Historical Review: Clinical And Exercise Physiology Studies in the Andes and Their Applications on the Nuñoa 1965 Penn State Study

This review aims to: i) address the first clinical-lab setting studies carried out in the Andes, which reported data regarding human response to high-altitude scenarios or similar hypobaric chamber studies conducted with unacclimatized and long-term exposed to the altitude low-altitude dwellers, and ii) provide an in-depth analysis of the clinical and exercise physiology series of studies carried out in Nuñoa, Peru (4,000 m altitude; PB = 470–476 mmHg), led by Professors Elsworth Buskirk (Penn State Human Performance Research Laboratory) and Paul Baker (Penn State Department of Sociology and Anthropology), in which a group of 26- Quechua ethnic highland natives and a group of 15 Caucasians partially acclimatized U.S. participants (6-well trained Collegiate athletes and 9 researchers and graduate students) were physiologically assessed in the Peruvian Altiplano in 1965. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first study conducted with endurance athletes at a high-altitude range elevation (3,000–5,500 m terrestrial altitude).