What does a submarine driver and mountaineer have in common with Kamila Valiyeva, who is under strong suspicion of doping? The desire to take hypoxen. It’s the number three substance that appears to be part of the nutritional regimen of the best figure skater. She stated Hypoxen herself when filling out the form under the heading of funds taken for the doping test at the end of December last year. This was reported by the New York Times. In addition, there was L-carnitine and a vitamin preparation. In contrast to the heart drug trimetazidine, which was discovered in Valiyeva’s sample and is prohibited in sports, these substances are permitted in sports, but are very controversial for two reasons.
Firstly because of the unproven effect, but at least because the effect that the food industry likes to claim has rarely been scientifically confirmed. Hypoxia is most understandable for people who more or less run out of air during hard work, for example at high altitude. It should help to better supply the tissue with the available oxygen, for example shortly before the summit of Mount Everest.
Olympus is also very high and figure skating is very taxing on the heart and brain. That’s probably why the L-carnitine is on the supply list. Supposedly for better heart blood flow, but probably administered with the idea of gaining energy from fat burning. Lean and fresh? We do not know it. However, intake through a dietary supplement is not recommended for healthy people, especially since a piece of beef is sufficient to supply L-carnitine at certain intervals.
Trimetazidine is available in Russia
The second reason for the rejection in sport is the justified concern of promoting a fatal swallowing culture on the way to optimization. Valiyeva’s cocktail strategy is not exclusive. It has been common for decades where belief in infused performance enhancement has raged. Although the mixture, apart from anabolic steroids or blood doping agents, could have the opposite effect.
Permitted does not necessarily mean sensible and certainly not profitable. What is certain is that promises of performance play a role, as does the culture when choosing the means. Creatine used to be all the rage in this country, even among hockey players. The famous dazzling doping analyst Professor Manfred Donike selig spoke at the time of the “fastest way to produce expensive urine”. Trimetazidine is available in Russia, Hypoxen is said to be popular in the subsea industry.
If you mix this with L-carnitine, you’ll see a common mentality; and the widespread bad habit of explaining border crossings with lazy excuses. This time it is said to have been Valiyeva’s grandfather’s heart drops.