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Anytime I have visited Albuquerque and Santa Fe I have had terrible none bleed problems. I imagine the altitude and dryness causes it. I've never experienced this any place else. Otherwise its an area of the country I have always enjoyed visiting.
I absolutely loved Northern NM but yes, altitude may be an issue. I found walking while talking was a bit taxing. Additionally I found my blood pressure never got below 130/90. I was 120/80 at sea level. I'd return in a heartbeat if prices weren't so ridiculously out of whack. If you're considering NM you might want to look at Alamogordo at 4330' or Silver City 5900' not a great deal less than Santa Fe at 7200 but it might make a small difference. I'd additionally suggest you research whatever medical care specialists you might need, choices may be limited. Try to go and stay a few months if at all possible.
I absolutely loved Northern NM but yes, altitude may be an issue. I found walking while talking was a bit taxing. Additionally I found my blood pressure never got below 130/90. I was 120/80 at sea level. I'd return in a heartbeat if prices weren't so ridiculously out of whack. If you're considering NM you might want to look at Alamogordo at 4330' or Silver City 5900' not a great deal less than Santa Fe at 7200 but it might make a small difference. I'd additionally suggest you research whatever medical care specialists you might need, choices may be limited. Try to go and stay a few months if at all possible.
Altitude definitely affects your breathing therefore it can severely affect your breathing during sleep. You can feel perpetually winded at high altitudes while awake and thus have a hard time getting deep sleep at night because of the altitude. I would recommend going to a place like Cloudcroft and renting a hotel room and try it out (see how deeply you sleep) before moving there. Here in Alamogordo altitude is 4,330 feet and not a huge problem for sleep apnea sufferers. However, going up to Ruidoso the altitude is 6,920 feet and it is a real problem for obstructive sleep apnea sufferers. Cloudcroft altitude is 8,675 feet so the problem is magnified even more sleeping up there.
It makes it more of a nightmare for the sleep tech to get you titrated at high altitude and it can introduce central sleep apnea in to the titration, which can require ASV (adaptive servo ventilation) to get you "fixed" and take away your adverse breathing problems. You don't want central sleep apneas to subsist during your sleep - you'll wake up not rested and feeling nasty, and, to think, you'll have minimized the oxygen input to your heart and lungs and compromised your cardiopulmonary system.
Definitely something worth thinking about - you should stay at lower altitudes and, if you insist at living at higher altitudes, go sleep a sleep doctor and go through testing at a sleep lab to get you on to CPAP. The only way to know if you're sick with obstructive sleep apnea is to go seek help for it. I urge any of you, even if you live at lower altitudes, to go get tested for obstructive sleep apnea, if you feel you might be affected by it. Going untreated can give you a heart attack, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, etc. True health information.
I absolutely loved Northern NM but yes, altitude may be an issue. I found walking while talking was a bit taxing. Additionally I found my blood pressure never got below 130/90. I was 120/80 at sea level. I'd return in a heartbeat if prices weren't so ridiculously out of whack. If you're considering NM you might want to look at Alamogordo at 4330' or Silver City 5900' not a great deal less than Santa Fe at 7200 but it might make a small difference. I'd additionally suggest you research whatever medical care specialists you might need, choices may be limited. Try to go and stay a few months if at all possible.
Extremely good advice for us cluster headache sufferers. I fell in love with NM landscapes but this could be a problem, among several others poised to kill off my NM retirement dream. Silver City was big on my list, but everyone there's worried that if the mines even just downsize Grant County could become a veritable ghost town in a month, as the local newspaper said that local and state officials have done next to nothing to diversify their economy. Of course, this is just as bad for retirees as it would be for young people trying to find decent jobs. Mining in Grant accounts for something like 15% of employment among Grant's ~ 28K population, 1K of which left last year likely to seek work elsewhere. Ironically, housing in and around Silver is not exactly cheap, though land may be. I would like to build my ~ $400K retirement home there but other conditions there seem too uncertain. I thought of Las Cruces but housing and land there is even more costly. And places in between Silver and Cruces like Deming offer little more than violent crime and burglaries. Perhaps Los Lunas (the "good" lower crime part), ~ 4.4K ft or mile high Rio Rancho.
Altitude is certainly a consideration, as the area sits at about 7,000 feet. It affects everybody differently.
We moved here five years ago and had been coming to the area for 15+ years before that. Honestly, we never thought much about it until we were considering moving and the finally discovered the elevation was 7,000 feet. But we have no respiratory health issues and have always drank (more than) our share of water in the course of a day, even when we lived in relatively humid places.
We have seen others come here that struggled. Most of them also do not drink enough water and dehydrate themselves, which compounds the altitude issues. It's more or less a double whammy.
Like any desert climate, there is also a fair share of dust from the dryness and wind. That is true of Santa Fe at 7,000 feet or Phoenix at 1,100 feet. And in spring, we do have pollen floating around.
I don't mean to discourage you, or anybody, but it can be a big change and people should understand that.....like any move to a new area or climate can.
Does the altitude there pose any particular health challenges? I am 72 and I have respiratory concerns (obstructive sleep apnea).
Thank you!
I can tell you one thing. When I visit NM and go to places that are like 4K or higher I do fine on flat ground but I am completely gassed if I try to walk up hill.
I have sleep apnea, but I don't notice my breathing improves when I go to sea level, which I do annually in non-pandemic times. So YMMV. It's interesting about the blood pressure issue someone mentioned. I should take my BP at sea level, and see if there's a difference.
Maybe you weren't asking for medical advice, OP, but I'll just mention two strategies that can make life with sleep apnea easier: apnea is caused or exacerbated by mid-life hormonal changes. Hormone replacement can result in significant improvement. Another option is to see a dentist who is trained to assess patients for a dental appliance to wear at night. Not everyone is suited for the appliance; a bona-fide dentist trained in this issue (there are a few, who try to jump on the bandwagon, because there's insurance money available for this) will take x-rays of your throat. These specialists are impressively knowledgeable about the physiology of apnea and its causes, more so than the so-called "sleep doctors".
I mention this, because not everyone finds the standard solution: a C-PAP machine, helpful or comfortable.
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 05-24-2021 at 07:45 AM..
If you have any problem with your joints the attitude can worsen those in terms of pain.
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