WA Altitude Advantage question

Newt

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jul 15, 2015
Messages
128
Location
NW Arkansas
I am curious if anyone has used Altitude Advantage as a pre-stressful workout supplement.

The reason I ask is it is said to "boost oxygen delivery", "Helps reduce fatigue, inflammation, and lactic acid build-up", and "Improves circulation throughout the body, including brain and lungs which are particularly sensitive to low oxygen conditions" to name a few.

My curiosity stems from the last hunt I went on. I trained for it, and I had no issues coming from 1500' and hunting at 9000'. Nothing special except I did take diamox starting a week before - just as insurance. I shot a bull about a 1 1/4 mile downhill from camp. I got it up to camp with the help of others, it wasn't horrible(except the first night hike out), but you could definitely feel it - mostly just being winded, my muscles were fine.

Two days later a guy in camp shot a cow down at the same spot. I was back up at camp when he got her, and before I headed down to help him another guy at camp gave me some pills. I did not know what they were, but he assured me that it would help.

When I was getting close to where the guy was, I started feeling less 'winded', like my body was getting more oxygen. Hard to describe, but just overall not fatigued. I loaded up and headed back up the mountain and it was like night and day from two days before. It was not a placebo effect at all. There was another guy with me when we left camp, he got the pills too, and he stated the same things.

Turns out the pills were from Advocare, and they were O2 Gold, and Muscle Strength. I can only surmise that the main thing was the O2 Gold helping the most.

So, my curiosity now is if the stuff from Wilderness Athlete might help the same thing. Not so much taking them as a pre-altitude adjustment, but using them as a pre-strenuous activity supplement.

Just curious if anyone who has taken them have ever felt some effect 30 to 60 mins after taking them and if it helped with being 'winded'.
 

Poser

WKR
Joined
Dec 27, 2013
Messages
5,033
Location
Durango CO
I used to take the WA product when I lived in the East and came out West. I like their drink mixes so I figured “can’t hurt” for the Altitude Advantage. That being said, look at The ingredients. It’s just herbs -best case it can make you feel better, but I’d have a very hard time believing it can effect your VO2 max.

University study on the effects of the Advocare product -no physiological effects were found: https://www.bethel.edu/undergrad/academics/biokinetics/research/2014-henke-hereid.pdf

Some people swear by a product called “sports legs”, which is supposed to help buffer lactic acid build up. The ingredients are only magnesium and vitamin c though, which would be easy to get cheaper than the brand name product.

I don’t know if anything on the market will actually help you acclimate faster and actually enhance your performance at altitude, but if it makes you feel better than you do otherwise, then you’ll likely perform better so it’s largely a matter if perception. If you feel good, youlll get after it. As long as it’s not negatively effecting your health, go for it.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
OP
N

Newt

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jul 15, 2015
Messages
128
Location
NW Arkansas
I used to take the WA product when I lived in the East and came out West. I like their drink mixes so I figured “can’t hurt” for the Altitude Advantage. That being said, look at The ingredients. It’s just herbs -best case it can make you feel better, but I’d have a very hard time believing it can effect your VO2 max.

University study on the effects of the Advocare product -no physiological effects were found: https://www.bethel.edu/undergrad/academics/biokinetics/research/2014-henke-hereid.pdf

Some people swear by a product called “sports legs”, which is supposed to help buffer lactic acid build up. The ingredients are only magnesium and vitamin c though, which would be easy to get cheaper than the brand name product.

I don’t know if anything on the market will actually help you acclimate faster and actually enhance your performance at altitude, but if it makes you feel better than you do otherwise, then you’ll likely perform better so it’s largely a matter if perception. If you feel good, youlll get after it. As long as it’s not negatively effecting your health, go for it.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I did read that study, but they did not test it in the same situation I was in. Believe me, I am NOT promoting advocare. I personally couldn't stomach the idea of spending $100 for those two bottles of pills. I'll take more rest stops when packing an elk out.

I will say, with 100% certainty, it did have an affect me on the mountain that day. There is no doubt about it. It could not have been a placebo effect because I had no idea of what it was. I was simply being respectful of the guy who invited me to camp that year to take them when he handed it to me. If it would have been anyone else I would probably have said no thanks.

I honestly kinda ribbed my friend who got handed them also and we joked about them on the way down the mountain. But when we both started feeling 'some' effect from them, it made us question it all. We were completely acclimated by that day, only getting winded whenever we were hiking, from lack of O2. What we took completely took that winded feeling away and I hiked back up that mountain like I was back in Arkansas.

That was the first and only time I have ever taken anything like that. I can't say how long the effect lasted, I know I helped get another elk out the next day(not as far down), and it was back to the usual stop and catch my breath. So I know its effect was not long-lasting.

With this year's hunt on the horizon, it just made me think about it again is all. I like the WA drink mixes also, so that is why I wondered about the altitude advantage. Way less expensive than the advocare stuff. lol If it has the similar effects then it would be nice to take some just before a strenuous hike up the hill with a load of meat. I won't be taking them to get acclimated.
 

Poser

WKR
Joined
Dec 27, 2013
Messages
5,033
Location
Durango CO
I wonder if the sensation you got wasn’t just an energy boost. Both products use Golden Root extract which is commonly used to treat anxiety and fatigue.
 
OP
N

Newt

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jul 15, 2015
Messages
128
Location
NW Arkansas
I wonder if the sensation you got wasn’t just an energy boost. Both products use Golden Root extract which is commonly used to treat anxiety and fatigue.

I wouldn't call it that. It was more of an ability to breathe like I wasn't being starved of oxygen. I wasn't getting winded as I had been before. I mean, I guess it could be energy, but I had great energy(the real adrenaline kind) after shooting my elk, and it was a killer hike back to camp stopping every so often to catch my breath. But even hiking around before, I would get winded more. Who knows.....

I had been just piddling around camp the day prior and the morning of. So I probably was as rested as I had been since getting there.

I know it seems dumb or like I am trying to exaggerate the experience, but it was real. I just have a hard time justifying $100 to test it out again. I was just hoping to find someone who might have had the same experience.

I found a coupon for WA and they have free shipping this month, so I bought a bottle of the altitude advantage. I am going to do some unscientific testing for myself.
 

jmez

WKR
Joined
Jun 12, 2012
Messages
7,404
Location
Piedmont, SD
It could not have been a placebo effect because I had no idea of what it was. I was simply being respectful of the guy who invited me to camp that year to take them when he handed it to me

What you describe actually fits the placebo effect quite well. You were given something and told before you took it that it would help. An N of 1 does not rule out the placebo effect.
 
OP
N

Newt

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jul 15, 2015
Messages
128
Location
NW Arkansas
Not to argue, but a placebo effect is actually only true in instances that the product being taken has zero effect on the person, but they believe it did affect them when it is impossible it could. In other words, they(the placebo products) do not contain any active substance that can alter the human body. The stuff he gave me actually has active ingredients in it.

Plus, people who fall under the placebo effect are told exactly what they are being given/tested with, something that will do such and such, just not if they are receiving the real or the fake product. I was simply told it would help me, not how it would help me.

If he had told me that the pills would make it easier for me to breathe, then there is at least one thing leaning in the direction of a placebo effect. I actually had zero thought it would do anything. Your typical placebo effect is when someone thinks something will do something for them.

Again, you may call something a placebo effect if you wish, everyone has their own definitions of things, but in reality, what happened to me cannot be a true placebo effect.
 
Joined
Dec 29, 2015
Messages
346
Nothing in either of the main supplements you mentioned do anything for altitude sickness or increased O2 usage or consumption. Energy boost is about the only thing they do.
 

Paleface

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jun 2, 2016
Messages
274
Newt,
I'm not claiming to be an expert on this but I have done quite a bit of research and experimentation on various ways to acclimate for my mountain hunts. For me, the first key is to condition in the heat. I live in Texas so we don't have much elevation but we do have plenty of heat. During the summer, I save my cardio workouts for the heat of the day and I feel that doing this has been instrumental in adapting to the thin mountain air. It's definitely not fun but it does pay off. Second, like you, I also take Diamox. Usually I'm not a big fan of taking unnecessary supplements and medication but for me, Diamox is a great insurance policy. Diamox is the only medicine that I could find that is supported by both the mountaineering and medical community for altitude adjustment. And with a prescription, it's cheaper that the OTC supplements. Regarding WA, AdvoCare, Mtn Ops, etc. look what the products are actually made of - in my opinion, there's nothing in them that is going to make a significant enough difference to justify the cost. (That being said, if you find something that works for you, stick with it!) To be honest, even with all the cardio that I do, and the Diamox, I'm still not functioning at 100% for the first couple of days. It's usually on day 3 or 4 that I finally feel fully acclimated and have my full lungs and legs under me. Do you think that the second pack out might have been so much easier because your body was finally acclimated? Just my thoughts, hope this helps.
 
Top