Blood Doping Research Paper
Blood Doping
Introduction:
The sporting culture has become highly competitive, causing athletes to turn to drugs or supplements to gain that edge over other athletes. Some athletes have even looked past drugs and supplements to pass the competition testing policies, turning to blood doping. Blood doping is the act of extracting blood from an athlete, then prior to competition re-injecting the blood back into the athlete’s body. This is a very dangerous procedure that is usually performed by a doctor.
Current Trends: Current trends of blood doping have been under discussion in the Tour de France, Olympic skiing, and marathon running. The use of blood doping is mainly used in endurance sports because the effects are most beneficial to those …show more content…
New prescription drugs have become available to the public that perform the same task as the standard blood doping, but without transfusions of blood. Some of the drugs are Procrit (most popular), aranesp, eprex, and neorecorman [1]. The new prescription drugs are available in a vial-liquid form, just like insulin for diabetics. The drugs increase the hematocrit (HCT) level or the percentage by volume of red blood cells in the blood. In men, the normal HCT levels range is in the mid-40s, were trained endurance athlete’s levels can reach into the low 50s, but with the EPO drugs the levels can increase into the low 60s. The increase in HCT levels correlate to more oxygen carried throughout the body, which gives the users a huge competitive edge over their peers …show more content…
After the blood has been withdrawn, the athlete becomes heavily anemic making him/her more susceptible to health risks. Blood doping increases the hematocrit levels (percent of RBC’s to the total volume of blood) in blood, which increases makes your heart work harder to pump the higher viscosity blood throughout the body. This increase can cause the heart to work too hard, which may cause a myocardial infarction (heart attack). Increasing your RBC volumes increase your risk for developing life-threatening blood clots throughout your body. Another risk of blood doping is the risk of hepatitis A, B, and HIV/Aids due to the use of needles and improper storage of the withdrawn blood
Introduction:
The sporting culture has become highly competitive, causing athletes to turn to drugs or supplements to gain that edge over other athletes. Some athletes have even looked past drugs and supplements to pass the competition testing policies, turning to blood doping. Blood doping is the act of extracting blood from an athlete, then prior to competition re-injecting the blood back into the athlete’s body. This is a very dangerous procedure that is usually performed by a doctor.
Current Trends: Current trends of blood doping have been under discussion in the Tour de France, Olympic skiing, and marathon running. The use of blood doping is mainly used in endurance sports because the effects are most beneficial to those …show more content…
New prescription drugs have become available to the public that perform the same task as the standard blood doping, but without transfusions of blood. Some of the drugs are Procrit (most popular), aranesp, eprex, and neorecorman [1]. The new prescription drugs are available in a vial-liquid form, just like insulin for diabetics. The drugs increase the hematocrit (HCT) level or the percentage by volume of red blood cells in the blood. In men, the normal HCT levels range is in the mid-40s, were trained endurance athlete’s levels can reach into the low 50s, but with the EPO drugs the levels can increase into the low 60s. The increase in HCT levels correlate to more oxygen carried throughout the body, which gives the users a huge competitive edge over their peers …show more content…
After the blood has been withdrawn, the athlete becomes heavily anemic making him/her more susceptible to health risks. Blood doping increases the hematocrit levels (percent of RBC’s to the total volume of blood) in blood, which increases makes your heart work harder to pump the higher viscosity blood throughout the body. This increase can cause the heart to work too hard, which may cause a myocardial infarction (heart attack). Increasing your RBC volumes increase your risk for developing life-threatening blood clots throughout your body. Another risk of blood doping is the risk of hepatitis A, B, and HIV/Aids due to the use of needles and improper storage of the withdrawn blood