Carbon Monoxide Inhalation - the next evolution in doping?

[empiricalcycling]

@splash

I guess the anticipated result is that your body will make more red blood cells as a response, thus enhancing your performance, but I haven’t read any of the research into that.

Here you go. Ran across it in the last few months doing podcast research. In my circles, it’s an idea that’s been kicked around for a while but I’ve no idea if anyone’s actually using it. Certainly nobody that I know of nor would I recommend it.

Chronic Exposure to Low-Dose Carbon Monoxide Alters Hemoglobin Mass and...

At least to me this would fall under S2.1.2 (HIF1a activating agents) which lists xenon gas, which was quite popular while it was legal. Due to HIF1a effects it might even fall under S2.3 of growth factor modulators, but it’s not specifically listed.

Since CO is produced in small levels endogenously I could see an argument for it to be classified as naturally occurring, like creatine supplements. Though with the potential dangers involved, I’d like to see it explicitly listed as banned under S2.1.2.

[splash]

Thanks! Agree that the dangers involved should see it banned. It’s probably just a question of time.

[Weiwentg]

@grwoolf

Certainly sounds dumb based on the risk of screwing it up, but does anyone know if it’s physiologically any different than having reduced O2 at altitude or in an altitude tent? Or using one of those “Bain” masks that causes us to re-breath our own exhaled breath (which includes CO)? I mean, I assume you can die in an altitude tent as well if the machine goes sideways, right?

O2 binds to hemoglobin. However, CO also binds to hemoglobin, and in fact it binds more preferentially than O2. So, if you accidentally inhaled too much CO, now you’re in serious trouble. The half-life of CO breathing just plain old air is 4.5 hours - it’s shortened by a lot if you breathe 100% O2, and by even more if they give you hyperbaric O2 (i.e. they stuff you in a pressurized chamber at, say, 3 bars and give you 100% O2).

I am not sure you can get into acute risk by just using an altitude tent or actual altitude. I mean, you can head from sea level straight up to, say, 7,000m, and that would probably (no medical background, this is an assumption) put you into serious and acute oxygen debt, but that’s not something you can do without serious preparation. With CO inhalation, I’m not sure how much inhalation therapy it would take to get you to serious and acute danger. If you punctured the canister or it leaked (and remember this is an odorless and colorless gas, normally), that would be a cause for worry.

On the podcast, Caley mentioned that CO inhalation for performance enhancement would look something like inhale CO every day for 3 weeks. The teams that are using CO for measurement are doing one session at the beginning of altitude camp, and one at the end, and we are talking something like a 3 week camp.