On Sunday June
29, I will be attending at Oxygen Transport meeting at UCL in London where some
of the top experts on altitude physiology will be presenting – including Monty
Mythen, Carsten Lundby, Peter Wagner and Ron Astin. And Harriet Tuckey will
talk about the use of oxygen on the 1953 Everest Expedition. There is still
time to register:
but if you can’t
make it you can read the abstracts here (a search for altitude in the text is particularly
illuminating).
I was going to
write a blog prior to this meeting on the science of the Sergio Henao affair,
but then one of those ironman / cycling web pages - decaironman.com - got there first. Honestly,
sometimes I think cyclists spend as much time reading research papers as
scientists – they are definitely better informed that the average sportsperson.
Anyway the
particular Henao story seems to have been resolved now I guess. See:
I was slightly
confused by Dave Brailsford’s initial comments that there was something
mysterious about red blood cells, Andeans and altitude and they need to carry
put further research. They – and their contrast with Tibetans – are the two
most studied research populations in altitude science. Basically Andeans
have high hematocrits (number of red blood cells) to cope with the altitude.
Leaves them with lots of clinical problems. The Tibetans (e.g. the Sherpas) can
manage with fewer red cells, but have other adaptations.
The really interesting new finding from Peter Wagner seems to be
that those Tibetans with naturally fewer red blood cells are able to reach a
higher oxygen consumption peak that those with more red blood cells. Sometimes
science does indeed throw you a curve ball.
Now what could be
really scary would be to take a Sherpa cyclist who was adapted to altitude
performance and then give them EPO to increase their red cell count. My feeling
is that Sherpas - like Lance Armstrong? – would be the genetic type that could
disproportionality benefit from blood doping
**note the paragraph above is only a scientific thought experiment
of course ! *****
