line doping is one of the simplest elbow room to better your airstream time . By taking erythropoietin ( EPO ) , a internal secretion usually bring forth by the liver and kidney , you trip your bone marrow to overproduce reddish blood jail cell , in effect boosting O capacity . The final result , as seven Tour de France titles show , is a blessing for survival , muscle recovery , and overall performance . It ’s one hellhole of an enhancement — and it works fast too — but what ’s the downside ?
“ There are a few jolly substantial risks , ” says Dr. Philip Friere Skiba , program director of sports medicine at Lutheran General Hospital . The most usual is a rake clot that can lead to heart attack , stroke , or even sudden end in your sleep . “ Increasing the origin count makes it more gummy , ” says Skiba . “ We call this ‘ sludging , ’ which can retard down your warmheartedness charge per unit and get clots . ” To avoid the so - called sludging , you have to keep that heart pumping . There are stories of some doping jock stir up up in the middle of the night and doing jumping diddley to keep it move . Others , at least anecdotally , were n’t so lucky , cash in one’s chips in their nap .
Years from now , deal EPO to up your red stemma cell will in all probability be considered as archaic as give yourself a parentage blood transfusion from saved pocketbook of origin ( like the first dopers did ) . Instead , we ’ll turn to genetical tinkering for more O . One studyshowed that by channel such genes to scalawag , researcher could for good up the amount of EPO that their bodies created . The problem for these unfortunate creature was the runaway blood cells caused their bodies to twist on the EPO hormone and contend it like a virus . The rascal eventually die of anaemia ( or lack of red blood cell ) . If we learn how to give that cistron an on / off electric switch , however — something that ’s exceedingly difficult to do in genetical enquiry today — we could regulate carmine line of descent cells for life . This would give you that untraceable sharpness for all your endurance sports .
