<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5e6b876054f25c60cc22a994-960/pandemic.png" alt="pandemic 2 coronavirus" /><p class="source"><span>Pandemic 2</span></p><p class="caption">A scene from Pandemic 2.</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>An old online game called Pandemic 2 has seen a massive spike in plays in 2020 amid the coronavirus outbreak.</li><li>The strategy game allows users to create their own diseases, from symptoms to transmission techniques, with the goal to infect and wipe out the entire world's population.</li><li>The CEO of the website that hosts Pandemic 2 told Business Insider that although the game's current place in society is "tricky," he plans to keep the game available for use because of its "educational value."</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>An online strategy game that was popular a decade ago has had a surge of new users during the coronavirus outbreak because of its eerie parallels in mimicking the spread of a worldwide health crisis.</p><p>The goal of the game, <a href="https://www.addictinggames.com/strategy/pandemic-2">Pandemic 2</a>, is to create a disease that wipes out the entire world's population before a vaccine can be developed and implemented. The similarities between the game's plot and the status of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, are stark.</p><p>The influence of coronavirus on the increase in plays is obvious. Dozens of internet users <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%22pandemic%202%22&amp;src=typed_query">have taken to Twitter</a> to call out the wild parallels between the game and coronavirus, and <a href="https://twitter.com/muffinman31396/status/1237428570168987648">crack jokes</a> about how takeaways from the game could be applied to reality. The game's high-scores list is riddled with users who named their diseases "coronavirus," "The Wuhan," and "Bud Light" - a play on the real-life disease's name resembling that of Corona beer.</p><p><a href="https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6">More than 125,000 people worldwide</a> have now tested positive for COVID-19, which the World Health Organization <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-declares-coronavirus-pandemic-covid19-2020-3">officially declared a pandemic</a> on Wednesday. Its massive spread has led huge chunks of daily life to be canceled and moved online as the world increasingly takes precautions to prevent the spread of the disease, which has resulted in nearly 5,000 deaths.</p><p>Pandemic 2 has seen a tremendous jump in plays in 2020, according to Bill Kara, the CEO of <a href="https://www.addictinggames.com/">Addicting Games</a>, the website hosting this game and thousands of others. In the first 12 days of March, Pandemic 2's page experienced a 3,500% increase in views, compared with a similar period just 2 months before. </p><p>For such an old game with outdated optics, Pandemic 2 is a surprisingly detailed strategy game. Players are able to select their disease's symptoms, from sneezing and nausea to pulmonary edema. They can choose how their disease is transmitted - by insect, rodent, water, or air - and its resistance to drugs, heat, and moisture. Players can track as their disease spreads to various countries, and see country-by-country how much of each population gets sick and dies. The game gives real-time alerts on-screen about how countries are reacting to news of the disease by shutting down hospitals and schools, and closing airports and borders.</p><p>Kara told Business Insider that Pandemic 2's spike in plays is happening "for obvious reasons," as coronavirus spreads. But coronavirus' serious implications have raised questions about whether Pandemic 2 should exist at all, and whether the game's parody on a worldwide pandemic is harmful.</p><p>"It's a little tricky. Games are meant to make light of things, but this is something that is affecting a lot of people," Kara said. "It's kind of a gray area. The game is supposed to be fun, but when it touches on real life stuff, we don't know what to do."</p><p>Pandemic 2 had just 6,000 plays in December, but has now been played more than 140,000 times in 2020. What's more: The game is old - Pandemic 2 launched on Addicting Games in 2008, and still uses Adobe Flash Player, a plug-in <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2017/07/25/technology/adobe-killing-flash/">that will be discontinued</a> at the end of 2020.</p><p>Kara told Business Insider that Addicting Games will likely not shut down Pandemic 2. </p><p>"Games get people thinking about how viruses spread," Kara said. "It probably has some sort of educational value in understanding how viruses will spread, if some things will work. It shows how things spread and how hard it is for things to be truly stopped with one measure."</p><p>Pandemic 2 is not the only video game that's grown in popularity during the coronavirus outbreak. A mobile game called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/youtubers-are-playing-a-game-to-predict-coronavirus-spread-2020-3">Plague Inc.</a> has a similar goal, and has also <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2020/03/coronavirus-plague-inc-game-china.html">seen a recent spike in plays</a>. However, The game has been <a href="https://www.ndemiccreations.com/en/news/173-statement-on-the-removal-of-plague-inc-from-the-china-app-store">removed from China's App Store</a>, and its creator has <a href="https://www.ndemiccreations.com/en/news/172-statement-on-the-current-coronavirus-outbreak">cautioned players against</a> using Plague Inc. as a "scientific model" for the spread of coronavirus.</p><p>Pandemic 2's popularity is likely to continue to grow, as more people share the game with coworkers and friends. A Twitter user told Business Insider that she played Pandemic 2 last week with her boss at work for the first time in nearly a decade.</p><p>"It was really eerie to be concocting a pandemic when the virus was like right outside our window," the Twitter user told Business Insider. "That's definitely the best way I'd describe it ... spooky."</p><p class="tagline"><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/brand-investment-esports?IR=T&amp;itm_source=businessinsider&amp;itm_medium=ctgr_bii&amp;itm_term=ctgr_leadgen&amp;itm_content=videogames&amp;itm_campaign=brand-investment-esports"><img src="https://static.businessinsider.com/image/5d3718e78d66427858223be4" alt="Exclusive FREE Report: Brand Investment in eSports by Business Insider Intelligence" style="width: 100% !important" /></a></p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salomon-recycles-shoes-ski-boots-2020-2">How running shoes can be recycled into ski boots</a></h3>                    <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/3mXosThB-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;"></iframe>            

An old flash computer game is getting a 2nd life because of its eerie similarities to the coronavirus outbreak, and its website's CEO says it has too much of an 'educational value' to shut it down

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Shannon Hennig is a <keyword id="191629" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="small-business-owner">small business owner</keyword> and health and wellness marketing expert.</li><li>Over the summer, she began experiencing serious fatigue, stiffness in her feet and legs, and chest pain and difficulty breathing. She tested negative for COVID-19, and was turned away at the ER after being told she had a chest cold.</li><li>In September, the 34-year-old was hospitalized for six days and given a diagnosis of congenital <keyword id="32031" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="heart-failure">heart failure</keyword>, a condition that primarily affects people ages 50 and up.</li><li>Hennig realized that being preoccupied with work, family, and worry over COVID-19, she'd overlooked her own physical wellness and pushed her symptoms aside as nothing serious.</li><li>Now, Hennig is working to improve her health, and cautions other <keyword id="27779" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="working-moms">working moms</keyword> to check in with themselves more often to avoid making the same mistake.</li></ul><p>In the beginning of 2020, I was a busy 34-year-old entrepreneur and working mom, living with my husband and son in Calgary, Canada. I'd spent the last five years growing a consulting side gig into a thriving full time business, working with practitioners in the health and wellness industries on their branding and marketing.</p><p>I had a lot to be proud of. In my first year bringing in over six figures in revenue, and I was easily on track to do the same in 2020. I had big plans to scale, build a more effective sales funnel and hire a team to support me. </p><p>My goal was to increase revenue through building a signature program for private clients while also expanding my outreach to small business owners through an online teaching and coaching program. I hoped to begin working with hundreds of new clients.</p><h2><strong>One day in early September, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. with a distinctive gurgle in my chest. </strong></h2><p>It sounded and felt like the kind of thing you get when you're fighting a bad chest cold. </p><p>All summer long I'd been feeling more run down, and more tired than ever before. I'd had cold and flu-like symptoms since July and had gained 12 pounds over the previous two weeks. My legs and feet were constantly puffy and stiff, and I had a noticeable shortness of breath when I'd climb my stairs. </p><p>I described the level of fatigue to my husband as almost being "at a cellular level", and no amount of napping or taking it easy seemed to alleviate my exhaustion. </p><p>None of these symptoms made sense to me as I was active, eating a healthy diet and had lost 55 pounds over the previous year. During quarantine due to COVID-19, I'd prioritized my health the best I could and thought I was managing well.</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/drift-cmo-tricia-gellman-motherhood-infertility-ivf-loss-career-2020-10">I'm a 3-time CMO and 5-time ironman triathlete, but having a child is the hardest thing I've ever done</a></em></p><h2><strong>I was doing my best to navigate the realities of the pandemic and what it meant for my business, along with the challenge of my husband and I homeschooling our 6-year-old.</strong></h2><p>My busy daily routine began impacting my business in big ways. I no longer had the time to devote to client work and was struggling with deadlines that under normal circumstances had never been a problem. I also had no idea where I was going to find the time to teach my son.</p><p>In talking to peers and clients, it seemed like everyone was suffering from the same low level anxiety and exhaustion that I had. It wasn't as if I was alone and unique in the physical and mental toll of juggling all the balls, so I pushed my health to the side.</p><h2><strong>My time was being poured into creating the business of my dreams, but I didn't yet realize my lack of work-life balance was unsustainable.</strong></h2><p>Fast forward to that morning in September, and I knew that I needed to get help. I'd already been tested for COVID-19 and the results were negative, despite my <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html">symptoms</a> matching those widely associated with the virus. I'd even been to the emergency department 10 days earlier complaining of the same issues, along with coughing up small amounts of blood, but was sent home and told that I had a chest cold.</p><h2><strong>In the emergency department, as I watched my blood pressure rise to deadly levels and my ability to breathe become less and less, I was given my diagnosis.</strong></h2><p>The doctor told me I had <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/pulmonary-edema/symptoms-causes/syc-20377009">pulmonary edema</a>, a condition where your lungs fill with fluid, and that I was in <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-failure/symptoms-causes/syc-20373142">congestive heart failure</a>.</p><p>There I was. A 34-year-old woman, sitting alone in the emergency department because COVID-19 visiting restrictions wouldn't allow my husband to be with me, being told that right now, right in this moment, my heart was failing and I was dying.</p><p>What followed next was a whirlwind of emergency treatment to open my blood vessels, slow my heart and get oxygen into my body. An IV flow of <a href="https://www.drugs.com/heparin.html">heparin</a>, a blood thinner, and <a href="https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-18030/nitroglycerin-oral/details">nitroglycerin</a> (a medication that helps relax blood vessels and allow blood to flow more easily to the heart) stabilized me before I was moved to the cardiac intensive care unit.</p><p>I was hospitalized for six days, where I learned that my heart was pumping at less than half the volume that it should. Further diagnostics showed that the primary cause was high blood pressure that had been uncontrolled for too long.</p><p>As I came to terms with my diagnosis, I immediately turned to Google to find out more about what I was up against, and I was stunned to see that the symptoms of <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-failure/symptoms-causes/syc-20373142">heart failure mimic many of those of COVID-19</a> including shortness of breath and difficulty breathing, fatigue and weakness, and persistent cough and chest pain. I went on to learn that congestive heart failure also can cause rapid weight gain from fluid retention, coughing up blood, and swelling in your legs, ankles, and feet.</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/linkedin-vp-leaders-foster-supportive-culture-working-moms-2020-8">Working moms are disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Here are 3 ways leaders can foster a supportive culture for working parents, according to a LinkedIn VP</a></em></p><h2><strong>I'd had symptoms of heart failure through the summer, but I was too busy with my business and worrying about COVID-19 to think of anything else. </strong></h2><p>After a round of tests including an Echocardiogram and a cardiac MRI I was diagnosed with <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/cardiomyopathy.htm">cardiomyopathy</a>, which is a weakening or thickening of the heart muscle to the point where it can't pump blood properly.</p><p>When it's not being treated through medication, stress management, nutrition, and exercise, it can progress to advanced heart failure. </p><p>According to the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), cardiomyopathy often goes undiagnosed, but as many as 1 in 500 adults in the United States may be living with the condition. When it's not being treated through medication, stress management, nutrition, and exercise, it can progress to advanced heart failure. </p><h2><strong>I knew that I had to completely reevaluate all aspects of my life if I was going to move forward.</strong></h2><p><strong><div type="image" title="Shannon Hennig Before and After Hospital 2020.JPG" height="1536" width="2048" msid="79957070" hostid="261"></div></strong></p><p>The stress of business ownership, motherhood, and COVID-19 had pushed me to the verge of utter collapse. I had many of the risk factors for cardiomyopathy but had no idea that this disease could affect someone my age with such deadly consequences. </p><p>Since my diagnosis, I've made changes to better balance my work and family obligations and be more in tune with what my body is trying to tell me. To other busy working <keyword id="6359162" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="parents">parents</keyword> during this time, I encourage you to check in with your own physical and mental health just as you do with your loved ones, so you don't miss a life-threatening diagnosis like I almost did.</p><p><em>Shannon Hennig is a freelance writer and health and wellness marketing professional. She is the president of <a href="http://www.openinksolutions.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">OpenInk Solutions,</a> of company that helps health and wellness professionals to build their personal brands and become thought thought leaders in industries. Follow her on <a href="https://twitter.com/shanie_jeanie">Twitter</a>.</em></p>

I missed the warning signs of congestive heart failure because I was so busy and stressed. Here's what I hope other working moms can learn from my example.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5ced437d11e205072e076d44-2083/ap573180446310.jpg" border="0" alt="climbing mount everest" data-mce-source="Adrian Ballinger/AP" /><p class="source"><span>Adrian Ballinger/AP</span></p><p class="caption">Climbers call the air above 8,000 meters "The Death Zone."</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/everest-summit-described-by-womens-record-holder-2018-7">Its summit is 29,029 feet - or 5.5 miles - above sea level</a>.</li><li>Climbers and scientists have a special name for the highest part of Everest, or everything above 26,247 feet (8,000 meters): "The Death Zone."</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mount-everest-picture-shows-why-climbers-dying-in-death-zone-2019-5">In the Death Zone</a>, oxygen is so limited that the body's cells start to die. Climbers' judgment becomes impaired, and they can experience heart attacks, strokes, or severe altitude sickness.</li><li>Recently, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/everest-death-toll-week-passes-2018-record-overcrowding-2019-5">the queues to reach Everest's summit</a> have been so long that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/everest-crowded-climbers-die-stuck-deadly-death-zone-companies-2019-5">climbers in the Death Zone are dying of exhaustion</a> waiting in line for their turn to climb.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Businessinsider.com for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Human bodies cannot function properly above a certain altitude. We work best at sea level, where oxygen levels are adequate for our brains and lungs.</p><p>But if climbers want to summit Mount Everest, the tallest peak in the world at 29,029 feet (8,848 meters or 5.5 miles) above sea level, they have to brave what's known as "The Death Zone" - the altitude above 8,000 meters where there is so little oxygen that the body starts to die, minute by minute and cell by cell.</p><p>Recent overcrowding on Everest has resulted in the deaths of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/everest-death-toll-week-passes-2018-record-overcrowding-2019-5">at least 11 people this past week</a>. In the Death Zone, climbers' brains and lungs are starved for oxygen, their risk of heart attack and stroke is increased, and their judgment quickly becomes impaired.</p><p><em><strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/everest-crowded-climbers-die-stuck-deadly-death-zone-companies-2019-5">Mount Everest is so crowded that climbers are dying after being forced to queue in the 'death zone' while waiting to reach the summit, expedition companies say</a></em></p><h2>There is a dangerous lack of oxygen at the top of Mount Everest. One mountaineer says it feels like 'running on a treadmill and breathing through a straw'</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5ce840bbf85e166c182b2ac7-960/5ce80fae594ea523f74e42d3-960-720-1.jpg" border="0" alt="traffic jam mount everest" style="color: #000000;" data-mce-source="Twitter/@nimsdai" data-mce-caption="There is a deadly traffic jam on Mount Everest as climbers are forced to wait in the &amp;quotdeath zone.&quot;" data-link="https://twitter.com/nimsdai/status/1131931349030457345" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://twitter.com/nimsdai/status/1131931349030457345">Twitter/@nimsdai</a></span></p><p class="caption">There is a deadly traffic jam on Mount Everest as climbers are forced to wait in the "death zone."</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>At sea level, the air contains about 21% oxygen. But when humans reach altitudes above 12,000 feet - <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/~oa/safety/altitude.shtml">where oxygen levels are 40% lower</a> - it takes a huge toll on our bodies.</p><p>Jeremy Windsor, a doctor who climbed Everest in 2007 as part of <a href="https://www.xtreme-everest.co.uk/">the Caudwell Xtreme Everest Expedition</a>, <a href="https://www.markhorrell.com/blog/2018/a-doctors-advice-on-surviving-the-death-zone/">told Everest blogger Mark Horrell</a> that <span>blood samples taken from four mountaineers in the Death Zone revealed that the climbers were surviving on just one-quarter of the oxygen they needed at sea level. </span></p><p><span>"These were comparable to figures found in patients on the verge of death," Windsor said.</span></p><p><span>Five miles above sea level the air has so little oxygen in it that even with supplementary air tanks, it can feel like "running on a treadmill and breathing through a straw," <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=7aXaCwAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA177&amp;lpg=PA177&amp;dq=%22running+on+a+treadmill+and+breathing+through+a+straw.%22&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=b4oy0FIVsJ&amp;sig=uyZBa8Dp2r3AqKv-iua9oRKMmuM&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwin6c_01sfcAhXDmeAKHYInDEsQ6AEwAHoECAAQAQ#v=onepage&amp;q=%22running%20on%20a%20treadmill%20and%20breathing%20through%20a%20straw.%22&amp;f=false">according to US mountaineer and filmmaker David Breashears</a>.</span></p><h2>Climbers need to acclimate themselves to the lack of oxygen, but doing so can put people at risk for a stroke or heart attack</h2><p><span>This lack of oxygen tends to result in myriad health risks. When the amount of oxygen in your blood falls below a certain level, your heart rate soars to up to 140 beats per minute, increasing your risk of a heart attack.</span></p><p>Climbers have to give their bodies time to acclimate to the lung-crushing conditions in the Himalayas before attempting to summit Everest. Expeditions generally make at least three trips up the mountain from Everest Base Camp (which is higher than nearly every mountain in Europe at 17,600 feet), going a few thousand feet higher with each successive trip, before making a push for the top.</p><p>Over the course of weeks, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/160000-year-old-jaw-from-human-ancestor-in-tibet-cave-2019-5">the body starts to make more hemoglobin</a> (the protein in red blood cells that helps carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body) in order to compensate for the change in altitude.</p><p>But too much hemoglobin can thicken your blood, making it harder for the heart to pump blood around the body. That can lead to a stroke or the accumulation of fluid in your lungs.</p><p><span>A quick stethoscope check can reveal a clicking sound as fluid that's leaked into the lungs rattles around - a condition called high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/~oa/safety/altitude.shtml">Symptoms include</a> fatigue, a feeling of impending suffocation at night, weakness, and a persistent cough bringing up white, watery, or frothy fluid. Sometimes the coughing is so severe that it cracks or separates ribs.</span></p><p><span>Climbers with HAPE are always short of breath, even when resting. </span><span></span></p><h2>In the Death Zone, your brain can start to swell due to lack of oxygen, which can lead to nausea and a form of high-altitude psychosis</h2><p><span>One of the biggest risk factors at 26,000 feet is hypoxia, a lack of adequate oxygen circulation to organs like your brain. That's because acclimatization to Death Zone altitudes isn't possible, high altitude expert and doctor Peter Hackett <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2506everest.html">told PBS</a>.</span></p><p><span>If your brain doesn't get enough oxygen, it can start to swell, causing high altitude cerebral edema (HACE), which is HAPE for the brain. This swelling can trigger nausea, vomiting, and difficulty thinking and reasoning.</span></p><p><span>An oxygen-starved brain means climbers sometimes forget where they are, </span><span>entering a delirium that some experts consider a form of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/high-altitude-climbers-psychosis-hallucinations-2018-1">high-altitude psychosis</a>. Hypoxic climbers' judgment becomes impaired, and they've been known to do strange things like start shedding their clothes or talking to imaginary friends.</span></p><h2><span>Other possible dangers include appetite loss, snow blindness, and vomiting</span></h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b5b176989c8a119008b4739-1400/climbing everest.jpeg" border="0" alt="climbing everest" style="color: #000000;" data-mce-source="Lhakpa Sherpa" /><p class="source"><span>Lhakpa Sherpa</span></p><p class="caption">When climbing in the "Death Zone," your brain receives one-quarter of the oxygen it needs.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span>Impaired judgment and shortness of breath aren't the only things high-altitude climbers have to worry about. "Humans will start to deteriorate," Hackett added. "Sleeping becomes a problem. Muscle wasting takes place. Weight loss takes place."</span></p><p><span>Nausea and vomiting from altitude sickness, including HAPE and HACE, will cause a decrease in appetite. The glare from the endless snow and ice can cause snow blindness - temporary vision loss, or burst blood vessels in your eyes.</span></p><p><span>Some climbers are injured or perish from the indirect results of these high-altitude health problems. Physical weakening and impaired vision can lead to accidental falls. Incorrect decision-making - from exhaustion or lack of oxygen - can mean forgetting to clip back into a safety rope, or straying from the route, or failing to properly prepare life-saving equipment like supplementary oxygen tanks.</span></p><h2>Mountaineers survive the Death Zone by trying to climb it in a day, but people are currently stuck waiting for hours, which can be deadly</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5ced56a911e20509ea7bba68-1333/lhakpa sherpa at the top of everest.jpeg" border="0" alt="lhakpa sherpa at the top of everest" style="color: #000000;" data-mce-source="Lhakpa Sherpa" /><p class="source"><span>Lhakpa Sherpa</span></p><p class="caption">Climbers can only spend 20 minutes on Everest's summit before having to descend.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>All told, climbing in the Death Zone is "a living hell," as Everest climber and 1998 NOVA expedition member David Carter <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2506everest.html">told PBS</a>. </p><p>Typically, climbers attempting to bag the summit try and make it up and down in a single day of flurried activity, spending as little time as possible in the Death Zone before returning to safer altitudes. But this frenzied push to the finish line comes at the end of weeks of climbing, during one of the hardest parts of the route up. </p><p>Lhakpa Sherpa, who's reached Everest's summit nine times (more than any other woman on Earth) <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/everest-summit-described-by-womens-record-holder-2018-7">previously told Business Insider</a> that the day a group attempts to summit Everest is by far the most difficult section of the trek.</p><p>In order to summit successfully, everything must go right. Around 10 p.m., climbers leave their haven in Camp Four at 26,000 feet, just on the edge of the Death Zone. The first chunk of their climb is done wholly in the dark, lit by starlight and headlamps.</p><p>Seven hours later, typically, climbers reach the summit. After a brief rest filled with celebrations and photographs, the expeditions turn around, making the 12-hour trek back to safety and arriving (ideally) before nightfall.</p><p>But recently, expedition companies noted that the peak became <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mount-everest-picture-shows-why-climbers-dying-in-death-zone-2019-5">so choked with climbers</a> scrambling to the summit during a rare period of good weather that people were stuck waiting in the Death Zone for hours, leading some to collapse from exhaustion and die.</p><p>On May 22, when 250 climbers attempted to reach the mountain's summit, <a href="http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2019-05-23/despite-assurances-from-expeditions-and-government-a-traffic-jam-on-everest-kills-climbers-again.html">The Kathmandu Post reported</a>, many climbers had to wait in line to go up and down the mountain. These extra, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/everest-deaths-why-people-are-dying-this-climbing-season-2019-5">unplanned hours in the Death Zone made the difference between life and death for 11 people</a>.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mount-everest-death-zone-first-hand-account-2017-9">There's a region near the top of the world's tallest mountains called the 'death zone' - here's a first-hand account of what it's like</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/dQpCckjm-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

What happens to your body in Mount Everest's 'Death Zone' where 11 people died in the past week

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59f77f44bcf93d23008b5964-1041/2137267215dd7a4b4fao.jpg" alt="breckenridge colorado" data-mce-source="saturnism/Flickr" /><p class="source"><span>saturnism/Flickr</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Summit County, Colorado is the healthiest place in the US, according to a wealth of public health data.</strong></li><li><strong>The county is middle to upper-middle class and has high rates of physical activity.</strong></li><li><strong>A rare lung condition makes the high-altitude lifestyle slightly more challenging, however.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p><br />It's not just the skiing that keeps residents of Summit County, Colorado spry.</p><p>Located about an hour's drive west from Denver, the mountainous county of roughly 30,000 people is the healthiest place in America, ranking at or near the bottom of numerous causes of death.</p><p>According to <a href="https://vizhub.healthdata.org/subnational/usa">2014 data</a> from the Institutes for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Summit County has the nation's lowest death rates due to cancers overall; breast cancer, prostate cancer, and pancreatic cancer individually; chronic respiratory diseases; and the second-lowest heart disease rate.</p><p>It also has the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eye-opening-maps-reveal-how-and-where-americans-die-2017-9">lowest death rate overall</a> and the highest life expectancy, at 86.83 years, beating the national average by eight years.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59f77e4c3e9d251d008b6c3c-906/screenshot2017-10-30at32826pm.png" alt="summit county colorado" data-mce-source="IHME" /><p class="source"><span>IHME</span></p><p class="caption">Annual death rates by US county, with lower rates in blue and higher rates in red.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>What's going on?</h2><p>A lot of what makes Summit County so healthy is also what makes <a href="http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/looking-for-the-highest-life-expectancy-in-the-us-head-to-colorado">the other four Colorado counties</a> in the top-10 ranking for life expectancy so healthy: an over-representation of higher-income, young, white residents relative to national averages.</p><p>About 81% of the county is white. The median age is 37.1 with a household income of $67,983 and property value of $478,800. The poverty rate was 13.7%.</p><p>Now compare those numbers with the demographic data in Union County, Florida, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/union-county-is-least-healthy-in-us-2017-10">the least healthy county</a> in the US. Union is 67% white, with a median age of 40.3, household income of $39,163, and property value of $87,500. The poverty rate is 20%.</p><p>Unlike Union, which has poor access to health services, Summit residents are generally wealthier and better-equipped financially to seek out health care when they need it. They participate less in unhealthy activities, such as smoking. Summit's smoking rate in 2015 was 14.6%. The <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/index.htm">national rate</a> is 15.1%. In Union, meanwhile, 20.9% of people smoke.</p><p>Living near popular winter resorts in Breckenridge and Frisco, Summit residents also have more opportunities than most to stay active year-round.</p><h2>Keeping an eye on the heart</h2><p>Summit may be leading the nation in cancer prevention and avoiding heart disease, but there are some costs to living at such high elevations. At 9,000 to 10,000 feet, Summit residents of all ages are at risk of developing high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). The condition arises when too much fluid enters the lungs, due to a lack of oxygen.</p><p><span>Dr. Christine Ebert-Santos said she saw 44 cases of HAPE in 2015, split across three types. The first are people visiting from low-lying regions. The second are people used to high-altitude coming back after a long visit. And the third are people who are long-term residents, who develop the illness suddenly.</span></p><p><span>What's challenging about HAPE, according to Dr. Ebert-Santos, is people are "not really sick," she <a href="http://www.parkrecord.com/news/colorado-doctor-says-the-health-effects-of-living-in-mountains-remain-unknown/">told ParkRecord.com</a>. The person's oxygen levels are too low, but they don't have asthma or pneumonia, which would hospitalize a person if they coincided with low oxygen levels. This can lead people to misdiagnose the condition as asthma, and panic when typical inhaler treatments don't work.</span></p><p><span>"There's so much that we don't know, in every walk of life - every facet, not just medicine," she said. "So we cling to the things we know, like asthma and pneumonia, and it's like if you have a hammer, everything's a nail."</span></p><p><span>But with the exception of a rare lung condition, Summit residents tend to live long, healthy lives - proving each year the health benefits of financial stability, <a href="http://www.who.int/hdp/poverty/en/">low poverty</a>, and staying active.</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/noaa-winter-weather-prediction-unusually-warm-2017-10">Scientists predict an unusually warm winter this year in most of the US - here's why</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/M2yzC6qY-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

You Searched For "pulmonary edema" and got 4 results

An old flash computer game is getting a 2nd life because of its eerie similarities to the coronavirus outbreak, and its website's CEO says it has too much of an 'educational value' to shut it down

Paige Leskin

I missed the warning signs of congestive heart failure because I was so busy and stressed. Here's what I hope other working moms can learn from my example.

Shannon Hennig

What happens to your body in Mount Everest's 'Death Zone' where 11 people died in the past week

Aylin Woodward

A Colorado county of 30,000 people is the healthiest place in America - here's why

Chris Weller