It is 11 years since A.R. (Joe) Bradwell got together with fellow physicians John Delamere and Tim Harvey to form the Birmingham Medical Research Expeditionary Society. The three were keen to visit the Himalayas, said Bradwell, senior lecturer in immunology at the medical school Birmingham, "and this seemed as good a way as any."
The society has produced a unique combination of science and sport. Sherpas carry the group's recording gear, exercise bicycles, syringes, specimen bottles and other special equipment. But it is Bradwell and his Mends who indulge in such tactics as having radio-tracers injected into the bloodstream (to measure blood flow in the brain) while exposing themselves to conditions as unpleasant as the nausea of altitude sickness.
During past expeditions, Bradwell and his fellow climbers have helped to establish that acetazolamide, given beforehand, can prevent or ameliorate the headache, insomnia and other symptoms that develop when people move ...
