This may be a big stretch, but has anyone considered the possibility that his many high altitude climbs without oxygen, including Everest, may have caused some of his brain irregularities? I have wondered this for about a year now and maybe Bob R or some of the many MDs who read this forum could
give an opinion. I'm asking since I am not an MD or well informed on this topic and am curious.
You hear about high altitude climbers who experience lack of oxygen problems and perhaps this would lead to brain damage?
No. While not an unreasonable concept, the kind of global damage sustained by oxygen deprivation (and there are many examples of this, from many activities), would be similar to Alzheimer's Dementia, with a loss of reasoning ability and the ability to make any kind of decision. Such folks with dementia would not be able to put together the plan to take the actions done in this case. I've never heard of an Alzheimer patient going on a directed rampage, and we have around 5 million in the US.
The bizarre illusory thinking present in schizophrenia is quite different. I think it was well portrayed in the excellent film "A Beautiful Mind"