These health-related causes and impacts of elevated hematocrit levels have been reported: 1  Fall in plasma levels. 2  Sleep apnea. 3  Dehydration. 4  In cases of dengue fever, a high hematocrit is a danger sign of an increased risk of dengue shock syndrome.
The Hmong traditionally farmed in the mountainous areas of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Most of the Hmong were subsistence farmers who grew only enough food to feed their families, because farming was difficult in the mountainous regions where most of them lived.
Social scientists estimate that there are between six and seven million Hmong in the world. Until recently, almost all Hmong lived in the mountains of southern China, Laos, Thailand, and northern Vietnam. Chinese oppression during the nineteenth century and the rise of communism in Vietnam following World War II pushed many Hmong into Laos, where about 300,000 Hmong lived peacefully during the 1960s.