Portable oxygen bottles

[Cindy Kleh]

I've been noticing bottled oxygen at Walmart in $7 and $15 sizes. I could see this maybe improving my riding if taken right before a race. Has anyone tried these?

[Fastskiguy]

Selling bottled O2 will never work, it'd be like trying to sell bottled water or something.

[converton3]

I don't know about racing but if that stuff is really medically pure o2 it will work wonders for a hangover.

[SunSurfer]

A fool and his money are soon parted.

Speaking as an "anesthesiologist" ( where I come from I'm a specialist anaesthetist), your body's ability to store oxygen for later use is minimal, and as soon as you take a breath of air after breathing the pure oxygen most of the extra oxygen in your lungs will be breathed out.

Even if I get a patient to breathe pure oxygen for several minutes, within a minute as they breathe the surrounding air again, the oxygen concentration in their blood and tissues will return to normal.

Sorry guys, all the hangover stuff and "oxygen bars" are just wishful thinking and gullible fools.

SunSurfer

[bjvircks]

Back in the mid '80s when I was flying hang gliders in the Owens Valley there was a group of hard core pilots that would fly with supplimental oxygen. They used tiny bottles and regulators which were carried in the harness. As they climb thru 12k they would start a low flow rate to augment and turn off when at low alt. I know I would get hypoxic if I spent too long above 13k, start making bad choices and flying poorly.

I mention this because I wonder if some of us might benefit from riding & skiing with supplimental O2. Everbody's physiology is a bit different and not all of us take on or utilize O2 in exactly the same. I know that as I'm getting older I do not acclimate to mountain elevations as quickly as I used to. I used to be able to hop off the plane in SLC and hit Snowbird same day without any trouble. A couple years ago I got off the plane in Aspen and got right on Ajax. Man, was I messed up. I really think having O2 with me on the runs would have helped. (completely different from trying to store O2 in the body prior to a race)

[carvedog]

Sorry guys, all the hangover stuff and "oxygen bars" are just wishful thinking and gullible fools.

SunSurfer

Not attempting to repudiate what you said, but during my OEC course ( 120 hours ) the day we were fooling with 02, I had a horrible hangover with headache. A few minutes of O2 and I felt like I was running on seven and a half cylinders instead of 5.

Certainly anecdotal, but I was surprised. My headache did not return after either.

I am not gay or metrosexual enough to cross the threshold of an 02 "bar".

Not that there is anything wrong with that. Just not for me.

[SunSurfer]

http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/safety/altitude.html

http://www.traveldoctor.co.uk/altitude.htm

A couple of short, succinct, and given the sources likely to be accurate accounts of acclimatisation to altitude, altitude sickness and its treatment.

SunSurfer

[Chris Houghton]

Wasn't it sleeping in an oxygen tent that caused all those changes to Michael Jackson?

[guido591]

As another "specialist anesthetist", I second the sage advice of SunSurfer. A touch of acetazolamide would be a more worthy investment than canned O2.

[Fastskiguy]

LOL, doxapram?

[guido591]

Uh...........no. Doxapram is simply a central respiratory stimulant. Acetazolamide (Diamox) is a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor which is often used prophylactically to enhance the acclimatization process.