Russians Demand Gold for their Skater

[Larry_OHF]

Blood Doping

A procedure for increasing an athlete's red-blood cell count. Generally blood is taken from the athlete and the RBCs are concentrated and frozen. Later, the RBCs are thawed and re-injected into the athlete. Usually, at least 2 pints are drawn from the athlete at least 6 weeks before a competitive event. During this time the body will restore the usual number of RBCs. A day or two before the event the athlete will thaw and reinfuse the RBCs, thereby increasing the RBC count which increases the amount of oxygen the athlete can carry. You could also inject a hormone called Erythropoietin which stimulates the synthesis of RBCs in the bone marrow, but it is much more dangerous.
The downside of doping is that if not done carefully, it can result in infection and potentially fatal immune response.

(Perspectives in Nutrition by Wardlaw)

[Micah Foehammer]

Erythropoietin = EPO????

Last report is that urine samples from the Russian skier are being screened for EPO (no results in yet) - apparently the problem is that if the sample isn't taken immediately after competition, the presence of EPO is difficult to detect.

Better living thru chemistry??????