Lower altitude relieves high blood pressure

After living in a new settlement at a lower altitude for a few months, 71-year-old Norbu Dawa found that he had lower blood pressure.

Norbu Dawa is a Tibetan nomad originally from Tsonyi county in the Tibet autonomous region, where the average altitude is 5,000 meters above the sea level. It's one of the region's highest counties.

By comparison, North Base Camp, Tibet's starting point for climbing Qomolangma, the world's highest peak, is at 5,150 meters.

Because of low oxygen and poor infrastructure, the region regards places above 4,800 meters to be unfit for human habitation.