Question

Phenomenon: Miss Westbrook visited family in Aspen last spring. Aspen is in Colorado and has an elevation of 8,000-9,000 feet. The Bay Area has an elevation of 0-100 feet. Miss Westbrook’s breathing and heart rate both sped up every time she went hiking or skiing in Aspen. Why do you think this happened?
Hint: Your brain regulates the rate and depth of your breathing to match the needs of your body for 02 intake and CO2 removal.

Breathing rate refers to the number of breaths per minute.

Answer 1

This happened due to the low air pressure in the highest areas of Colorado, which made hard the intake of air.

Air pressure is fewer as the elevation in an area increases. In other words, the air over us is less, so the pressure that it makes is lower.

Miss Westbrook's heart rate and breathing sped up due to the low air pressure that she experimented with when ascending or when skiing in Aspen, which is very elevated. As the pressure is lower, not much air can enter the lungs, so her brain increases the breath rate to obtain the same amount of oxygen that her body had when breathing normally on the Bay. As there is not enough oxygen in her body, the brain also increases the heart rate to match the rhythm of the breath and deliver the scarce oxygen to the different parts of the body.

In conclusion, the increase in the heart and breath rate happens due to the low air pressure in elevated areas that makes our body find ways to compensate for the decrease in the amount of oxygen that our body can take.

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