blood doping

We frequently hear the term blood doping in endurance sports. Why do athletes do it? What is the physiological mechanism? 🤔🤔 Blood doping is the administration of blood to an athlete to increase the red blood cell count. 💉💉 This may be done by using an athlete's own blood or someone else's that has the same blood type. The general method of blood doping is to withdraw two units of an athlete's own blood four to six weeks prior to the competition. 🔃🔃This allows time for the red blood cell count to return to normal prior to re-infusing the blood a day or two before the competition. ♻️♻️The whole point of blood doping is to increase the red blood cell count and therefore increase the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood which leads to more oxygen to the working muscles. 🚴🏾🚴🏾This leads to improved performance and endurance. The American cyclist Tyler Hamilton was one of the first athletes to be found guilty of blood doping in 2004. 🚫🚫Blooding doping can cause some adverse effects such as increased risk of blood-borne diseases like hepatitis B & C and HIV. ⚠️⚠️Blood doping may lead to increased blood viscosity and this may lead to some serious health risks due to sludging of blood.
Reference: Brukner & Khan (2014) Clinical Sports Medicine (4th. Ed.) McGraw Hill Education