Recently a lot of athletes carry out high-altitude training for the improvement of their endurance.
In high altitudes, oxygen partial pressure gets low and a living body goes hypoxic state, which induces erythropoiesis resulting the increase of RBC count. The increase of RBC count maintains the amount of oxygen supply even after the person comes back to the level land, which is supposed to bring benefits to an athlete performing. But there is an adverse event. The increase of RBC count causes high blood viscosity with high hematocrit, and will burden the heart through cardiovascular and peripheral rheology.
This time we had a randomized study with fish oil concentration (EPA:1.6g/day) vs. placebo(olive oil) for thirteen weeks. The subjects were twelve male long-distance runners in a training session, which included a training at about 3000m above sea level, . A term of training project carried out the level land at 10-weeks and high altitude training at 3-weeks.
Consequently, the amount of EPA in RBC membrane after the training increased twice as much as that of before the training. In placebo group a tendency of increasing RBC count was observed and it wasn' t in EPA group. This result indicates that RBC deformability and peripheral rheology have been improved in EPA group.
As the increase of RBC count heavily burdens the heart of athletes in an intensive training in high altitudes, constant long-term ingestion of EPA would contribute to them improving cardiovascular function and endurance, which is beneficial to their athletic achievement.

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Antithrombotic effect of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which are rich in marine lipids, has been extensively investigated. But the precise and clear reports of the effect of semi-purified EPA-TG are very few on the change of fatty acid composition, and plasma, platelet and RBC function in the patients with cerebro and cardio-vascular disorders. Forty-five patients with hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, ischemic heart disease or cerebrovascular disorder were entered to this study. They were divided to two groups. In one group (group A), EPA-TG capsules (400mg capsule x12/day, EPA 1320mg/day) were administered for 2 months and routine biochemical markers and platelet function were investigated. In other group (group B), function of RBC was investigated in detail in addition to lipid profiles and fatty acid composition of plasma, platelet and RBC over 4 months during and after EPA-TG administration. In both groups, general biochemical tests and MDA levels were not altered, lipid profiles and platelet function improved and bleeding time prolonged without clinical significance by EPA-TG ingestion. In group B, content of EPA in RBC increased by ingestion of EPA-TG for 2 months and this high level of EPA was maintained until 2 months after discontinuation of EPA. RBC function was improved. These data indicated that EPA-TG administration was useful for slow down the progress of thrombotic cerebro and cardio-vascular disorders through improving lipid profiles, platelet function and RBC function especially in the patients cerebro and cardio-vascular disorders.

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