Altitude Training | Hypoxic Training

Jelena Jankovic
January 19, 2009

“Coming into this year as the world No.1, my motivation was higher than ever, so I started my preparation earlier than normal with high-altitude training in Mexico to improve my strength and endurance.”
read the full article:

Dr. Arkadi F. Prokopov

Palma. Mallorca.
May 2009.

ark 1860@gmail.com

In July 2008 an aged couple came to my clinic after they had attended one of my lectures on Majorca. The husband, Mr. K.G. was 80 years old and his wife, Mrs. Kl.G. was 5 years younger. They both wanted to find out, if my regenerative treatment program would improve their declining health and reduced mental activity.

The common health - check, including blood analysis, revealed no obvious pathology, both patients had an average health state for their age. However, both complained about their declining memory, low energy, low quality sleep, loss of interests and motivations.

Detailed investigation revealed that during the last year Mrs. Kl.G. suffered a progressive mental decline. And that was in spite of her physically active lifestyle; she swam regularly in the sea until the last months. Nevertheless, she was suffering from progressive memory decline, she could no longer drive a car, cook or go shopping, and she became disorientated and lost directions. She became apathetic; she was loosing her hearing - unable to hear without a hearing aid device. Her brain MRI showed massive degenerative changes. The neurologist in charge concluded that hardly anything could be done to improve, or stabylise the cognitive deterioration of Mrs. Kl.G.

Mr. K.G. is a sedentary, creative type; he hadn’t been doing any specific physical activity or exercise for the last decade. Up until last year he was working on creative texts for up to 10 hours a day, but after going through hernia surgery six months ago he could no longer work more than 4 hours a day. He quickly became tired.

We started the regenerative treatment program that included sessions of Intermittent Hypoxic Training (IHT) every second day, and individualized vitamins-amino acids-microelements supplementation protocol, as well as nutritional adjustments. After each consequent 15 sessions we made a pause for one month and then repeated the IHT cycle again. Altogether, by April 2009 both patients had completed four cycles of IHT and eight months of supplementation program.

Gradually, the general health and the cognitive state of Mr. K.G. and his wife, Mrs. Kl.G. had improved significantly. Both reported increased energy and activity, a slight weight loss, improved sleep and increased quality of life.

Mr. K.G. returned to his 10-hour daily creative work.
Mrs. Kl.G. gradually recovered her healthy mental state; she started reading, resumed cooking and began shopping again. Moreover, she began playing piano, which she would not have been capable of doing last year. Now she only needed the hearing aid for a few hours every day, compared to the whole-day use several months before.
The MRI of her brain was performed in mid April 2009. According to the conclusion of the physician in charge, no degenerative changes in the brain could be noticed.

Conclusion. The individualized program of regenerative treatment has brought an amazing recovery of functional neuro-cognitive status and morphological structure in the brain of a patient, who was suffering from progressive dementia.

Im Deutsch

In Juli 2008 besuchte mich ein älteres deutsches Ehepaar auf Mallorca. Sie hatten einen Vortrag von mir gehört.

Herr G. war 80 und seine Frau 75. Beide wollten feststellen, ob meine Therapie ihre gesundheitlichen und geistigen Zustand verbessern könnte.

Der normale Gesundheitscheck und das Blutbild von beiden zeigte keine gravierenden gesundheitlichen Probleme. Beide hatten einen durchschnittlichen altersgemäßen Gesundheitszustand. Aber beide beschwerten sich über ihr abnehmendes Gedächtnis, wenig Energie, schlechte Schlafqalität und Interesselosigkeit am täglichen Leben.

Frau G. war bis vor wenigen Monaten körperlich aktiv und schwamm täglich im Meer. Trotzdem litt sie unter zunehmenden Erinnerungsverlusten: sie konnte nicht mehr Auto fahren, kochen oder einkaufen, da sie ihre Orientierung verlor. Sie wurde apathisch, hörte immer schlechter und ohne Hörhilfe war sie verloren. Ihr Gehirn - MRI zeigte massive degenerative Veränderungen. Ihr Neurologe diagnostierte, dass es für sie keine medizinische Hilfe geben würde und sich ihr Zustand nicht verbessern würde.

Herr C.G. ist ein sehr kreativer Mensch. Er ist dabei ein Buch zu schreiben. Bis vor einem Jahr konnte er sich bis zu 10 Stunden täglich mit seiner schriftlichen Arbeit beschäftigen, aber nach einer Bruchoperation bewältigt er kaum noch vier Stunden und ermüdet schnell. Er ist ein Mensch, der sich körperlich ungern betätigt. In den letzten zehn Jahren hat er keinerlei sportliches Training betrieben.

Das gemeinsam mit beiden erarbeitete Gesundheits - Programm sah so aus:
- Alle zwei Tage eine IHT-Behandlung
- auf ihren körperlichen Zustand abgestimmte Vitamine, Aminosäuren und Mikro-Elemente
- Ernährungsveränderungen

Nach 30 Tagen machten wir eine einmonatige Pause und wiederholten dann das Programm. Bis April 2009 hatten beide Personen 4 Zyklen IHT und acht Monate Unterstützungsprogramm hinter sich.

Zu diesem Zeitpunkt hatte ihre Gesundheit erstaunliche Fortschritte gemacht. Beide bestätigten, zunehmende geistige wie auch körperliche Kraft und Energie erlangt zu haben, einen leichten Gewichtsverlust, gute Schlafqualität und zunehmende Lebensqualität.

Herr G. arbeitete wieder 10 Stunden am Tag. Frau G. hatte ihre normalen geistigen Fähigkeiten zurückgewonnen: sie fing an zu lesen, kochte und ging wieder selbstständig einkaufen. Sie spielte auch wieder Klavier, was Sie ein Jahr zuvor total aufgegeben hatte. Sie brauchte ihre Gehörhilfe nur noch wenige Stunden täglich gegenüber 24 Stunden vorher. Ihr Arzt konnte bei einer weiteren Gehirnuntersuchung mit MRI keine degenerativen Veränderungen mehr erkennen.

Das individualisierte Behandlungsprogramm erzielte somit eine erstaunliche Verbesserung des Allgemeinzustandes und eine morphologische Reversion der degenerativen Veränderungen im Gehirn bei einer Person, die unter zunehmender Demenz gelitten hatte.

by Phoebe Cheuk
full article:
http://physiotherapy.curtin.edu.au/resources/educational-resources/exphys/00/cheuk.cfm

In order to improve athlete’s physical performance one of the methods is to have athletes train at high altitude. There is no doubt that physical training at altitude is a must for success in competition held at altitude … Interestingly, almost all endurance athletes used altitude training to prepare themselves for the Olympic Games in Atalanta, which were held near sea level. A new approach of living high and training low (LHTL) is reported to be beneficial in enhancing physical performance. In this paper, the physiological response of altitude exposure and the potential benefit will be discussed. Then the practical aspect of altitude training with respect to duration and relative altitude of exposure will be addressed.

Was the old approach to altitude training done and dusted?

Wayne Goldsmith wrote:

… to my amazement, nations continue to invest in one of the most questionable sports performance ”enhancement” methodologies in the business.

You can’t be serious!

Do a literature review on all the available research on altitude training and you know what you end up with………….
“Altitude training may help some athletes, in some situations, sometimes“.

Think about this. The research pretty much says “altitude training is hit and miss”.

In spite of the thousands of pages of journal articles, hundreds of books and thousands of conference papers presented on altitude training since the mid 1960s, the best the sports science community can tell us is “it might work with some athletes from time to time”- followed by the ubiquitous “but further research is needed”.

Look at the holes in the logic:

1. The vast majority of papers of altitude training are physiology based. Athletes arrive at the altitude camp. They have a blood test. Three weeks later they have another blood test and all the usual suspects - red blood cells, oxygen transport mechanisms and blood buffering capacity all have measured changes - therefore everyone taps each other on the back, congratulates each other for the great job done and for another successful altitude camp. The assumption is bordering on stupid because…..it assumes that all performance is dependent on physiological adaptations.
2. One of the basic principles of research is to control or allow for confounding variables. For some reason, this principle has been thrown out the window when it comes to altitude training. Look at a typical altitude training camp scenario:
….

Read the whole article here:

http://www.sportscoachingbrain.com/altitude-training-a-breath-of-fresh-airnot/

Dr John Hellemans wrote: Various forms of altitude training and altitude simulation are well proven methods to improve endurance performance in many sports. Road cycling is an endurance sport with a high dependency on the aerobic (oxygen dependant) energy systems. Your capacity to process oxygen in an energy efficient way is a deciding factor in cycling performance as it helps you to last longer at a higher average velocity.. If you can improve the amount of oxygen delivered to the working muscle (by increasing the redblood cells) and process it in the most energy efficient manner (by improving the off loading and processing mechanisms), you have an immediate advantage. Altitude training achieves just that. Also, many races, especially at international level, have mountain stages and being acclimatised to altitude will help performance at altitude.

Intermittent Hypoxic Training (or Therapy) (IHT) is a non-invasive, drug-free technique aiming to improve human performance and well-being using the phenomena of adaptation to reduced oxygen.

An IHT session constitutes a few minutes interval of breathing low oxygen (hypoxic) air alternated with an ambient or hyperoxic air over a 45- to 90-minute session per day. A full treatment course is 3–4 weeks. As a rule, the patient remains stationary and breathes hypoxic air via a hand-held mask. Therapy is delivered using a hypoxicator during the day time, while the dosage is monitored. Biofeedback can be controlled using a pulse oximeter.

IHT session using go2altitude® hypoxicator

Read more on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermittent_Hypoxic_Training_(or_Therapy)

Joe Y. wrote:

I have felt that between 2002-2003 it had enabled me to recognize over 500K in purses (winnings).  I have spent the last three years in beginning my breeding operation (with the use of this technology with my mares in foal) and the completion of my training center to once again begin full force with our racing stable.  I will share with you our success and hope it will help you with future sells and/or results of my usage.

A hypoxicator is a medical device intended to provide a stimulus for the adaptation of an individual’s cardiovascular system by means of breathing reduced oxygen hypoxic air and triggering mechanisms of compensation. The aim of intermittent hypoxic training or hypoxic therapy conducted with such a device is to obtain benefits in physical performance and wellbeing through improved oxygen metabolism.
Read more on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypoxicator