
|
In April and May, Mount Everest was the location for the most ambitious medical research project ever conducted to explore the effects of low oxygen levels on the human body.
The Caudwell Xtreme Everest Expedition aims to test a new theory about how our organs and cells cope with oxygen starvation and gain insights which should save the lives of many more patients in intensive care in years to come.
|
|
|
 |
|
| A volunteer on the Xtreme Everest expedition is put through her paces at high altitude. |
Programme 1
The Caudwell expedition tested the physiology and stamina of two sets of subjects.
A group of mountaineering doctors climbed to the summit of Mount Everest, experimenting on each other as they ascended to a place where each breath contains a third of the oxygen available at sea level.
Meanwhile, 200 plus volunteers from the general public trekked from the Himalayan foothills up to Everest base camp, again scrutinised with batteries of tests along the way.
Listen to some of the trekkers’ exploits in this first programme of the series.
 Listen again to programme 1 |
|
 |
|
| Doctor Nigel Hart reaches the summit of Mount Everest. |
Programme 2
Fifteen members of the Xtreme climbing team broke medical research records, with tests on the human body done where no-one has done them before.
They pedalled to exhaustion on exercise bikes at 7,850 metres above sea level and they took each other’s arterial blood for gas tests just below Everest’s summit.
After reaching the top and helping to rescue a critically ill climber on the way down, they returned to base camp for a round of painful muscle biopsies.
All in the cause of a new understanding of oxygen deprivation, and the improved survival of patients in intensive care.
Listen again to programme 2 |
|
|
RELATED LINKS |
|
|
Xtreme Everest
BBC Science & Nature
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
