A middle-aged college professor from Boston is in the Swiss Alps studying astron

Question

A middle-aged college professor from Boston is in the Swiss Alps studying astronomy. He arrived two days ago and plans to stay the entire year. However, he notices that he is short of breath when he walks up steps and that he tires easily with any physical activity. His symptoms gradually disappear: after two months, he feels fine. Upon returning to the United States, he has a complete physical exam and is told that his erythrocyte count is higher than normal. (a) Attempt to explain this finding. (b) Will his RBC count remain at this higher-than-normal level? Why or why not?

Explanation / Answer

When a person travels to higher altitudes then demand for oxygen increases and to meet that demand red blood cells increase in number.In addition 2,3 DPG increases which causes the hemoglobin present to have a lesser hold on O2 thereby more easily releasing it to the end tissues.

But when a person returns to back to the plains his reticuloendothelial cells recycle excess RBCs and its level becomes back to normal.

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