TELLURIDE – Getting high often has detrimental side effects. Headaches, shortness of breath, difficulty sleeping, and decreased appetite are some of the symptoms people often experience when traveling to or living at higher elevations, such as Telluride and Mountain Village.

Collectively known as acute mountain sickness or high altitude sickness, the symptoms are common, but the causes are still little studied.

According to Peter Hackett, MD, “There are really not that many reliable, cutting-edge sources of information about altitude sickness out there.” Telluride’s Institute for Altitude Medicine seeks to change that.

Now one of the nation’s preeminent sources for cutting-edge information and research about high altitude related illnesses, IFAM is taking altitude medicine research and education to new heights, so to speak, from its base camp in the basement of the Telluride Medical Center.

To better acquaint the Telluride community with IFAM and its mission, the organization is holding an event on Wednesday, Aug. 27 at The Ridge development at the top of the gondola. Since its official opening in January, IFAM has been providing clinical care for people suffering from high altitude-related illnesses, with everything from simple oxygen therapy to thorough echocardiography and pulmonary function testing. The center is also a nucleus for disseminating information about AMS and how to treat and even prevent it. FAM aims to become the premier center for altitude medicine research in the world.

IFAM’s Telluride office was founded through funding from the Telluride Hospital District. Grants from the Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association helped create a sister IFAM office in Mountain Village as well.

But the creation of a center dedicated to altitude medicine education and research wasn’t established on community funding and local motivation alone. Hackett has dedicated more than three-and-a-half decades to the study of the altitude’s effects on the human body.

Hackett’s history reads as much like a mountaineer’s memoir as it does a medical resume. He spent seven years in Nepal studying the effects of altitude on climbers on Mt. Everest, and even longer at Alaska’s Mt. McKinley (Denali) doing the same. His studies and treatment of high altitude illnesses took place in the field, often in a tent on the side of one of the world’s tallest peaks.

Hackett published his first medical paper on altitude-related illnesses in 1976, and he has since emerged as one of the world’s most knowledgeable experts on the subject. As IFAM research associate Jenny Hargrove, MD, a Wilderness Medicine Fellow, says of Hackett, “He is the guy in altitude medicine.”

Hackett’s current research interests lean more toward less extreme populations, looking at the effects of altitude on people living and visiting high elevationa. In other words, those who get sick when they come to places like Telluride.

“So much research in the field has been dedicated to climbers in very high altitudes,” says Hackett. “My focus has shifted to the ski resort altitudes, where much more research is necessary.”

While high altitude illnesses don’t affect a large percentage of the general population, symptoms do affect many visitors and residents of alpine resorts, and it is there IFAM can have a significant impact. One study recent IFAM study – a follow-up to a controversial Spanish study – suggested that climbing 14,000-foot peaks kills brain cells and could lead to decreased brain function, even permanent damage.

“I thought, what is this going to do to Colorado tourism?” Hackett says (54 of the nation’s 14ers are in Colorado – a big draw for visitors). Hackett regarded the Spanish study as inadequate, so IFAM spearheaded a study of its own that analyzed climbers’ brains by MRI before and after they scaled 20,320-foot Mt. McKinley. Results of the study are still being analyzed, but initial findings indicate that the Spanish study was flawed, and that climbing the occasional 14er won’t cause irreparable damage.

Another research project the organization has undertaken is a groundbreaking analysis of how altitude sicknesses impact resort community economies. The study surveyed 500 visitors coming to Mountain Village from lower altitudes, over half of whom reported suffering from headaches or other symptoms of AMS after their arrival. While findings have yet to be released, Hackett says that data suggests the lost revenue resulting from altitude sickness represents “a significant economic impact” to the communities of Telluride and Mountain Village.

“I feel strongly that altitude-related problems should not be ignored by resort communities – they need to be dealt with head-on,” Hackett says. “By sharing results of these studies, we can also share information about how people can prevent the problem.”

The impact of IFAM’s work reaches far beyond Telluride’s boundaries. The institute partners with the University of Colorado School of Medicine Altitude Research Center on research projects, and will soon initiate a new study on high altitude pulmonary edema, one of the more serious and potentially deadly illnesses caused by high altitude. Hargrove says that the study will create a database of information as well as a discussion forum for physicians practicing in high altitude resort communities around the state.

“There are a lot of discrepancies in how doctors treat high altitude sicknesses. We hope that IFAM will help create some standard of care… Telluride can lead the way for resort communities, instead of just sweeping [the issue of altitude sickness] under the rug.”

Hargrove adds that not all research in the field is focused on high altitude’s negative effects; being at elevation has its benefits as well, like decreasing the incidence of heart disease, increasing life span and decreasing appetite, a good thing for some. “This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Hargrove says.

But while IFAM’s research, education and clinical care may be pioneering the field of altitude medicine, the organization does not enjoy the same degree of funding available to other medical institutions. Altitude medicine is not a funding priority within the medical community, says Hackett, because it doesn’t have the “critical mass” effect that diseases like AIDS and cancer do. But in a place like Telluride, and in all higher elevation communities, IFAM can provide reliable, valuable resources for the many residents, visitors and second homeowners who struggle with altitude-related problems.

For information on attending Wednesday’s event, call IFAM at 728-6767. For more information about altitude sickness and IFAM, visit www.altitudemedicine.org.