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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – When it comes to heights, people have a real love/hate relationship. Some people love them; some people hate them. It is both a physical and an emotional reaction that makes some seek out the thrill of risk offered by heights and others anxious just thinking about high places.
An article in the current issue of the journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine summarizes physiological and psychological factors that generate different responses to heights while standing still in a motionless environment. The term “height imbalance” is used to describe the instability or vertigo experienced by many people. Less than 10% of those who find heights intolerable have true acrophobia.
Physiologically, three sensory systems affect our balance: (1) vision, which gives us cues about the shape, size, distance, and movement of objects in the environment; (2) the vestibular, which consists of the inner ear identifying gravity, acceleration, and deceleration; and (3) the somatosensory, which both senses the body’s position from neural input and provides stabilizing feedback through touch or pressure. The interaction among these three systems—or a deficiency in one that the others cannot make up for—can cause height imbalance.
This sense of imbalance can lead to the psychological feeling of danger. In turn, this creates anxiety or fear of the situation—or euphoria for those risk seekers who enjoy the sense of physical danger when exposed to heights. An individual’s psychological makeup, both learned and genetic, determines how he or she will interpret the imbalance sensation.
Several simple actions can help alleviate this sensation for those who are height intolerant.
• Visually, a person should not look at distant moving objects but focus on near objects within the peripheral vision.
• Corrective progressive/bifocal glasses should not be worn in this situation because they distort or restrict near-peripheral vision.
• Alcohol and drugs can affect the inner ear’s sensory input and should be avoided.
• Sitting, kneeling, or lying can increase the sense of balance, as can standing on a stable platform rather than a sloping surface.
• Light touch to any stationary object dramatically improves balance. Holding a hiking stick or stationary object is also helpful, even if it is not used for support.
Full text of the article, “Love and Fear of Heights: The Pathophysiology and Psychology of Height Imbalance,” Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, Volume 20, Issue 4, 2009 is available at http://www2.allenpress.com/pdf/weme-20-04-378-382.pdf.
About Wilderness and Environmental Medicine
Wilderness and Environmental Medicine is the quarterly medical journal of the Wilderness Medical Society. In 2009, WEM began its 19th year as a peer-reviewed publication dedicated to wilderness medicine topics. Its audience is a diverse group of medical and allied health professionals who choose WEM as their primary wilderness medical resource. To learn more about the society, please visit: http://wms.org
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