Eric, that sounds weird indeed.... Could it be that intense apnea training is stressing the erythrocytes, possibly via reactive oxygen species? This could lead to a lower life span of the erys, and at some point the turnover rate might exceed the rate of production. This would gradually deplete you of erys. It's just weird, cause you and umberto both had very low levels in a period of intense training just prior to record attempts.
My diet has changed a year ago. I was a chilli-eating maniac, eating lots of meat and chilli every day! Weird thing I have to eat a LOT of stuff to keep my weight. That's how my mumma made me
As soon as I start eating less, I loose weight.
At some point I developed a reaction against red meat (intense pain in the bowels, activated immune cells infiltrating the vessels of the intestines in tremendous numbers, leaving the rest of my body virtually immunodeficient).
Well, I switched to a diet low in chilli, and free of red meat (no pork, no beef, no deer, no rabbit....). The pain and immune reaction disappeared over night.
Now I get my proteins from seafood and ....birds. Else I eat lots of carbs (pasta, potatoes, rice, bread), vegetables and fruits.
I drink 2-3liters of water/day, and a little bit of alcohol (averaging to a beer/week maybe). Guess it's true that freediving turns us into wussies
OK, white meat being low on iron probably explains the recent drop in hb levels.
This leaves me with even more questions:
How can we supplement our diet in order to really make a difference in Hb?
What natural products (except red meat) are driving erythrocyte and hb levels?
Would it be worthwhile to try large amounts of antioxidants (e.g. vitaminC) in order to lower the oxidative stress in our circulatory system?
