If you look up vegetarianism in Wikipedia, you’ll find references to several health “concerns”. You won’t find anything about trouble at high altitudes. However, a friend of mine went on a high-altitude camping trip and found himself feeling terrible, with symptoms of altitude sickness. He later learned, when everyone reconvened, that two others in the group of 30 had had similar troubles. All three were vegetarians. They’d done fine on hikes at lower altitudes. None of the other 27 were vegetarians. The correlation makes sense because vegetarians are often much lower in iron — a component of hemoglobin, which transports oxygen — than non-vegetarians.
The interesting question for me is: What can we do with such data? It’s obviously useful, but where does it go? Not in a scientific paper, obviously. In a letter to the editor? Of what journal?
What makes you think this blog entry is not enough ?
Igor.
could write a paper and submit it to J. of Medical Hypotheses. It’s even indexed by PubMed
Igor, that’s a good question and my answer is ignorance. I am unaware of facts reported in blog entries making their way into general knowledge. But you’re right, it’s not like I have a large sample.
Treat vegetarianism as an experimental variable and take a group of people consisting of vegetarians and non-vegetarians on a high-altitude hiking trip (without revealing the real purpose of the trip). Record what happens (how people feel). Sounds publishable in a reputable journal to me.
You could add it to the Wikipedia article.
Seth,
In saying this, I was specifically remembering this story:
https://nuit-blanche.blogspot.com/2006/11/google-can-save-your-life.html
Igor.
Seth,
This other analysis of my logs is also indicative of something along the lines of my first remark:
https://nuit-blanche.blogspot.com/2007/11/outliers-in-long-tail-case-of-autism.html
Igor.
Just saying vegetarianism is not sufficient. There are many kinds of vegetarians. Not all are low in iron. Some are traditional vegetanians like Jains They know how to combine proteins and optimize iron. Some are new-fangled Americans whose idea of being a vegetarian is to gorge on soya.
“You could add it to the Wikipedia article. ”
No, I think it would count as Original Research, a no-no in WP.