This essay highlights the philosophical views of Jotï, an Indigenous group from Venezuelan Amazon. Daily Jotï behaviors are embraced by a notion life in which everything is interconnected (mana jtïdemame) and should be respected given its sacredness (jkïmañe). Furthermore, perennial movement (jkeibïae dekae) designed to carried out together groups (uliyena majadïka). The maintenance related eng...

AIM The aim of this study was to determine whether a 14-day trekking expeditions, in high altitude hypoxic environment, triggers redox disturbance at the level of satellite cells (adult stem cells) in young women. METHODS We collected muscle biopsies from Vastus Lateralis muscle for both single fiber analysis and satellite cells isolation. The samples collected before (PRE-Hypoxia) and after ...

Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) is a common clinical challenge at high altitude (HA). A point-of-care biochemical marker for AMS could have widespread utility. Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) rises in response to renal injury, inflammation and oxidative stress. We investigated whether NGAL rises with HA and if this rise was related to AMS, hypoxia or exercise. NGAL was assayed i...

In this study, we aimed to investigate the influence of ACTN3 R577X gene polymorphism on muscle damage responses in athletes competing in an ultra-endurance race. Twenty moderate to well-trained ultra-runners who had entered in an official 37.1 km adventure race (22.1 km mountain biking, 10.9 km trekking, 4.1 km water trekking, 30 m rope course, and orienteering) volunteered for the study. Bloo...

Before setting off on a holiday, particularly of the adventurous kind, it is vital to obtain appropriate medical advice to ensure a safe trip. However there are concerns that this need is not being adequately met. In this comment, Irmgard Bauer from James Cook University, Australia, discusses where travel medicine is failing and what can be done about it, in the context of her recent observatio...

Shridhar R Gadre is a professor of physical chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, University of Pune. He has been actively working in the area of theoretical and computational chemistry. He feels that the history of the development of a concept should .be inextricably woven into the teaching of a topic. Similarly, the subject could be made more lively by incorporating brief biographical ske...

Only a few times in my adult life can I remember feeling the unbounded exuberant energy of childhood and experiencing it continuously for days at a time – a feeling of my body being light and movement effortless, drawing energy from a seemingly bottomless well. One of those times was when I was trekking in the Himalayas, descending from an altitude of 5000 metres. Walking up had been a fairly g...