Questions tagged [health]
Questions related to staying healthy or dealing with health issues during outdoor activities. Answers given here are not intended as a replacement for professional medical advice. Please do not use this tag to ask for specific medical advice. A Dr should always be consulted to confirm any advice given
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Delayed muscle ache after boulder session
The last weeks I observed couple times that I am getting stiffness/muscle ache in the upper arms after a boulder session. What's special about this is that it is very delayed. For example I went to ...
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Is it possible to acclimatize to a cold weather in a short time?
On some of my Himalayan treks I've seen people who wear shorts or wear single layer of clothing and shiver due to the cold weather (most of these people live in a tropical climate). When I've asked ...
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How should I remove a leech?
Once a leech is attached, what is the proper way to remove it?
(I'm assuming that the method would generic for all leeches, but if there are special kinds, please note that).
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What kind of creme could Ueli Steck be possibly using and why?
Watching this youtube-video I asked myself if Ueli Steck is using some kind of regeneration creme.
Most likely nobody will know for sure from the footage but I would be really interested what tricks ...
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What is the most effective means of melting snow with body heat for drinking?
The related question Is it safe to drink snow? tells us that in addtion to then normal considerations for any wild water source, you also need to consider how the snow may tip your metabolism into ...
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How dangerous is it to walk with wet feet in cold terrain?
Let us say we have around 0 degrees celsius and I have wet feet and I am in the middle of nowhere (let us say 2 days away from any civilisation). On the one hand people say it is no problem to walk in ...
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What are the chances to catch rodent-transmitted illnesses while hiking?
Small warning: This question comes from a germophobe point of view, so please keep this in mind while giving an answer.
I love hiking, but I'm worried of what kind of germs (read virus, bacteria and ...
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How to get pine sap off my teeth
I wanted to emulate old sap gum but it seems I have chewed some sap that was premature.
Now it has covered my gums and teeth. How on earth do I remove this stuff?
What I have tried:
Brushing (slow, ...
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What is the longest time you can go, eating only freeze-dried food?
As a former member of the Swedish home guard youth, I was told during a survival exercise that you could eat only freeze-dried food for about two weeks. Young and green as I was, I swallowed the ...
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Can overexertion cause AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness)?
Recently I did a trek in the Himalayan region and one of the group members was affected by what we believed was AMS at around 4600m.
We had to evacuate the person from there and get to around 4100m ...
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Can you pre-identify the risk of severe Altitude sickness?
This BBC news article Mount Everest: Altitude sickness claims third death in four days caught my attention.
From what I understand the best cure for Altitude sickness is to get lower, fast. This is ...
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Are barberries edible?
Barberries are so common around here that there would be enough for a fruit serving a day for quite a while. But there is a problem: I do not know whether or not they are edible. Are they edible in ...
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Should I be more careful about postholing during winter hikes?
This weekend I am going to do one of my favorite things: winter hiking in the Sierras. When I say "hiking", I mean that though we might be trodding up a mountain in the snow, it is not real ...
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What's the problem with electrolyte imbalance and how do I mitigate it?
In the past week I've seen two answers mentioning electrolytes; one about the grand canyon and one in an answer on a question that was actually about wildlife, but where other desert dangers were ...
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How can I make sure there are no more ticks around?
I'm back from outdoors and while lying down in bed I noticed a tiny tiny insect walking around on my clothes. While trying to take a picture of it to see if it is a tick, it just disappeared and I ...
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