Tadej Debevec

Tadej Debevec
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Tadej verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
Verified
Tadej verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
University of Ljubljana · Faculty of Sport

Ph.D. Exercise & Environmental physiology

About

189
Publications
44,396
Reads
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2,313
Citations
Introduction
Dr. Debevec currently holds positions of Professor of Sport Science at the Faculty of Sport, University of Ljubljana and scientific councellor at “Jozef Stefan” Institute. He received his Ph.D. for the work on different altitude/hypoxic & hyperoxic training modalities and their effects on athletic performance and conducted his post-doctoral fellowship at University of Cape Town. He also works as a performance advisor within the UCI WorldTeam Bahrain - Victorious.
Additional affiliations
February 2020 - present
Jožef Stefan Institute
Position
  • Senior reseracher
January 2020 - present
University of Ljubljana
Position
  • Professor (Associate)
November 2011 - October 2013
Jožef Stefan Institute
Position
  • Research Assistant
Education
October 2006 - October 2011
Jozef Stefan International postgraduate school
Field of study
  • Environmental physiology
October 2001 - May 2006
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of sport
Field of study
  • Sport science

Publications

Publications (189)
Article
Full-text available
We compared neuromuscular fatigue induced by cycling at a fixed perceived effort in normoxic condition (NOR) and three purported hypoxia modalities: systemic hypoxia (SyH, FiO2 = 0.13), blood flow restriction (BFR, 50% arterial occlusion pressure) and airflow restriction mask (ARM, calibrated to ~3500 m). Seventeen healthy young participants cycled...
Article
Full-text available
The physiological sequelae of pre‐term birth might influence the responses of this population to hypoxia. Moreover, identifying variables associated with development of acute mountain sickness (AMS) remains a key practically significant area of altitude research. We investigated the effects of pre‐term birth on nocturnal oxygen saturation (SpO2${{S...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Mountain ultramarathon induces extreme physiological stress for the human body. For instance, a decrease in total hemoglobin mass (Hbmass) due to severe hemolysis is historically suspected. Nevertheless, hematological changes following a 330-km mountain ultramarathon have to date never been investigated. Methods Blood volumes were det...
Article
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Background Sleeping at altitude is highly common in athletes as an integral part of altitude training camps or sport competitions. However, concerns have been raised due to expected negative effects on sleep quality, thereby potentially hampering exercise recovery and next-day exercise performance. We recently showed that ketone ester (KE) ingestio...
Article
Full-text available
As more women engage in high-altitude activities, understanding how ovarian hormone fluctuations affect their cardiorespiratory system is essential for optimizing acclimatization to these environments. This study investigates the effects of menstrual cycle (MC) phases on physiological responses at rest, during and after submaximal exercise, at high...
Article
Full-text available
Recent evidence suggests that different hypoxic modalities might accelerate the rehabilitation process in injured athletes. In this review, the application of hypoxia during rehabilitation from musculoskeletal injury is explored in relation to two principles: (1) facilitating the healing of damaged tissue, and (2) mitigating detraining and inducing...
Article
Background: Acute mountain sickness (AMS) represents a considerable issue for individuals sojourning to high altitudes with systemic hypoxemia known to be intimately involved in its development. Based on recent evidence that ketone ester (KE) intake attenuates hypoxemia, we investigated whether exogenous ketosis might mitigate AMS development and t...
Article
Full-text available
Patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) exhibit high levels of reactive oxygen species and low plasma levels of lipophilic antioxidants, which may contribute to end‐organ damage and disease sequelae. Apolipoprotein A1, the major apolipoprotein of high‐density lipoprotein (HDL), is mainly secreted by the intestine and liver in the form of monomeric...
Article
Pre-term birth elicits long-lasting physiological effects in various organ systems, potentially modulating exercise- and environmental-stress responses. To establish whether adult survivors of pre-term birth respond uniquely to sub-acute high-altitude exposure at rest and during exercise, 17 prematurely-born healthy adults (gestational age < 32 wee...
Article
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Preterm born (PTB) infants are at risk for injuries related to oxidative stress. We investigated the association between antioxidant and neurodevelopmental gene polymorphisms and oxidative stress parameters in PTB male young adults and their term-born counterparts at rest and during exercise. Healthy young PTB (N = 22) and full-term (N = 15) males...
Article
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Sport climbing is a multifaceted sport that also requires appropriate techniques to optimize movements. As augmented feedback is known to facilitate motor learning, we investigated the utility of adding video analysis and expert modelling to standardized verbal feedback for the acquisition of three climbing-specific techniques (drop knee, heel hook...
Article
Full-text available
Premature birth may result in specific cardiovascular responses to hypoxia and hypercapnia, that might hamper high-altitude acclimatization. This study investigated the consequences of premature birth on baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) under hypoxic, hypobaric and hypercapnic conditions. Seventeen pre-term born males (gestational age, 29 ± 1 weeks), a...
Article
Full-text available
Premature birth impairs cardiac and ventilatory responses to both hypoxia and hypercapnia, but little is known about cerebrovascular responses. Both at sea level and after 2 days at high altitude (3375 m), 16 young preterm‐born (gestational age, 29 ± 1 weeks) and 15 age‐matched term‐born (40 ± 0 weeks) adults were exposed to two consecutive 4 min b...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background Acute mountain sickness (AMS) represents a considerable issue for individuals sojourning to high altitudes with systemic hypoxemia known to be intimately involved in its development. Based on recent evidence that ketone ester (KE) intake attenuates hypoxemia, we sought to investigate whether exogenous ketosis might mitigate AMS developme...
Article
Full-text available
Intermittent hypoxia (IH) is commonly associated with pathological conditions, particularly obstructive sleep apnoea. However, IH is also increasingly used to enhance health and performance and is emerging as a potent non‐pharmacological intervention against numerous diseases. Whether IH is detrimental or beneficial for health is largely determined...
Article
Full-text available
Pre‐term birth is associated with physiological sequelae that persist into adulthood. In particular, modulated ventilatory responsiveness to hypoxia and hypercapnia has been observed in this population. Whether pre‐term birth per se causes these effects remains unclear. Therefore, we aimed to assess pulmonary ventilation and blood gases under vario...
Article
Full-text available
Hypoxia is often used during training to augment metabolic load and heighten physiological adaptations with the aim of exercise performance improvements. The recently established altitude training method »sprint interval training in hypoxia« (SIH) requires individuals to perform multiple 30 s Wingate sprints under hypoxia, interspersed with 3–5 min...
Article
Full-text available
Premature birth is associated with endothelial and mitochondrial dysfunction, and chronic oxidative stress, which might impair the physiological responses to acute altitude exposure. We assessed peripheral and oxidative stress responses to acute high-altitude exposure in preterm adults compared to term born controls. Post-occlusive skeletal muscle...
Article
Full-text available
As differential physiological responses to hypoxic exercise between adults and children remain poorly understood, we aimed to comprehensively characterise cardiorespiratory and muscle oxygenation responses to submaximal and maximal exercise in normobaric hypoxia between the two groups. Following familiarisation, fifteen children (Age = 9 ± 1 years)...
Article
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Introduction: Technological advances have made high-altitude ski slopes easily accessible to skiers of all ages. However, research on the effects of hypoxia experienced during excursions to such altitudes on physiological systems, including the ocular system, in children is scarce. Retinal vessels are embryologically of the same origin as vessels i...
Article
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Dear Editor, We read with great interest the recent systematic review on the emerging topic of "maximal aerobic exercise capacity and lung function in prematurely born adults" by Thomas Gostelow and Dr Eric J. Stöhr [1]. We congratulate the authors for their excellent analysis of the growing body of literature on the topic, which corroborates the c...
Article
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Altitude exposure may suppress appetite and hence provide a viable weight-loss strategy. While changes in food intake and availability as well as physical activity may contribute to altered appetite at altitude, herein we aimed to investigate the isolated effects of hypobaric hypoxia on appetite regulation and sensation. Twelve healthy women (age:...
Article
Purpose: Premature birth induces long-term sequelae on the cardiopulmonary system, leading to reduced exercise capacity. However, the mechanisms of this functional impairment during incremental exercise remain unclear. Also, a blunted hypoxic ventilatory response was found in preterm adults, suggesting an increased risk for adverse effects of hypo...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose: To investigate differences in athletes' knowledge, beliefs, and training practices during COVID-19 lockdowns with reference to sport classification and sex. This work extends an initial descriptive evaluation focusing on athlete classification. Methods: Athletes (12,526; 66% male; 142 countries) completed an online survey (May-July 2020...
Article
Acclima(tiza)tion to heat or hypoxia enhances work capacity in hot and hypoxic environmental conditions, respectively; an acclimation response considered to be mediated by stimuli-specific molecular/systemic adaptations and potentially facilitated by the addition of exercise sessions. Promising findings at the cellular level provided the impetus fo...
Article
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The pre-term birth survival rate has increased considerably in recent decades, and research investigating the long-term effects of premature birth is growing. Moreover, altitude sojourns are increasing in popularity and are often accompanied by various levels of physical activity. Individuals born pre-term appear to exhibit altered acute ventilator...
Article
We aimed to identify potential physiological and performance differences of trained cross-country skiers (V˙o2max=60±4 ml ∙ kg–1 ∙ min–1) following two, 3-week long altitude modalities: 1) training at moderate altitudes (600–1700 m) and living at 1500 m (LMTM;N=8); and 2) training at moderate altitudes (600–1700 m) and living at 1500 m with additio...
Article
Full-text available
Preterm birth (before 37 weeks gestation) accounts for ~10% of births worldwide and remains one of the leading causes of death in children under 5 years of age. Preterm born adults have been consistently shown to be at an increased risk for chronic disorders including cardiovascular, endocrine/metabolic, respiratory, renal, neurologic, and psychiat...
Article
Full-text available
Physical inactivity is a worldwide health problem, an important risk for global mortality and is associated with chronic noncommunicable diseases. The aim of this study was to explore the differences in systemic urine 1H-NMR metabolomes between physically active and inactive healthy young males enrolled in the X-Adapt project in response to control...
Article
Full-text available
Pre-term birth is associated with numerous cardio-respiratory sequelae in children. Whether these impairments impact the responses to exercise in normoxia or hypoxia remains to be established. Fourteen prematurely-born (PREM) (Mean ± SD; gestational age 29 ± 2 weeks; age 9.5 ± 0.3 years), and 15 full-term children (CONT) (gestational age 39 ± 1 wee...
Article
We aimed to gauge the interstitial lung water accumulation following moderate-intensity exercise under normobaric and hypobaric hypoxic conditions in a group of preterm born but otherwise healthy young adults. Sixteen pre-term-born individuals (age = 21±2yrs.; gestational age = 29±3wk.; birth weight = 1160±273 g) underwent two 8 -h hypoxic/altitud...
Article
Background: This study investigated the resting ventilatory response to hypercapnia in prematurely born adults. Materials and Methods: Seventeen preterm and fourteen full-term adults were exposed to normoxic hypercapnia (two 5-minute periods at 3% and 6% carbon dioxide [CO2] interspersed by 5-minute in normoxia). Pulmonary ventilation (VE) and end-...
Article
Full-text available
Objectives: Explore training-related knowledge, beliefs and practices of athletes and the influence of COVID-19-related lockdowns. Methods: Athletes [n = 12,526 classified: world-class (13%), international (21%), national (36%), state (24%), and recreational (6%)] completed an online survey (50 d; 17th May to 5th July 2020) exploring their trainin...
Article
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Available evidence indicates that elevated blood ketones are associated with improved hypoxic tolerance in rodents. From this perspective, we hypothesized that exogenous ketosis by oral intake of the ketone ester (R)-3-hydroxybutyl (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate (KE) may induce beneficial physiological effects during prolonged exercise in acute hypoxia. As...
Article
The purpose of this double‐blinded, crossover randomized and counterbalanced study was to compare the effects of ingesting a tepid commercially available carbohydrate–menthol‐containing sports drink (menthol) and an isocaloric carbohydrate‐containing sports drink (placebo) on thermal perception and cycling endurance capacity “in a simulated home vi...
Article
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Monitoring core body temperature (Tc) during training and competitions, especially in a hot environment, can help enhance an athlete's performance, as well as lower the risk for heat stroke. Accordingly, a noninvasive sensor that allows reliable monitoring of Tc would be highly beneficial in this context. One such novel non-invasive sensor was rece...
Article
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The COVID-19 pandemic provoked a need for rapid adaptation of teaching strategies and learning environments. Thus novel approaches, predominantly based on online/virtual platforms are needed to minimize the negative effects of the pandemic on teaching (and learning). Herein we describe our recent web-based symposium series on environmental physiolo...
Article
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Recent reports suggest that high-altitude residence may be beneficial in the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) implicating that traveling to high places or using hypoxic conditioning thus could be favorable as well. Physiological high-altitude characteristics and symptoms of altitude illnesses furthermore seem similar to several pathologies asso...
Article
Full-text available
We explored the metabolic makeup of urine in prescreened healthy male participants within the PlanHab experiment. The run-in (5 day) and the following three 21-day interventions [normoxic bedrest (NBR), hypoxic bedrest (HBR), and hypoxic ambulation (HAmb)] were executed in a crossover manner within a controlled laboratory setup (medical oversight,...
Article
Full-text available
PurposeWe compared the effects of hypobaric and normobaric hypoxia on select cardio-respiratory responses, oxidative stress and acute mountain sickness (AMS) severity in prematurely born individuals, known to exhibit blunted hypoxic ventilatory response.Methods Sixteen prematurely born but otherwise healthy males underwent two 8-h hypoxic exposures...
Article
Exercise heat acclimation (HA) is known to magnify the sweating response by virtue of a lower threshold as well as increased gain and maximal capacity of sweating. However, HA has been shown to potentiate the shivering response in a cold-air environment. We investigated whether HA would alter heat loss and heat production responses during water imm...
Article
TO THE EDITOR: While the viewpoint (3) superbly summarizes key factors underlining marathon running physiology and potential reasons for recent records surge, the inherently dynamic physiological nature of marathon running might have been understated. To comprehensively interpret marathon performance, one also needs to consider the time-dependent p...
Article
Full-text available
Pre-term birth is a major health concern that occurs in approximately 10% of births worldwide. Despite high incidence rate, long-term consequences of pre-term birth remain unclear. Recent evidence suggests that elevated oxidative stress observed in pre-term born infants could persist into adulthood. Given that oxidative stress is known to play an i...
Article
Full-text available
Key points High altitude‐induced hypoxia in humans evokes a pattern of breathing known as periodic breathing (PB), in which the regular oscillations corresponding to rhythmic expiration and inspiration are modulated by slow periodic oscillations. The phase coherence between instantaneous heart rate and respiration is shown to increase significantly...
Article
Full-text available
Abstract Moderate‐intensity exercise sessions are incorporated into heat‐acclimation and hypoxic‐training protocols to improve performance in hot and hypoxic environments, respectively. Consequently, a training effect might contribute to aerobic performance gains, at least in less fit participants. To explore the interaction between fitness level a...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction While hypoxia is known to decrease peak oxygen uptake (V.⁢o2 max) and maximal power output in both adults and children its influence on submaximal exercise cardiorespiratory and, especially, muscle oxygenation responses remains unclear. Methods Eight pre-pubertal boys (age = 8 ± 2 years.; body mass (BM) = 29 ± 7 kg) and seven adult ma...