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Gas6?

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Jul 16, 2013
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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 also had it, and much like froome didn't know I had it until the doctor noticed I was pee'ing blood when doing a regular medical. I got the treatment and no more pee'ing blood. It's a total non event and thereafter you are no different to anyone else. As soon as froome had the treatment he goes back to normal. People are talking about it like its some rare spectacular disease. Ain't so and I don't believe has anything to do with his current performance at all. The weird thing is that he had it for any period of time - one would margins a pro-cyclist gets plenty of medical checks and it would have showed up pretty easily at any of those.
 
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 also had it, and much like froome didn't know I had it until the doctor noticed I was pee'ing blood when doing a regular medical. I got the treatment and no more pee'ing blood. It's a total non event and thereafter you are no different to anyone else. As soon as froome had the treatment he goes back to normal. People are talking about it like its some rare spectacular disease. Ain't so and I don't believe has anything to do with his current performance at all. The weird thing is that he had it for any period of time - one would margins a pro-cyclist gets plenty of medical checks and it would have showed up pretty easily at any of those.

That's all well,but i suggest that you should see him talk about it, might be on youtube.
 
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. QUOTE]

Schistosomiasis caused by trematodes of the genus Schistosoma.[3] As of 2005, praziquantel is the primary treatment for human schistosomiasis, for which it is usually effective in a single dose.[4]

Could be the bilharzia was seized upon to explain Froome's SUDDEN improvement in performance.
 
Dec 7, 2010
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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 also had it...

Serious question:
Did you contract it in Kenya?
 
Among human parasitic diseases, schistosomiasis (sometimes called bilharziasis) ranks second behind malaria in terms of socio-economic and public health importance in tropical and subtropical areas. The disease is endemic in 74-76 developing countries. They live in rural agricultural and peri-urban areas, and placing more than 700 million people at risk.[22]....The disease is found in tropical countries in Africa, the Caribbean, eastern South America, Southeast Asia and in the Middle East. In these areas as of 2010 it affects approximately 238 million people[21] 85% of whom live in Africa

Its not just Kenya.
 
Jul 16, 2013
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No idea where I got it - like froome I have lived in Kenya and South Africa. The combo hasn't worked quite so well for me as it has for him... My point though is that once you know you have it it's easy to knock on the head. If he is making a big fuss over it then its either a smoke screen or he's just whining. But in relation to this thread, the idea that it somehow combines with a new drug to improve his performance is insanely far fetched. Time for a shave with occie's razor.
 
furtherfaster said:
No idea where I got it - like froome I have lived in Kenya and South Africa. The combo hasn't worked quite so well for me as it has for him... My point though is that once you know you have it it's easy to knock on the head. If he is making a big fuss over it then its either a smoke screen or he's just whining. But in relation to this thread, the idea that it somehow combines with a new drug to improve his performance is insanely far fetched. Time for a shave with occie's razor.

If you,d taken some time to read a few pages of this thread you'd know that that's not been suggested.
 
Jul 15, 2013
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furtherfaster said:
No idea where I got it - like froome I have lived in Kenya and South Africa. The combo hasn't worked quite so well for me as it has for him... My point though is that once you know you have it it's easy to knock on the head. If he is making a big fuss over it then its either a smoke screen or he's just whining. But in relation to this thread, the idea that it somehow combines with a new drug to improve his performance is insanely far fetched. Time for a shave with occie's razor.
Froome is not really making big deal out of it. The media is, and the people looking for links between any medication and doping.
 
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.
 
Cycle Chic said:
If you,d taken some time to read a few pages of this thread you'd know that that's not been suggested.

I did theorise, many months ago, that Froome may still gain some advantage from the treatment, along the lines of "red blood cells destroyed by medication, body learns to make more, quickly. Because Froome is in training, and destroying cells, body goes on producing them at an abnormally high level"

To the best of my knowledge, no one has disproved that possibility, but I accept its only conjecture.
 
Jul 16, 2013
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coinneach said:
I did theorise, many months ago, that Froome may still gain some advantage from the treatment, along the lines of "red blood cells destroyed by medication, body learns to make more, quickly. Because Froome is in training, and destroying cells, body goes on producing them at an abnormally high level"

To the best of my knowledge, no one has disproved that possibility, but I accept its only conjecture.
I asked this in the main Froome thread but do we know of any other pro athlete,preferably a distance runner or similar with the disease ?
Might be interesting to compare their performances pre bilharzia and post treatment.
 
Jul 16, 2013
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We'll - good question. As far as I know it's eliminated - that's what my doc said and he certainly never said I should go back for more treatments... I may ask him now! Nah - I'm pretty sure it's a one shot deal - maybe if it doesn't work 100 % then you do a second dose. I've never heard of needing ongoing meds. I did go back for a follow up test and got the all clear and I think that's that. I'm pretty sure this is the case as I know it can be eliminated in areas by giving enough people treatment. It's actually a very funky disease - the parasite gets ****ed out where upon it swims into a nearby snail (and it has to be the right kind of snail) where it incubates and then re-hatches and goes looking for a new human to infect. Very creative disease - but you can get rid of it.

That's really why I'm sure it's a red herring in this whole discussion.
 
Aug 18, 2009
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Sort of fed up with this being used as another Froome thread. The links are weak IMHO, amd the discussion is just O/T. Some moderation would be good in fact.
 
Jul 16, 2013
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furtherfaster said:
We'll - good question. As far as I know it's eliminated - that's what my doc said and he certainly never said I should go back for more treatments... I may ask him now! Nah - I'm pretty sure it's a one shot deal - maybe if it doesn't work 100 % then you do a second dose. I've never heard of needing ongoing meds. I did go back for a follow up test and got the all clear and I think that's that. I'm pretty sure this is the case as I know it can be eliminated in areas by giving enough people treatment. It's actually a very funky disease - the parasite gets ****ed out where upon it swims into a nearby snail (and it has to be the right kind of snail) where it incubates and then re-hatches and goes looking for a new human to infect. Very creative disease - but you can get rid of it.

That's really why I'm sure it's a red herring in this whole discussion.

I think Froome has 6 monthly check ups and i'm sure i read somewhere he was treated again this year.HE also says the treatment makes him bad for a week or so and he can't train.
I don't know enough about it but are there not two different strains of this thing with differing severity?
 
Jul 16, 2013
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Having got slightly stressed about the issue I did a quick scan of the web and it seems pretty unanimous that its a one off treatment and cure scenario. You would only get re-infected if you swam in infected water again. Settled. Red herring. If Chris maintains he is taking the treatment very 6 months as some have reported, then it isn't for the purpose of treating bilharzia - that in itself should cause some red flags to pop up.
 
furtherfaster said:
... As far as I know it's eliminated - that's what my doc said and he certainly never said I should go back for more treatments... I may ask him now! Nah - I'm pretty sure it's a one shot deal - maybe if it doesn't work 100 % then you do a second dose. I've never heard of needing ongoing meds. I did go back for a follow up test and got the all clear and I think that's that. I'm pretty sure this is the case as I know it can be eliminated in areas by giving enough people treatment. . Very creative disease - but you can get rid of it.

That's really why I'm sure it's a red herring in this whole discussion.

Found it - in the video by NOS Froome states that the blood test at the end of 2010 showed he had Bilharzia. He says he has to have tablets EVERY 6 MONTHS AND ITS PROBABLY NEVER CURED. So is he telling fibs ??

scroll forward to 10minutes 30 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bKuqFBrE9o
 
Mar 13, 2009
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King Boonen said:
This is really beyond my biological level but I don't believe that would work. Gas6 is produced at the cellular level so I think it would have to be intravenously administered.
well, i would put no stock in my opinions on bio science. i am a dimwit, especially in these matters. salient term, especially.
 
Sep 29, 2012
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furtherfaster said:
Having got slightly stressed about the issue I did a quick scan of the web and it seems pretty unanimous that its a one off treatment and cure scenario. You would only get re-infected if you swam in infected water again. Settled. Red herring. If Chris maintains he is taking the treatment very 6 months as some have reported, then it isn't for the purpose of treating bilharzia - that in itself should cause some red flags to pop up.

If your treatment was ineffective, the parasite would still exist in your body, and the symptoms (bloody urine) would return.

If the symptoms have not returned, logic dictates (pun noted) you're cured.

!!
 
Cycle Chic said:
Found it - in the video by NOS Froome states that the blood test at the end of 2010 showed he had Bilharzia. He says he has to have tablets EVERY 6 MONTHS AND ITS PROBABLY NEVER CURED. So is he telling fibs ??

scroll forward to 10minutes 30 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bKuqFBrE9o

He says "I probably still haven't got rid of it. It is something, every six months I have to go for checks. For the last six months since then, every six months I've been repeating the treatment. Which is just some small tablets that I take. It's supposed to kill everything that's in there. You feel a bit lousy for a few days and then I can start training again."

So... Not exactly claiming he still has it, but definitely claiming it is still a threat to him, definitely taking ongoing treatment.
 

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