Altitude supplements work?
Equipment
Going to Wyoming late September on an elk hunt. I’ve always been a fitness fanatic so other than tweaking my workouts some am about as ready as I can be for a 63 year old flatlander. I ran an ultra marathon 2 months ago; just looking for any little advantage I can get. Are any of the altitude supplements, such as Mountain Ops Solitude effective/worth the money? Thanks and God bless!
Go to your doc and get a script for generic diamox. Probably cheaper than the supplements and PROVEN to help prevent AMS.
Drink a ton of water on the way and during. I’m from Ga also and go to 10k feet every fall. I’m 59 and have never gotten sick. But…some guys have that I take each year.
I actually carry that prescription each year also. Good advice
I have had good success with Wilderness Athlete, Altitude advantage. A few days before going up. Full disclosure; the company helped sponsor past climbs of mine. so I’m am biased towards them.
There are other good products that help with minor symptoms.
Be aware though that Serious altitude ailments are not relieved by supplements Physiology is a strange thing. You can go 20 times in a row with zero impact and the 21st get hammered. Or get it every time. Or never. Go early and lay around to build extra Hemoglobin
I do not get paid from W.A.
Boost your red blood cell count and get here a bit early to acclimate. Water is also good advice, drink lots of it and avoid alcohol until you know how you feel at altitude Which part of the state?
No, there are not. There are sup's that claim to work... But overall... No, there are not. If you opt to try sup's just in case, make sure it's NSF or Informed Choice Certified for Sports Supplements certified. Those are independent groups who certify that supplements have in them what they claim. Excerpt from a conversation I was having the other day:
Reading a study recently hammered this for me [RE supplements]. It hammered it home, because I’ve read similar papers before and because the supplement industry has essentially zero oversight. This paper looked at 57 sports supplements and found that 40% didn’t contain ANY of the substances on the label, 49% had the wrong amount of what was listed on the label, 12% contained illegal additives and only 11% had the correct quantity. ONLY 11% were correct!!!! So you could literally spend 40-60 bucks on a bottle of XYZ supplement and have far better odds of there being nothing on the label listed actually in the supplement and or having wrong amounts or illegal additives than actually getting the stuff you thought you bought! That’s wild! Those certifications, which are listed on bottles of supplements that have been tested, help ensure you get what you are hoping to!
Altitude requires adaptation. If you can go out early, great. If not, you just have to accept limitations, manage your efforts/pace yourself well, stay hydrated as others have mentioned, and if a doc is ok with meds in case you end up with AMS cool.
All that said, keep the fitness efforts going - that's not going to hurt either!
Wilderness Athlete - Altitude Advantage works. Used it on many hunts and it takes you less time to adjust/acclimate. Plus you will have more and better recovery each day. Also, their Hydrate and Recover will make you feel great each day if you take a couple servings after a day of hiking many miles. Drink lots of water.
I am 53 and by the sounds of it no where near the shape you are in... We will average 10 miles a day and I will loose 10 to 15 pounds in my 10 day hunt.. and eat like a horse when in camp... We take things slow and set out early in the morning so not to have to burn straight up the mountain... My point is that given your said condition you will probably do just fine... Alot of fuss made about this elk shape stuff... sometimes when it comes down to the moment of truth some extra endurance is nice but usually Adrenalin kicks in and you just go!
I did not realize this was about altitude ( because i'm skimmer not a reader i guess) Have a good hunt
Maybe ask your doc about Viagra. Seriously. I recall reading something about it being used for pulmonary effect at altitude some years back. Maybe that application has been debunked since then, so do your own diligence. I should probably be looking into that myself, since I’m effectively at Zero Altitude here…..
I’m cranking up my cardio these days - about a month into it now - hoping to boost the hematocrit, which has been at the bottom of the normal range for the past… (damn!) some years now, due to a desk job and some workaholic tendencies I’m trying to shake.
I don’t know if it’s lucky or terrifying to think about, but if I were to lose #15 in a matter of weeks, I’d probably need to be hospitalized. So I guess I have a LOT of menu planning to do. Good thing the leg strength is coming back quickly…. I was putting up good numbers but had to back off because it was feeling like the muscles were getting ahead of the connective tissues…. Can’t afford to be tearing myself up at this point….
So I keep reminding myself I’m doing OK “for a Old Dude”….
Wilderness Athlete Altitude Advantage. Discount code NEWENGLAND will get you 10% off anything from WA too
Are you driving or flying to cody? Driving gives a bit of acclimation time. If flying, flying in a day or 2 early and just check out cody.
Before taking supplements with Ginkgo Biloba do the research, link is to the Mayo Clinic.
No way I'm taking that stuff....
anyone try the small bottles of oxygen boost?
I’ve only tried the large O2 bottles. At extreme altitudes oxygen makes you feel like you’re 1500 ft lower than you are and warms you up.
You never want to rely on it to get you higher on the mountain if you can’t stay on it the entire time. Your screwed if you run out
"Maybe ask your doc about Viagra."
When camping on the mountain, I take a Viagra every night. It keeps me from rolling off the mountain.
...I'm here all week. :-)
If you want to boost your hemoglobin get your doctor to prescribe Testosterone.
WA definitely sells good products to a target market (hunters), but there are others out there with basically the same ingredients, or that produce the same results, at half the price. I'm currently using Liquid IV Hydration Multiplier instead of WA Hydrate and Recover. (I'm not paid by Liquid IV).
Does the RX Diamox do the same as the supplements or is it just for sickness? I’m driving and planning on getting to Cody a day or two early. Thanks!
Diamox is to prevent sickness. Need to start on it a couple days prior. I knew a doctor who avidly elk hunted and he always took viagra or cialis.
Jasper, here is the explanation of Diamox. It does not cure AMS.
It takes 24-48 hrs to acclimate to 10,000 ft. Look up tips on how to acclimate. Example: work high then sleep low.
90% of the blood’s carbon dioxide exists in a chemical called bicarbonate. This carbon dioxide after travelling through your blood is exhaled by your lungs. Diamox forces the kidneys to excrete bicarbonate from your body (when you urinate).
Your body doesn’t like that. It needs the bicarbonate to exhale carbon dioxide through your lungs.
When Diamox forces you to excrete biocarbonates, your blood, which is used to a certain level of acidity, becomes more acidic. When the blood gets acidic it believes that it has more carbon dioxide in it. So the body gets rid of this excess carbon dioxide in a simple way. It starts to breathe deeper and faster, getting rid of the carbon dioxide, and also taking in more oxygen.
In effect, the increased oxygen speeds up the acclimatisation process. It also greatly reduces you of any symptoms of altitude sickness. Which is why Diamox works best when you start on it a day or two before you get to high altitudes.
Great info, Jay, and great tip on the Viagra. With generic Viagra now selling for 15 cents a pill, that's a cheap preventative.
"Hard" to beat that price Jaq... (sorry, had too...)
Jaq, give LMNT a try if you like liquidIV. Far more minerals/nutrients without all the sugar.
“When camping on the mountain, I take a Viagra every night. It keeps me from rolling off the mountain.” LOL
Comes in handy for driving in tent pegs too Nick if you forget the mallet……
Check out Pure Boost products. No sugar and no sucralose.
Being in cody for a day or 2 is a good start. That's about 5000 feet. How high re you hunting?
Looks like around 5 to 6K on the map Bob
If you're a flat-lander it really doesn't make much difference whether you're an olympic runner or not; when you're at 8-9000' ASL. You're gonna suffer from loss of oxygen level cuz there just aren't enough red corpuscles to provide oxygen. I discovered this 60 years ago right out of six years of playing football and military when we ran every day! GOOD LUCK!
My cardiologist prescribed diamox for my high hunts. No problems so far.
