Blood Doping in Endurance Sports
Blood Doping in Endurance Sports Blood doping has become a consistant part of sports and fair play. Blood doping enhances your performance by increasing red blood cell mass and as a result delivering more oxygen to muscle. This “boost” of energy has sparked major controversy in the sports world for what it can do for an athlete during endurance events such as running. The risks involve putting the cardiovascular system of the athlete being in severe danger because of this procedure. Still, there are athletes out there that will put themselves at risk just to experience the prestige feeling of being number one, regardless of the circumstances. Fortunately, the last few years’ studies have made great strides and it has been discovered that athletes can increase their blood’s oxygen level without any side effects. Over the course of many years the use of blood doping and substances have been extremely controversial in endurance sports, how is it monitored and should they be allowed, but more importantly what are the risks? Each year, athletes in the endurance sports, increase their performances greatly. There is always better training, better conditioning tactics, and healthier athletes. Most athletes in the endurance world take one, if not all, of these methods to improve their races. Some of these ways consist of altitude training and the High Altitude Bed which is a bed that stimulates being 10,000 or more feet above which helps endurance athletes increase EPO in their bodies. Both the altitude bed and altitude training are safe and practical ways to achieve what some athletes accomplish through a highly dangerous and somewhat controversial way. However, there are some athletes that will do anything to find an easy way out, which may hinder their performance rather than help them achieve their goals. Plasma injections or blood doping is a complicated process, which if done right, can give great benefits for the short term. The process is very precise, in
Cited: "Blood Doping." USADA, 2011. Web. 19 Mar. 2011. ;. http://spot.colorado.edu/~gamow/doping.html (9 Mar. 1997). Ghaphery Nick A: Performance-Enhancing Drugs http://www3.nando.net/newsroom/sports/oth/1996/oth/mor/feat/archive/031296/mor44236.html (9 Mar. 1997). Kois, Dan