The Cutting-Edge Amenity Your Mountain Home Needs

Increase your health and wellness at high altitude with this luxury feature. And no, we’re not talking about a home gym.

The mountains are filled with beauty, serenity, and adventure—the perfect setting for those who loves the outdoors. Unfortunately, mountain living also comes with a lack of oxygen.

Oxygen deficiency, or hypoxia, is the main cause of altitude sickness, which can bring on debilitating symptoms like headaches, fatigue, dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath, and sleep disturbance. Over 60 percent of people who travel to elevations above 7,000 feet experience some form of altitude sickness. Without a sufficient supply of oxygen, the complex system that is the human body cannot operate at its peak.

All too often, travelers to high altitude have been forced to end their stay early or not make the trip at all due to the adverse effects of oxygen deprivation. Strategies for avoiding altitude sickness include sleeping at a lower elevation, avoiding alcohol, and taking it easy—not exactly on the menu if you’re using your mountain home to ski, hike, or enjoy a refreshing cocktail on the deck while admiring the view.

Here’s the good news: mountain homes can be equipped with an oxygen-rich environment to relieve and even prevent altitude sickness. By providing a non-medical level of oxygen, these systems can help with the transition to a higher altitude and keep you operating at your maximum performance levels—so that you can live, work, and play with the energy you’re accustomed to.

Here are 4 benefits of making your mountain home an oxygen-enriched retreat.

The inability to sleep is one of the most frequent complaints of being at high altitude and can be associated with an increased heart rate. At high altitude, your heart has to work much harder to pump your blood. Sleeplessness also increases the amount of time it will take your body to acclimate to higher elevations. Your body’s automatic response to high altitude is to increase red-blood-cell production, which mostly occurs while you sleep.

Sleeping in an oxygen-enriched environment can increase your ability to get a restful night’s sleep and will not only relieve high-altitude symptoms but also help you acclimate to your new altitude at a faster rate. It can also combat the effects of jet lag for you frequent flyers, since air travel can sometimes present similar symptoms as high altitude.

The mountains offer a variety of physical activities just steps from your front door—trail running, mountain biking, hiking, skiing, and more—but exercise capacity is reduced at high altitude because of the lack of oxygen. A fast and efficient recovery from any type of workout is the key to getting you back to top form. Supplemental oxygen after any physical activity can promote quicker muscle recovery by increasing blood circulation, reducing lactic acid build-up, and easing subsequent muscle soreness.

One of the first signs of altitude sickness is a long-lasting headache. This happens because your body has not created the red blood cells needed to offset the lack of available oxygen. In essence, your brain is being starved of oxygen, and a headache is the body’s way of communicating that something is wrong. Installing an oxygen-enriched system into your mountain home not only creates an environment that supports quality sleep but it also can include an option for immediate directed oxygen, which can significantly ease or even prevent debilitating and painful headaches.

A lack of oxygen at high altitude can intensify the morning after a night of indulgence. Help relieve the symptoms of a hangover with supplemental oxygen by increasing blood circulation, boosting the body’s ability to remove toxins and impurities.

Christine Reilly is co-owner of The Oxygen Company, a company based in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, that designs and installs oxygen enriched environments for high altitude living since 2005. View their profile or contact them at 970.927.3228.

Content for this article provided by The Oxygen Company.