Question

1. Define blood doping. Be sure to explain what is occurring from a physiological standpoint in both normal individuals and those who blood dope.

2. Provide the potential benefits and risks associated with blood doping.

3. What are your personal opinions on blood doping? Explain why you have that opinion and what experiences or logic has led to the formation of your opinion.

4. Blood doping is only banned in specific sports. Professional athletics such as basketball in the USA do not test for blood doping. Should they? Or is blood doping only impermissible in certain contexts? Explain your logic.

Answer 1

1. Blood doping is a technique by which the athletic performance is temporarily improved, as the oxygen carrying red blood cells from blood drawn from an athlete previously long time before the event is re-injected shortly before the event, so as to boost the aerobic capacity or VO₂ max and thus the performance .

Widely used methods -

• Blood transfusions
• Injections of erythropoietin (EPO)
• Injections of synthetic oxygen carriers

To provide sufficent oxygen to the exercising skeletal muscle body undergoes aerobic respiration.

Acheiving maximum aerobic capacity depends upon-

1. Maximum cardiac output
2. Increased haemoglobin mass
3. Maximum oxygen extraction

It is difficult to alter the cardiac output of the athlete just before the event.

Oxygen extraction is also maximum during the maximal skeletal muscle exercise.

Oxygen content can be increased , by increasing the mass of haemoglobin, as the blood having oxygenated red blood cells is

introduced, increases haemoglobin concentration and blood volume. Thus aerobic capacity is increased.

In a normal individual- Blood of adult male comprised of 40-50% red blood cells ,which carry oxygen to the tissues

( In adult female- 35-45%)

In a doped individual - Red blood cells from the donor or if previously withdrawn from the athlete are re-introduced , which adds up to the total mass , thus the increased number of red cells having oxygen now allows the muscles to work for longer period of time and harder without cramping compared to the normal individuals .

2. Benefits of blood doping-

• Enhances oxygen carrying capacity.
• Improved aerobic endurance and performance.

Risk of blood doping -

1. Heart attack
2. Stroke
3. Blood clots
4. Infections (HIV, Hepatitis ) due to Blood transfusion

3. Blood doping should not be allowed , as due to this some athletes will have added advantage over the other .

I have this opinion because i think it is unfair , as it alters the natural capacity of one individual which ruins the meaning of the sport as a whole logically.  

4. Yes professional  basket ball athletes should be tested because doping in sport will-

• Potentially enhance the sporting performace and violate sporting spirit
• Health of the athlete is also at risk .