Originally Posted by dmotoguy
Its always easier to just take a pill than eat liver and beets.
There are customer reviews that show a gain of 3-4 hemocrit, but those are just reviews.
True--the pill is easier. I take a multi-vitamin myself for that very reason. It's tough to scour the shopping list to make sure I'm getting all the vitamins/minerals I need.
I would guess, honestly, that the 3-4% gains in Hematocrit are due to some degree of dietary insufficiency of Iron, B vitamins, or Folate, all of which are needed to make hemoglobin, and the EP-NO fixes that. Think of it this way--EPO is what tells the bone marrow to make more red blood cells, but without Iron, Folate, B12, Vitamin C, etc., the MCHC/MCV of those cells might not be normal, i.e. they won't be the optimum size/shape and won't be carrying as much hemoglobin.