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Altitude and child development

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11–20 of 44 posts

Re: Altitude and child development

#11
There was an article I read recently — perhaps right here on HN — that pointed out cancer rates are lower at high altitudes. (The author suggested that it had to do with contaminants flowing down hill).

The point is (assuming neither study contains an artefact): there is a trade off.

Re: Altitude and child development

#12
post #3

High altitude climbing is also known to cause brain changes detectable on MRI. See e.g. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ham.2011.1073

Didn't one study use FMRI to detect neurological changes in response to various types of music (or something like that) in dead fish?

Re: Altitude and child development

#13
post #2

I only hire devs that were born within 200m of sea level. Best devs are those born below sea level.

Does that mean if someone was raised in a mine are they better at bare-metal development?

Let's re-purpose abandoned mines into programming bootcamps!

As any educator will tell you, a mine is a terrible thing to waste.

Re: Altitude and child development

#15
post #12
post #3

High altitude climbing is also known to cause brain changes detectable on MRI. See e.g. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ham.2011.1073

Didn't one study use FMRI to detect neurological changes in response to various types of music (or something like that) in dead fish?

The dead salmon study showed the need to correct fMRI readings, if I recall correctly. I think they showed the dead salmon some pictures instead of playing music.

Re: Altitude and child development

#16
Based on what I learned in medical school, my guess would be iodine deficiency.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congenital_iodine_deficiency_s...

Iodine is vitally important for child development, especially brain development. In mountainous regions, there can be less iodine in the soil (and you are away from the ocean where fish and other seafood are a ready source of iodine). IIRC, it used to be a big issue in the Alpine regions of Europe.

This is one of the reasons that iodine is put into salt as a supplement.

Re: Altitude and child development

#18
Meanwhile Colorado is in the top 5 states for educational attainment, and the fittest state in the Union (for many years now). It's interesting that altitude has a noticeable effect on birth weight, but it clearly doesn't really affect the outcome a whole lot.

Re: Altitude and child development

#19

> higher altitudes within the US have fewer environmental contaminants Living in Denver, I routinely see headlines (and see with my own eyes) about how terrible the air quality is here, at certain times of the year at least. Wonder if that data controls for whether someone is in a high-altitude city or at the summit of a 14,000+ ft mountain.

I remember flying into Denver in the winter and seeing the inversion of just awful brown haze. I cried for my lungs on that trip.

There are numerous studies on the myriad bad health effects of PM2.5.

The sooner we can transition to EVs, the better.

Re: Altitude and child development

#20

I found it more interesting that apparently it's possible to get paid by the hour to do research on subjects like this.

Or at least: someone writing in Lesswrong, a not particularly reliable site (to put it mildly, but I don't want to get into an argument about it), claims this.
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