furtherfaster said:
Folks, I think it's time he whole bilharzia issue was put to bed wrt froome. It's a disease which is easily eliminated with a single treatment.
I'll of course defer to your actual experience with the disease, but according to all the sources I have seen, it requires a single
annual treatment. The disease is
controlled, not eliminated. E.g., this is what it says in the link provided by Cycle Chic. I believe Froome has also been quoted as saying he's treated every six months.
Do you disagree? Were you able to get by on a single treatment, for all time?
It makes a difference, because if it requires an annual treatment, then the antigens that inactivate hemoglobin may be present in low levels in the body at all times, and there is the possibility of continual natural stimulation of EPO synthesis. This is purely speculative on my part, I have no evidence for it and it would involve EPO synthesis over-compensating for any depression of hemoglobin levels. But given Froome's hard to explain performances and his bout with the disease, it seems worth considering.
However, a correction. Bilharzia does not reduce red cell number, according to a link provided earlier in this thread. It just inactivates hemoglobin. IOW, the disease manifests with the same number of red cells, but carrying less hemoglobin and therefore less effective as oxygen transport. So while a normal HT might be, say, 45, and the associated Hb level 15, bilharzia might reduce Hb to 13 while not affecting HT.
As for the gas6 story, very interesting discussion, but in the absence of any reason to believe that Froome might have been using it, I haven't put much attention on it (even before KB's excellent dissection of the linked article on effects in mice). I think it's unlikely this would be used for performance enhancement. But Clinic discussion at its finest, IMO. Kudos.