Increase of the Amount of Hemoglobin and Blood Volume in Connection with Physical Training

Abstract

Summary. In the present paper we report on an investigation in which the amount of hemoglobin determined after the method of SJÖSTRAND (1948) in a number of athletically trained men and women has been compared with that in an average group of the respective sexes. The athletically trained men and women showed considerably higher amounts of hemoglobin and blood volumes than the average material. On the whole, the best trained men deviated by 41%, and the women by 44% from the reference material. In three men and one woman the amount of hemoglobin was determined just before and immediately after a skiing tour in the mountains. The figures were 10–19 per cent higher after the training than before. In a patient who had been confined to bed for a considerable length of time (owing to fracture of the leg) the amount of hemoglobin was determined repeatedly. It showed a successive decrease, amounting at its maximum to 15 per cent of. the original figure. The amount of hemoglobin and blood volume seems accordingly to vary with the degree of physical training. The costs of the investigation have in part been defrayed by a grant from the Therese and Johan Andersson Memorial Fund.

RED CELL, PLASMA AND BLOOD VOLUME IN HEALTHY MEN MEASURED BY RADIOCHROMIUM (Cr51) CELL TAGGING AND HEMATOCRIT: INFLUENCE OF AGE, SOMATOTYPE AND HABITS OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY ON THE VARIANCE AFTER REGRESSION OF VOLUMES TO HEIGHT AND WEIGHT COMBINED*

“…In contrast, Bass, Buskirk, Jampietro and Mager (22) found no increase in Vpl or Vrbc after three weeks of vigorous physical conditioning and Buskirk (23) was unable to demonstrate differences in Vpl or Vwb per unit of total or fat-free body weight in moderately or rigorously trained athletes and nonathletes. The demonstration by Kjellberg, Rudhe and Sjdstrand (21) of large differences between the blood volumes of athletically trained and untrained persons requires re-examination. The carbon monoxide method which they used is particularly unsuitable for this problem, since 15 per cent of the test dose of gas leaves the blood during the measurement and goes mostly to muscle pigments (25,27 2.…”

“…Gregersen and Nickerson (3) classified subjects according to somatotype and found that variance of blood volume per unit of body surface area was reduced to an important degree when dealing with extreme body types but not in the middle ranges. Divergent results have been reported concerning the influence of age and of physical training on blood volume (2,(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23).…”

Changes in Exercise Cardiac Function With Age in Endurance-Trained Females

“…As previously discussed, ET males and fernales display sirnilar training-induced augmentations in BV, expressed relative to body mass ( 149). In a more recent study, Mier et ai.…”

Circulatory Effects of Chronic Hypervolemia in Polycythemia Vera*

“…The present study indicates that high output occurs with hypervolemia even in the presence of an elevated hematocrit. These observations in the chronic hypervolemia of polycythemia vera may be compared with the studies of Kjellberg, Rudhe and Sjdstrand in which an augmentation of blood volume and work capacity per heart beat were observed in trained athletes (17). The possible relationship between increased output observed with high altitude polycythemia (18) and altered blood volume would seem to merit study.…”