Passive Hypoxic Therapy
Intermittent Hypoxic Training (IHT)
Living continuously at altitude for a period of months or years is not an option for most people. Russian doctors, in trying to find a solution to acclimatising pilots, athletes, mountaineers and cosmonauts to low-oxygen environments, discovered that adaptation to low-oxygen environments could occur rapidly in a clinical setting and without the side effects of altitude sickness. The oxygen levels found at altitude were administered in a controlled manner and given in measured intermittent doses. The technique became known as Intermittent Hypoxic Training (IHT), whereby oxygen levels of between 10 and 15 per cent (equivalent to an altitude range of 2500-6000 metres) are administered by a machine known as a Hypoxicator – such as the McKinley Altitude Simulator®.
The person is asked to breathe the high-altitude air for just a few minutes at a time while their blood oxygen levels are continuously monitored. They then breathe ambient or normal air for a few minutes, giving their body time to adjust back to normal conditions. The time spent alternating between low-oxygen air and normal air is 60 to 90 minutes at a time. The procedure is generally carried out once or twice a day for a total of 16 to 30 sessions. Researchers found that this technique allowed adaptation to altitude to occur with less stress to the body than continuous exposure to low oxygen. Because the dose and the blood oxygen levels are totally controlled, there is no danger of altitude sickness. The intermittent nature of the hypoxic exposure means the adaptation to lowland is not lost, as is the case in normal acclimatisation to altitude. Adaptation to intermittent hypoxia has the unique attribute of activating the body's own internal production of antioxidants in the brain, liver and heart as a result of the frequently repeated re-oxygenation that occurs on breathing room air.
Using Oxygen More Efficiently
Oxygen deficiency is associated with many diseases. It has been postulated to play a role in many metabolic diseases, including cancer, fatigue, epilepsy and poor neurological functioning. For this reason it might seem difficult to accept that hypoxia, or lack of oxygen, might actually be a more powerful healing factor than therapies that promote giving oxygen. IHT increases the efficiency with which the body takes up, transports and utilises oxygen. The heart and lungs are stimulated to increase their functions and even over the long term to increase in size. Blood vessels dilate and new capillaries are formed in the heart, brain and skeletal muscles. In the blood, levels of erythropoietin (EPO),haemoglobin and myoglobin increase. All these factors make the blood capable of carrying more oxygen. On a cellular level there is a growth of the cellular structures needed for the metabolismof oxygen. If you undergo IHT, the net effect is a decrease in the need for oxygen by about 20 per cent and an increase in the ability to use oxygen, as measured by VO2 max. Like a finely tuned motor vehicle, if you are adapted to altitude with IHT you can run on less fuel with less wear and tear to your 'motor'. And when you need to run in high gear you can do so and use all the fuel or oxygen you need to achieve maximum performance. Once the body has built the structures such as newcapillaries, new blood components, new cells for the heart and lungs, new mitochondria and enzymes for using oxygen, it has increased its functional reserve and can extract more oxygen from normal lowland atmospheric air. The body now has an increased functional reserve that can offset fatigue and enhance areas of functioning in the body that require oxygen.
Getting Fit For Non Athletes
Most of us are not elite athletes, therefore being a few seconds faster has no real significance whatsoever. What we do want, however, is to be able to carry out our day-to-day living without fatigue and with ease and enjoyment. Elite athletes balancing precariously on the pinnacle of human achievement consider themselves lucky to increase performance by three per cent. The good news is that untrained people show an even more dramatic improvement in fitness, energy and endurance when given a course of IHT. In one study with healthy but untrained men, adaptation increased the total amount of work performed on an ergometer by 27 per cent; the maximal output of their heart increased by 15 per cent; their lung capacity increased by up to 40 per cent.
References:
Gore CJ, Clark SA, Saunders PU (September 2007). "Nonhematological mechanisms of improved sea-level performance after hypoxic exposure". Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 39 (9): 1600–9.
Hamlin MJ, Hellemans J (February 2007). "Effect of intermittent normobaric hypoxic exposure at rest on haematological, physiological, and performance parameters in multi-sport athletes". Journal of Sports Sciences 25 (4): 431–41.
Hoppeler H, Vogt M, Weibel ER, Flück M (January 2003). "Response of skeletal muscle mitochondria to hypoxia". Experimental Physiology 88 (1): 109–19.
Serebrovskaya TV, Manukhina EB, Smith ML, Downey HF, Mallet RT (June 2008). "Intermittent hypoxia: cause of or therapy for systemic hypertension?".Experimental Biology and Medicine 233 (6): 627–50.
Katayama K, Matsuo H, Ishida K, Mori S, Miyamura M (2003). "Intermittent hypoxia improves endurance performance and submaximal exercise efficiency". High Altitude Medicine & Biology 4 (3): 291–304.
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