I finally got enough time with my spotty 3G coverage where I am currently to be able to skim the article...intermittently like the protocol itself. Some observations...
Theres was an attempt to show if 20 min sessions could work, others did longer
There was enough rapidity of pressure changes that ear symptoms were present, not like climbing a mountain, more perhaps like an airplane ascent or descent
The small changes in 02sat were similar to what we saw in our Aconcagua study in 2000 looking at different objectives. However, we found it hard to ignore the possibility there that fright alone at waking up and seeing one's own results be so low was enough to stimulate breathing and alter the result. This was not a factor in the current study.
I was pleased that they distinguished in their discussion between acclimatization (multiple factors) and acclimation (one factor). SierraNevadas response to short term canister O2 might be more the latter, say alleviation of fatigue from exertion or even exercise-at-altitude O2 desaturation rather than amelioration of AMS .Response in minutes rather than hours would suggest the improvement was more like, say a football player breathing O2 at sea level, rather than all the metabolic changes of AMS that take longer
The whole concept is interesting. I will be at the Exped Medicine Conference the end of this month . World reknown high altitude expert Peter Hackett will give several talks. I will ask him about all of this . Thanks, Harvey
