The Sherpa people of the Himalayas have long been recognized for their unique ability to excel physically in the thin air of higher altitudes. But new research from UBC’s Okanagan campus, published last week in the Journal of Physiology, now suggests that their specially adapted muscles give them up to twice the resistance to muscle fatigue of lowlanders.
The Sherpa people of the Himalayas have long been recognized for their unique ability to excel physically in the thin air of higher altitudes. But new research from UBC’s Okanagan campus, published last week in the Journal of Physiology, now suggests that their specially adapted muscles give them up to twice the resistance to muscle fatigue of lowlanders.
“People who live near sea level—lowlanders—struggle with fatigue and impaired physical performance at high altitude, when the oxygen levels are very low,” says Chris McNeil, assistant professor at UBC Okanagan’s School of Health and Exercise Sciences and study senior author. “But the Sherpa are born and raised at low-oxygen and their ancestors have lived above 4,000 metres for 20,000 years so they are the gold standard of exceptional high-altitude performance. Unfortunately, very little research has looked at how their muscles deal with fatigue in such an extreme environment.”
McNeil and his doctoral student Luca Ruggiero wanted to know if the muscle fibres of the Sherpa were just as efficient in a low-oxygen environment as their well-studied cardiorespiratory systems. To test the idea, they travelled as part of a UBC Okanagan-led expedition to the Pyramid International Laboratory, located at 5,050 metres on the Nepali side of Mt. Everest. At the Pyramid lab, they performed muscle fatigue tests on 10 Sherpa and 12 lowlanders.
“We wanted to know how Sherpa muscles became fatigued after physical strain and how quickly those muscles recover compared to people who spend their lives at oxygen-rich sea level,” says Ruggiero. “It turns out that the Sherpa fatigued about 33 per cent less than lowlanders and recovered nearly twice as fast.”
Read more at University of British Columbia Okanagan Campus
Image: UBC Prof. Chris McNeil and PhD student Luca Ruggiero test leg fatigue using a specialized device called an isometric dynamometer. (Credit: UBC Okanagan)
