Xenon use on Everest short trip: “Trained doctor with appropriate equipment is absolutely essential”

Mount Everest
Mount Everest

And suddenly the mountaineering scene is discussing a noble gas that we all probably heard about in chemistry lessons at school. But most of us have forgotten all about it. Xenon is one of the rarest elements found on earth. Although it is in the air we breathe, the proportion of xenon is tiny: 87 billionths or 0.0000087 percent (I hope I didn’t make a mistake with the zeros).

If you want to extract xenon, this almost-nothing proportion has to be extracted from the air in a complex process. This makes the gas expensive. But it is also in demand. Xenon is used for light sources (such as car lamps), as a laser gas in the semiconductor industry, as a propulsion agent for satellites, in medicine as a high-tech anesthetic – and probably soon also in commercial eight-thousander mountaineering.

Body produces more EPO by leaps and bounds

As reported, British clients of Austrian expedition operator Furtenbach Adventures are to fly to Nepal, climb Mount Everest and return home in just one week in the coming spring season. Before the trip, they have pre-acclimatized themselves with hypoxia training. They will also inhale a xenon/oxygen mixture under medical supervision in Kathmandu. The proportion of xenon is said to be significantly lower than in anesthesia. According to the plan, the climbers will then be flown by helicopter to Everest Base Camp, from where they will make their way directly to the summit – with bottled oxygen and Sherpa support.

The effect of the xenon exposure: the kidneys produce more EPO by leaps and bounds, resulting in significantly more red blood cells. A rapid acclimatization by inhalation, so to speak. “There is no health risk,” Lukas Furtenbach, who has tested the method on himself several times, told me.

Mount Everest (before sunrise, seen from Gokyo Ri)
Mount Everest (before sunrise, seen from Gokyo Ri)

Dr. Ulf Gieseler, an internist and cardiologist from the German town of Heidelberg, who is also a mountaineer and expedition doctor, considers this statement to be “audacious”. For example, a rapid increase in red blood cells can cause the blood to thicken, “as the hematocrit (the proportion of blood cells in relation to the total blood volume) can rise uncontrollably, which means that thromboses and pulmonary embolisms are pre-programmed”, writes Gieseler in a comment on my previous report on the topic.

I wrote to Dr. Michael Fries. The head physician for anesthesia and intensive care medicine at St. Vincenz Hospital in the German town of Limburg an der Lahn had given Furtenbach the Xenon tip a few years ago and advised him. Here are his answers to my three questions:

In principle, I consider the use of xenon to be very safe. Xenon has been used medically for decades. On the one hand as an anesthetic during operations, but also as part of the treatment of critically ill patients. Last but not least, it is also used in certain radiological examinations. Due to the rarity of the gas, which means high costs, special devices have to be used to apply it.

I am not aware of any serious, especially long-term complications with any of these medical applications. Nausea and vomiting rarely occur during acute use (i.e. shortly after application). This is why xenon is also approved by the authorities as an anesthetic. The mixing ratio is monitored by the device used; the application is also ensured by a specialist. However, both components are essential.

First of all, I also find the term “xenon shower” a little tendentious. For all substances that are supposed to prevent AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness), there are no studies from altitudes above 5,000 meters. In view of the very high safety profile of xenon, I therefore consider its use to be fundamentally justified. I would also like to add that the administration of xenon is only part of the preparation for high altitudes. The FT article (the Financial Times was the first medium to report on this) suggests that the undertaking is possible through the use of xenon alone. This is not correct.

Absolutely. Only a doctor trained in its use and with the appropriate equipment will be able to administer it adequately and sufficiently. As described above. Then, in my opinion, the use is safe.

One Reply to “Xenon use on Everest short trip: “Trained doctor with appropriate equipment is absolutely essential””

  1. Xenon has been approved as an anesthetic gas since 2005. To answer the question in other forums, this is why Furtenbach uses xenon, not argon, which is cheaper and is said to have the same effect. Argon is not approved for medical use!
    Xenon increases HIF 1alpha (hypoxia induced factor) in the kidney, a transcription factor that increases Epo and, via Epo, the erythrocytes/red blood cells that transport oxygen/O2. Epo has a half-life of 5 hours and is physiologically increased up to 1000 times under hypoxia. Studies show that xenon increases Epo by 160%. Erythrocytes are formed in response to Epo within a few days. I have a few questions: How can a one-time administration of xenon on site cause the erythrocytes to rise so quickly (lead time approx. 5 days) that Everest is possible immediately? Is the effect on site a placebo because you have previously “trained” in the hypoxia tent? Or is xenon regularly inhaled during training at home? Why isn’t Roxadustat simply used, a drug that has been approved since 2019 in tablet form for patients with renal insufficiency to increase HIF 1 alpha? The cost here is around 40 euros per pack, significantly cheaper than xenon, the same effect via HIF 1 alpha on Epo. Why is xenon inhaled and not given in a better dose IV as is usual in radiology or even tested in anesthesia at the University of Ulm in 1999?
    Is there a marketing strategy behind it? 100,000 euros flash versus 150,000 euros xenon is a word with a shorter duration on site in Nepal for the organizer’s wallet. Are there medical interests of doctors who want to make a name for themselves or habilitate in something that has not yet been tried?
    Or is there a completely different effect of xenon in the foreground here? Yes, xenon induces Epo via HIF 1alpha, but to feel the effect, it takes at least 5 days for the erys to develop. What xenon has immediately, however, is a neuroprotective effect by inhibiting the NMDA receptors in the brain. Does xenon protect against HACE and is that the effect that Furtenbach himself experienced in a hypoxia tent pre-acclimatized on Aconcagua and Everest?
    If so, does Furtenbach know about the potential effect?

Comments are closed.

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial
error

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)