Some athletes have been accused of performing \"blood doping\" to improve their

Question

Some athletes have been accused of performing "blood doping" to improve their athletic performance.

1. How could athletes abuse this?

2. In your opinion, do you think it is okay for them to do this? You must stated why or why not in your discussion board response.

3. Why would removing blood a month or so prior to performance, then re-infusion the blood shortly before a competition, boost performance?

Some athletes have been accused of performing "blood doping" to improve their athletic performance.

1. How could athletes abuse this?

2. In your opinion, do you think it is okay for them to do this? You must stated why or why not in your discussion board response.

3. Why would removing blood a month or so prior to performance, then re-infusion the blood shortly before a competition, boost performance?

Explanation / Answer

1. Blood doping is the practise in which an athlete injects oxygenated blood inside their body to boost the number of red blood cells. This is an attempt to increase their performance. It can also mean injecting other substances such as erythropoietin (EPO), darbepoetin-alfa, and hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) stabilizers. Abuse can mean taking these chemicals in excess of body requirements to increase oxygen carrying capacity of their bodies. However, in the long term, the kidneys will be affected when it tries to filter the blood for excess chemicals and by-products. Additionally, EPO thickens the blood leading to increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and cerebral or pulmonary embolism.

2. It should be illegal because there would be no way to guarentee whether the athlete uses their own blood, or a donor blood. This would amount to using extraneous chemicals ( not produced by their own bodies) to boost their performance. Moreover, it is illegal to use blood boosting chemicals without prescription. Hence, they would be violating certain medication rules as well.

3. Blood removed prior to performance would contain large number of oxygented red blood cells. These cells deplete during performances and intense training before performances. Hence, re-injecting just before performance will ensure the athlete has a abundance of red blood cells, which can carry oxygen to the lungs.

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