Question

How do exercise and high altitude affect the respiratory system?

Answer 1

The criteria for pulmonary transport of oxygen and carbon dioxide in human exercise are significant. Fortunately, in most individuals, the regulatory and architectural boundaries of the pulmonary system satisfy the demands of vigorous exercise. However the strong metabolic requirement for vigorous exercise in some highly trained athletes is in excess of the capability of the pulmonary system.

Complete answer:
In addition to those raised by the demands of exercise, environmental considerations provide additional physiological obstacles. High altitude hypoxia and cold are frequently faced by winter athletes, either briefly during competition or repeatedly during training. Coupled with these extreme environmental environments, remarkable sporting feats offer an ideal opportunity to pose critical questions about control, plasticity and the boundaries of human physiology.
It is a dynamic and highly regulated activity to sustain the required level of pulmonary ventilation, even though the body is at rest and oxygen is available in excess of the metabolic requirements. Exercise and ambient hypoxia enhance difficulty and alter gas exchange demand and critical oxygen supply. Very little ventilation and oxygen requirements are not met; too much and it is more expensive than required to expand mechanical activity.
Even the slightest discrepancy between alveolar ventilation and the often quickly changing metabolic requirements of dynamic exercise could result in performance deficiency in the elite athlete. Fortunately, to allow for breath-by-breath changes in breathing duration, tidal volume and service cycle, the human respiratory system is elegantly regulated.
Therefore when less oxygen molecules will spread through the lungs and get taken up in the blood, the respiratory system will be under more pressure, so the person will have more trouble breathing, even more so if he still exercises on top of it all.

Note: Respiratory rhythms are typically thought to be determined mainly by the ventrolateral medulla's central rhythm generator, which interacts with the input of blood gases from central and peripheral chemoreceptors, mechanical feedback from the lungs and airways, and diaphragm and accessory muscle mechanical and metabolic information before transmitting appropriate motor activity to the diaphragm and accessory muscles.