Ken
Disclaimer - I have not had a chance to study this yet, but.......
In my experience, if one must prove a benefit with statistical maneuvering, and the result is not otherwise obvious, then the benefit is dubious.
This may be anti-scientific a bit, but a hefty dose of "Missouri" is useful. After all, Mark Twain said there are 3 types of lies; lies, damn lies, and statistics.
the studies may be fine, I am just pontificating
Edit-to be more helpful, here are some more thoughts on statistics. Something may be mathematically significant, but is it biologically significant? Big difference. On the opposite side of that arguement is this example: if the speed limit is 60 and you go just 1 mile an hr faster, then it may not be statistically faster but you might get a ticket, therefore the difference is meaningful. By that analogy, if a procedure done to help acclimatization has minor improvement, it still might give you a nudge enough to help
