Re: RC: More on Altitude changes... And all that fizz...

[Tivers@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/7/00 6:03:10 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
patpeters1@juno.com writes:

<< To me, it seems reasonable to hypothesize that any area of the body that
 has less than optimal circulation will suffer a bit more, and be more
 prone to injury during this time.  The horses legs come to mind, as do
 any sites of prior injuries anywhere in the body.  I do not know how long
 it takes for the horse’s body to fully recover from this, but humans,
 pigs and sheep can take up to 72 hours (although most of the challenge
 happens within the first day or two).  
 
 As far as I know, the only do-able way to mitigate this effect (beyond
 hydration of course) is to breathe pure O2 for as long as practicable,
 which for obvious reasons results in a much faster rate of elimination of
 N2 from the blood into the lungs, and in so doing, significantly reduces
 the volume of fizzing in the blood.  
 
 So what do you think?  Substance or stretch? >>


Pretty damned good! On the acute side of the equation. In the chronic 
hypobaric situation, you have an athlete who will remain, and possibly 
compete, in that atmosphere. Over a longer period than 24 hours, the body 
begins to compensate by altering its own delivery system--more red cells, 
more plasma volume, higher hemoglobin content in the blood cells. That was 
the adaptation that I was talking about, and it takes time.

But, hey, the physics lesson was neat!

ti