Abstract

PEREZ-PADILLA, José Rogelio. III. The Physiology of Dr. Daniel Vergara Lope Escobar: Reinterpretation of Some of His Data. Gac. Méd. Méx [online]. 2004, vol.140, n.4, pp.417-421. ISSN 2696-1288.

The Mexican physiologist Daniel Vergara Lope did research on medium-altitude physiology, mainly in Mexico's central plateau, using several approaches. He described various mechanisms of adaptation to higher elevations that he felt protected people from a condition called barometric anoxyhemia. According to a French theory, this phenomenon occurred in the Valley of Mexico (and, generally, at higher elevations) and was deleterious for human survival and functioning, especially, with regard to intellectual capacity. The objective of this paper was to analyze Dr. Vergara Lope's early published experimental data, especially that concerning respiratory capacity and frequency. The respiratory capacity he describes for 111 experimental subjects is slightly greater than that reported for the contemporary Mexican population and reveals a broad dispersion that may indicate lack of precision in measuring. However, his data on respiratory frequency (22 per min) are considerably higher than those for normal subjects in Mexico City and Sherpa and Aymar a populations living at elevations of 3000 to 4000 meters.

Keywords : Mexico; Daniel Vergara Lope; altitude; acclimatization.

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