Study
Quercetin prophylaxis in prevention of acute mountain sickness (AMS): a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled phase-II clinical trials.
A 500 mg/day quercetin bar reduced acute mountain-sickness prevalence from 25% to 2% in 110 healthy lowland men during ascent.
Summary Can quercetin prevent sickness when people quickly travel to high altitude? Show / hide ↓
Researchers randomly gave 110 healthy men from low elevations either a daily snack bar with 500 milligrams of quercetin or a matching bar without it. The men started taking the bars two days before travelling to high altitude and continued for 15 days. Acute mountain sickness, a group of symptoms such as headache and nausea caused by high altitude, affected 2% of the quercetin group and 25% of the comparison group. The quercetin group also had higher blood oxygen levels, about 94% versus 90%.
What this means for you: This small study suggests quercetin might help during a rapid trip to high altitude, but it does not prove the supplement is useful for general health or long-term use. You should not buy it solely on this result, especially because the study involved only healthy men and reported limited detail about other results.
early evidenceA double-blind, placebo-controlled trial tested quercetin prophylaxis during rapid ascent in 110 healthy lowland men aged 20-40 years. Participants travelled from 440 m to 3,048 m for six days and then to 3,750 m. They received one daily food bar containing 500 mg quercetin (n=55) or an appearance-, taste- and smell-matched bar without quercetin (n=55) for 15 days, starting two days before ascent. Acute mountain sickness incidence and severity were assessed with the Lake Louise Scoring system. At the end of the study, acute mountain sickness prevalence was 2% in the quercetin group and 25% in the placebo group. The abstract also reports higher arterial oxygen saturation with quercetin: 94.0 ± 2.0% versus 90.02 ± 1.0% with placebo. It states that quercetin reduced severity scores and improved physiological and haematological responses, but the supplied results text is truncated before the related p-values and other numerical results. This is evidence in a narrow short-term hypobaric-hypoxia setting, not a test of long-term health, ageing or chronic supplementation.
Quercetin-bar prophylaxis appeared effective in reducing acute mountain sickness incidence and severity during ascent to high altitude.
The trial involved only healthy men aged 20-40 and lasted 15 days during a specific altitude exposure. Several reported results are truncated in the supplied abstract, and acute mountain sickness prevention is not a longevity endpoint.
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