What is “intoxicating oxygen”?

  When people from the plains move to the plateau for a long time and then return to live in the plains, they will experience “plateau deacclimatization”, also known as “lowland reaction” or “intoxication with oxygen”.  People who first go to the plateau have a compensatory reaction, such as increased hemoglobin content, shortness of breath, accelerated heart rate. Over time, the human body has developed a certain degree of adaptability to the low oxygen environment of the plateau. From the plateau to the plains, another change from the low oxygen environment to the normoxic environment, the body’s original physiological adaptation to the plateau becomes the past, “historical task” has been completed, will gradually unwind or fade. This change is the so-called “deacclimatization”. This “deacclimatization” reaction may appear as fatigue, weakness, drowsiness, chest tightness, dizziness, diarrhea and other symptoms, just like drunkenness.