I wouldn't consider fucking with epo. Do u have a highly qualified professional trainer that will be setting this up for u? If not u might die. Epo is serious shit.
We used to do it when I was in the military. It definitely sucked, but did seem to improve cardio to an extent. I havent seen any of the studies your reffering to I will have to look it up. I will say it pays for a soldier to have experience in one, just incase you ever encounter biological warfare during combat.
Yeah that's a very good reason to if in the military. Then you need to be able to function is a skill set. I've noticed for me feel cardio improves better if can breath better. Using some types head gear for sparring that makes it harder to breath think hurt my max cardio cus didn't get lungs to fully open when sparring sometimes vs being able to push as hard as possible with lungs and body. I can't name off studies but was sure a couple had come out having to do with max vo2 I believe and affect would have.