The highest city in the world is at 5100 meters and is located in Peru: as you live in La Stradonada

It stiffen It is the highest city in the world, located at about 5100 m altitude in the Peruvian Andes. It is part of the District of Ananea which extends over the western side of a branch of the Nevado Ananea Grande overlooking the city and that the inhabitants have nicknamed The Dormativebecause of the mountainous profile of his peaks that seems to draw that of a supine lying woman. Given the altitude, the living conditions are hard and particularly prohibitive, theair is rarefiedit is not possible to guarantee essential services, there are neither schools nor hospitals, yet it counts a population of about 82,000 inhabitants.

Life and dangers in the mines of La Stradonada

The city stands on a mining which directly involves about 40,000 people who, regardless of the related risks or by accepting them as necessary, spend most of their days in narrow and suffocating tunnelsbreathing daily harm Of methane And cyanide. Furthermore, it is estimated that due to the mining activity about 15 tons of mercury per year in watercourses The stiffness in the lagoon, which later ended up in Lake Titicaca through the Ramis River.

In short, the area is strongly contaminated, the risk to public health and the ecosystems involved is very high, also considering that the waters of the rivers involved in the disposal of mercury are used by the population for domestic use. The average age is 30-35 yearsabout half of that of an average Peruvian, a situation that is not surprising considering the lack of basic services Like the sewage system, an organization for waste collection, the absence of electricity and heating, all things that make theUrban and unhealthy urban environment.

The stiffness and lack of oxygen: how the inhabitants survive

In the city the tourism it is strongly not recommendedthere are no reception infrastructures and, in the absence of public institutions, crime dominates: the rate of violence it is very high; Also thanks to the scarcity of oxygen which, for a tourist, could even be lethal if not treated correctly, with the use of cylinders and masks.

International research published in the magazine Hemasphere to which theUniversity of Milan and the French one of Grenoble In fact, he highlighted how the ability of the human body to adapt to even the most extreme conditions has allowed local inhabitants to compensate for the lack of oxygen (hypoxia) induced from the high altitude synthesizing large quantities of hemoglobinwhich is necessary to transport oxygen to the body. The results of the research show that, despite the progressive increase of red blood cells and the mass of hemoglobin, the consequent deficiency of iron useful for the production of these cells does not occur. Even in extreme conditions, such as those of the inhabitants of La Stradonada, who present a hematocrit More than 70% due to the doubling of the total volume of erythrocytes, the iron levels remain adequate.

This phenomenon is made possible by the high presence of ceruloplasminaan essential protein for iron absorption, whose production is stimulated by the lack of oxygen. The discoveries of the study may prove to be useful for supporting patients with respiratory diseases Characterized by severe chronic hypoxia or by hematological pathologies such as polycythemia, in which there is a significant increase in red blood cells. It is the demonstration of how much the human body can adapt to Extreme life conditionsbut even if it is certainly possible to adapt to the environmental ones, the housing conditions of the city can hardly be considered civil.