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29 October 2024

Evolution In Action: How Ethnic Tibetan Women Thrive In Thin Oxygen At High Altitudes


Breathing thin air at extreme altitudes presents a significant challenge—there’s simply less oxygen with every lungful. Yet, for more than 10,000 years, Tibetan women living on the high Tibetan Plateau have not only survived but thrived in that environment.

A new study led by Cynthia Beall, Distinguished University Professor Emerita at Case Western Reserve University, answers some of those questions. The new research, recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America(PNAS), reveals how the Tibetan women’s physiological traits enhance their ability to reproduce in such an oxygen-scarce environment.

The findings, Beall said, not only underscore the remarkable resilience of Tibetan women but also provide valuable insights into the ways humans can adapt in extreme environments. Such research also offers clues about human development, how we might respond to future environmental challenges, and the pathobiology of people with illnesses associated with hypoxia at all altitudes.

“Understanding how populations like these adapt,” Beall said, “gives us a better grasp of the processes of human evolution.”

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