You’ve seen it before: Friends and family swing into town for a visit and—bam—they’re walloped by a headache. The next morning they’re so sluggish from a restless night’s sleep that they don’t have the energy to tick off the weekend to-do list. Altitude sickness is the ultimate party pooper.

The simple truth is that at 7,908 feet there’s less oxygen in these parts, and that’s a problem. “When you’re in a thinner oxygen environment, the body compensates by breathing faster and deeper,” explains Dr. Durant Abernethy, who practices internal medicine at High Country Healthcare at 9,097 feet in Frisco. Breathing faster (think hyperventilating) upsets the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your system and actually changes the pH of your blood. This leads to headaches, nausea, dizziness, a poor night’s sleep, and even sleep apnea. So what gives?

“There’s no fix for low oxygen except oxygen,” Abernethy says. But rather than stocking up on those handheld Boost oxygen canisters or buying an oxygen concentrator, there’s another option: Altitude Control Technology (ACT), an Edwards-based company that installs oxygen-controlled altitude simulation systems into mountain homes. If that sounds like science fiction, hear this: “In the simplest terms, we’re changing the oxygen level in your home,” says Kyle Bassett, ACT’s chief operating officer.

Systems, which are generally installed to regulate the air in the bedrooms, measure barometric pressure every seven seconds and adjust the oxygen levels accordingly. (A drop in barometric pressure leads to less oxygen in the air.) “There is data saying that adding three percent oxygen at altitude gives a good wellness benefit,” Bassett says. “Seventy-five percent of [ACT clients] do this because of sleep.”

One such believer is Jeffrey Weschler, a part-time Aspen resident, who is the founder and president of 24••7 Sports Management, a management and marketing company. Weschler, whose primary residence is at sea level, has had ACT systems installed in both of his Aspen homes (his previous and his current). As he puts it, “I am able to get to Aspen and have no worries about altitude acclimation,” he says. “I am able to set the altitude level and adjust it higher as the days progress. This gives me a gradual way to avoid any altitude problems.”
So what does the installation process entail? Bassett explains that the company evaluates the structure of the house and then custom designs a system (typically from $25,000 to $100,000 per bedroom), which ties into the home’s HVAC. For vacation homeowners it’s a luxury product for sure, but for aging permanent residents eying the plunging numbers on their Apple watch’s pulse oximeter, the price of staying healthy, and local, just might be worth it.