Lactic acid in blood after various combinations of exercise and hypoxia

¹ Institute of Aviation Medicine, Royal Norwegian Air Force, Oslo, Norway

Lactic acid was determined in the blood after exercise and hypoxia in various combinations. Seventy-five tests were made on military personnel 20–25 years old. Exercise at a constant work load was done on a bicycle ergometer for 15 min at a chosen simulated altitude. The loads were from 400 to 1,200 kg-m/min and the simulated altitudes were from 10,000 to 17,000 ft. In these experiments on randomly chosen, enlisted Air Force soldiers there was a very great deviation in results, indicating that care must be taken in drawing conclusions about the conditions of stress and altitude from the amount of lactic acid present after an incident.