Could High Altitude Cure Obesity?

March 8 -- At 19,000 feet, Peter Hackett started to feel awful.

While hiking a peak in Bolivia, Hackett developed a bad headache, felt nauseated and drowsy and started to lose his coordination.

"It came on so quickly and was so severe, I had to immediately descend," said Hackett, a physician and expert in altitude sickness at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Hackett's troubles are common for flatlanders who ascend to high altitudes too fast. But recent research shows not everyone is as vulnerable. And, it turns out, different groups of people have evolved different ways of adjusting to living in high altitude, low oxygen places.

Scientists are just starting to understand these differences and they say their work could someday help flatlanders like Hackett trek in good health.

Understanding how thin air affects the lungs and brain could also extend beyond the relatively small world of climbers and skiers who suffer from altitude sickness. It could also lead to new treatments for other afflictions, including migraines and obesity.

"I think we've only begun to scratch the surface when it comes to finding common ground with other conditions," said Robert Roach, research director at the Colorado Center for Altitude Medicine and Physiology in Denver.