Pro Cyclists and Smoking

[Eric8-A]

Given the fact that smoking leads to lung cancer, I'd assume an athlete of a cyclists caliber needs their lungs to be as clean as possible. If they're suggesting tobacco or nicotine helps cyclist, shouldn't they try dip, chew or snus?

 

[shojii]

It's been mentioned in hushed tones some teams use systematic smoking programmes to help with performance. Of course, our more highly paid stars can afford lavish independent programmes, engaging 'outside help'. One neo-pro friend from Flanders told me of the 'vitamin patches' that the team physician would apply between kermesses...we all know that these were nicotine patches used as part of the preparation. It's rife I tell you...they all do it!

 

[Pax]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001541/

 

[Armchair cyclist]

I can't believe this got published, the author must be trolling :

"One important aspect of the benefits of smoking is they appear to be dose-dependent and may not develop until many years after initiation of treatment. With this in mind, smoking should be commenced at as young an age as is reasonably possible. Children who have not yet developed a pincer grasp might require modified cigarette holders, safety lighters or both. "

I can't believe you didn't read the first paragraph

if research results are selectively chosen, a review has the potential to create a convincing argument for a faulty hypothesis. Improper correlation or extrapolation of data can result in dangerously flawed conclusions. The following paper seeks to illustrate this point

 

[fmk_RoI]

How about bringing this back to cyclists: what's the take on their use of snus?

There was a story in L'Équipe in August which said that in tests on "2,200 top athletes, 23% of them had traces of nicotine in their results", with that number rising to 55% when footballers alone were looked at. Quoting former Cofidis doctor, Jean-Jacques Menuet, the article said this was no suprise: "In these collective disciplines, if a player consumes snus, another will follow behind, etc. The group effect will help spread the snus ." Groupama's science geek Fred Grappe, on Twitter, mentioned the findings of a report cited by L'Équipe which claimed that taking snus before an 80% VO2max effort would improve the effort time limit by 13.1% in non elite subjects. Mostly, snus seems to be linked to recreational use, coming into cycling form the Nordic countries where it's popular.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Confirming that the author is trolling and that it doesn't deserve to be published

Did Alan Sokal's paper, Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity, deserve to be published?

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Confirming that the author is trolling and that it doesn't deserve to be published

No: confirming that he is, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, bringing attention to the dangers of tailoring data to suit a conclusion, rather than drawing a conclusion from data.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Why do you feel a need to try to personalise the argument?

The purpose of the article is clear. The publishers published it to make the point the author intended it to make. If you have a problem with that, discuss it with the publishers, not on a cycling forum.

 

[fmk_RoI]

if the date of publication of the article were April 1st (April Fool's Day joke) and the journal had a tradition of doing that every April, it would be more acceptable - seriously, why was this published?

Again, I repeat the Sokol question: are you of the view that 'Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity' should not have been published?

 

[Merckx index]

Actually, we had a discussion here a few years ago about the PE effects of carbon monoxide, which of course increases in the system when smoking. The idea is that CO binds to and inactivates hemoglobin, stimulating reticulocyte synthesis and increasing HT. For the same reason, CO can be used to measure Hb mass (as opposed to concentration, which is what the passport does). That can be useful for doping tests, because Hb concentration can be reduced by saline or some other method of increasing the blood volume.

Determination of hemoglobin mass in humans by measurement of CO uptake during inhalation of a CO‐air mixture: a proof of concept study

Measuring hemoglobin mass (Hbmass) using the carbon monoxide () bolus rebreathing method is frequently used in research but has yet to be widely used in the clinical practice. The estimation of an adequate bolus may be difficult in patients with unknown ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Again, I repeat the Sokol question: are you of the view that 'Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity' should not have been published?

That was a classic. It was powerful precisely because it was not presented as a joke or parody. Some people took it seriously, which just underscored the author's point.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Actually, we had a discussion here a few years ago about the PE effects of carbon monoxide, which of course increases in the system when smoking.

Xenon was en vogue at that time too, wasn't it? About six years ago?

When this comes up, cobalt doping in horse racing is usually mentioned, so I'll just mention it.

That was a classic. It was powerful precisely because it was not presented as a joke or parody. Some people took it seriously, which just underscored the author's point.

It's a good way of making a point, proving the problem by exploiting it.