Altitude Sickness

CANCER INFORMATION I. Thomas Jefferson University Hospital has prepared a confidential questionnaire that can help measure your cancer risks. Those who fill them out get back an analysis of their answers as well as health suggestions and, if pertinent, recommendations for a checkup. To get a copy of the Cancer Test, call 800-533-3669. CANCER INFORMATION II. The American Institute for Cancer Research has published a new booklet of health tips for older Americans. To get a free copy of "Be Your Best: Nutrition After 50," send a self-addressed, business-size envelope stamped with 45 cents postage to the institute, Dept.

  Philadelphia middleweight Jesse Hart took a tough loss in his 165-pound men's division title bout on Saturday at the USA Boxing national championships in Fort Carson, Colo., losing a decision to Cleveland's Terrell Gausha, 3-2 on a judges' poll, after the cards came up even at 34-all. Hart, the 22-year-old son of former Philly boxer Eugene "Cyclone" Hart, the 2011 national champion at 178 pounds, had advanced to the final match when he decisioned Izaak Cardona of Colorado Springs, Colo., 14-10, on Friday.

Alan Jacobson stood atop a glacier and peered into a volcano on Africa's highest point despite his altitude sickness, black-and-blue feet, and a case of bronchitis. Jacobson, 52, president of AGS, a graphic-design company in Exton, had reached Mt. Kilimanjaro's Uhuru Peak above the clouds of Tanzania at 9:50 a.m. on June 12. "I got to the summit, sat on a rock, and threw up," he said, describing his altitude sickness. He climbed the mountain's 19,340 feet of rainforest, glaciers and volcanic rock as part of his campaign to raise funds to build a sanitation system for a Rwandan village that is home to about 500 survivors of the country's 1994 tribal genocide.

CHURCHGOING POOCH GOES TO HIS REWARD From down Rio way comes word of a funeral for a stray mongrel who was in the habit of attending church. The dog, known as Jorge to residents of the small Brazilian town of Andradas, loved the company of people and often attended Mass and other public gatherings, said Lucia de Souza Franco, spokeswoman for and wife of the town's mayor. "He was the size of a calf and as sweet as a lamb, and people loved him," Franco said. After a funeral attended by dozens of mourners, Jorge, thought to be between 12 and 14 years old, was buried in a quiet corner of the town's zoological gardens.

When the producers of "Blindsight," a documentary about blind teenage Tibetan climbers, went looking for a director, they went right for Lucy Walker. Her other movie credit was "Devil's Playground," a movie about Amish teenagers in Indiana. The casual observer might not detect a connection there, but the British-born Walker saw it right away. "I absolutely get why I was recommended for this. I'm the go-to person for documentaries about remote worlds, inaccessible teens. I have a reputation for being able to get tough nuts to crack," said Walker, who has paid the bills by directing episodes of "Blues Clues.

Maybe it's a form of altitude sickness. The Eagles got within view of the NFL's summit in January. They came away from their loss to St. Louis in the NFC championship game sure that they had arrived as a team and equally sure they had learned from their mistakes. "We can't have these lulls in the regular season," safety Brian Dawkins said Jan. 28, the day after the Rams beat the Eagles, 29-24, in St. Louis. "We have to find a way to get that home [advantage] and that bye week," tight end Chad Lewis said that day. "We learned how important that is. " Nine months later, the Eagles are a queasy 3-2 and coming off just the kind of regular-season "lull" Dawkins warned against.

With the wintertime recreational season upon us, there is one word you should keep in mind: Pasta. Well, maybe also a second word: Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates provide the fuel the body needs for stamina during outdoor activities in cold weather. And pasta is a great source of carbohydrates. Six hours of strenuous winter activities, such as skiing or hiking, require 3,000 to 5,000 calories a day, two or more times the calories needed for a day of office work. The additional calories are needed for keeping warm, exercising and carrying the weight of heavier clothing, and for deeper and more rapid respiration, especially at higher altitudes.

My husband, Larry, gets altitude sickness. Above 9,000 feet, his head pounds, his stomach churns, his face turns green. He has trouble breathing. In fact, altitude sickness, which causes fluid to build up in the brain and lungs, can kill. So why, you might wonder, did we decide to climb the highest mountain in the lower 48 states? That distinction belongs to Mount Whitney in south-central California - 14,695 feet tall and higher than Mount Rainier in Washington and Mount Hood in northern California, but not as tall as Mount McKinley in Alaska.

From tiny Campo Quijano in northwest Argentina up to San Antonio de los Cobres, the unpaved RN-51 is the only road connecting the two towns. A glossy travel book warns ominously: Don't even try to hitchhike on the RN-51. The traffic is as rare as the dust storms are frequent. Still, I hitchhiked the Andes. My friend and I had been waiting for four hours when I stuck my thumb out, spiritless and hot, and for the first time that afternoon a truck pulled over. "San Antonio de los Cobres?"

At age 70 and equipped with a pacemaker, I set out to do something crazy and glorious: climb Mount Kilimanjaro. At 19,340 feet, Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa. Each year about 30,000 people try to climb it, and not all reach the summit. The biggest obstacle is not the physical challenge but altitude sickness, which can sometimes be fatal. I'm not sure what motivated me. I've always been active - playing tennis, horseback riding, whitewater canoeing, mountain biking - but hiking never appealed to me. Too boring.

With a father who is a neonatologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, it isn't difficult to understand why Lauren Fox wants to go into medicine. But her father is also an adventurer who climbed the tallest mountains in Bolivia, first in the Peace Corps in the '60s and then with her two older brothers, so it was inevitable that the 17-year-old would one day follow in his crampon-print footsteps. That day came in June when Lauren Fox, 17, and her brother, James, 29, climbed Huayna Potosi in Bolivia's Cordillera Real, becoming, she believes, the second youngest woman - and youngest non-Bolivian female - to ascend the 20,000-foot peak near La Paz, a city surrounded by mountains.

  Philadelphia middleweight Jesse Hart took a tough loss in his 165-pound men's division title bout on Saturday at the USA Boxing national championships in Fort Carson, Colo., losing a decision to Cleveland's Terrell Gausha, 3-2 on a judges' poll, after the cards came up even at 34-all. Hart, the 22-year-old son of former Philly boxer Eugene "Cyclone" Hart, the 2011 national champion at 178 pounds, had advanced to the final match when he decisioned Izaak Cardona of Colorado Springs, Colo., 14-10, on Friday.

At age 70 and equipped with a pacemaker, I set out to do something crazy and glorious: climb Mount Kilimanjaro. At 19,340 feet, Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa. Each year about 30,000 people try to climb it, and not all reach the summit. The biggest obstacle is not the physical challenge but altitude sickness, which can sometimes be fatal. I'm not sure what motivated me. I've always been active - playing tennis, horseback riding, whitewater canoeing, mountain biking - but hiking never appealed to me. Too boring.

When the producers of "Blindsight," a documentary about blind teenage Tibetan climbers, went looking for a director, they went right for Lucy Walker. Her other movie credit was "Devil's Playground," a movie about Amish teenagers in Indiana. The casual observer might not detect a connection there, but the British-born Walker saw it right away. "I absolutely get why I was recommended for this. I'm the go-to person for documentaries about remote worlds, inaccessible teens. I have a reputation for being able to get tough nuts to crack," said Walker, who has paid the bills by directing episodes of "Blues Clues.

Alan Jacobson stood atop a glacier and peered into a volcano on Africa's highest point despite his altitude sickness, black-and-blue feet, and a case of bronchitis. Jacobson, 52, president of AGS, a graphic-design company in Exton, had reached Mt. Kilimanjaro's Uhuru Peak above the clouds of Tanzania at 9:50 a.m. on June 12. "I got to the summit, sat on a rock, and threw up," he said, describing his altitude sickness. He climbed the mountain's 19,340 feet of rainforest, glaciers and volcanic rock as part of his campaign to raise funds to build a sanitation system for a Rwandan village that is home to about 500 survivors of the country's 1994 tribal genocide.

Show me an accessible adventure, and I'm game. So I recently resolved to conquer two huge mountains in record time - 24 hours. Nepal's Everest and Pakistan's K2? No, my objectives were a bit closer to home: the Big Island's Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanoes, Hawaii's largest. If you measure them from their below-sea-level bases to their peaks, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa are both at least 33,000 feet tall, almost a mile higher than Everest. If you want to get technical about it, in the record books Mauna Kea measures 13,796 feet above sea level and Mauna Loa, 13,677.

From tiny Campo Quijano in northwest Argentina up to San Antonio de los Cobres, the unpaved RN-51 is the only road connecting the two towns. A glossy travel book warns ominously: Don't even try to hitchhike on the RN-51. The traffic is as rare as the dust storms are frequent. Still, I hitchhiked the Andes. My friend and I had been waiting for four hours when I stuck my thumb out, spiritless and hot, and for the first time that afternoon a truck pulled over. "San Antonio de los Cobres?"

ALL BETS ARE off regarding when, and if, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez will wed, but the Las Vegas Sun reports that Tattle's favorite sweethearts are house-hunting in the posh Sin City neighborhood of Lake Las Vegas. The idea of Affleck living in the gambling capital of America has raised some eyebrows. "Ben's been known to enjoy himself at the casinos," says one source. "I hope this isn't something that could get out of hand. " Ben was rumored to have dropped 100 grand playing blackjack, poorly, at Atlantic City's Trump Marina while in Philly filming "Jersey Girl.

Maybe it's a form of altitude sickness. The Eagles got within view of the NFL's summit in January. They came away from their loss to St. Louis in the NFC championship game sure that they had arrived as a team and equally sure they had learned from their mistakes. "We can't have these lulls in the regular season," safety Brian Dawkins said Jan. 28, the day after the Rams beat the Eagles, 29-24, in St. Louis. "We have to find a way to get that home [advantage] and that bye week," tight end Chad Lewis said that day. "We learned how important that is. " Nine months later, the Eagles are a queasy 3-2 and coming off just the kind of regular-season "lull" Dawkins warned against.

My husband, Larry, gets altitude sickness. Above 9,000 feet, his head pounds, his stomach churns, his face turns green. He has trouble breathing. In fact, altitude sickness, which causes fluid to build up in the brain and lungs, can kill. So why, you might wonder, did we decide to climb the highest mountain in the lower 48 states? That distinction belongs to Mount Whitney in south-central California - 14,695 feet tall and higher than Mount Rainier in Washington and Mount Hood in northern California, but not as tall as Mount McKinley in Alaska.