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EPO - advertised on the hub???


MariusL

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Guest agteros

Ummm... No, not quite. Oxygen doesn't cause blood to clot. The dissolved portion of oxygen remains the same. Oxygen carrying capacity is increased by an increase in red cell count and therefore haemoglobin concentration (secondary to bone marrow stimulation by EPO which is normally produced in the kidneys). The problem comes in because all those extra red cells increase the viscosity of the blood (ie the blood becomes like sludge). Pumping sludge around is not easy especially through small blood vessels, this compromises oxygen delivery to vital organs and tissues. You are correct in that this problem is exagerated at low heart rates (such as those found in elite cyclists at rest), this explains sudden death - generally at night (2010 Cape Epic anyone?).

 

Thanks goodness for rescuing the ignorant there! Otherwise we all would have had to stop breathing to stay alive....

 

To add to this (help painting the pic... No I am not the/an expert here!): Increased red cell count is referred to to as hematocrit count. This is merely a percentage/ratio of red cells in your blood. 50% used to be (still is..? I am no expert!) the cut off point what the sport authorities (although different sports have different cut off points - all arbitrarily picked) use as an indication of possible blood doping.... Interesting thing is that hematocrit count is influenced by things such as hydration levels...

 

Also, taking EPO (for doping) alone will not help much as it will just suck all your iron stores empty causing iron deficiency problems further down the line... To my mind, taking EPO with low iron stores will only create inferior red blood cells which should negatively influence aerobic capacity as the red blood cell created will not have enough iron in them to carry oxygen to you muscles to work.

 

EPO is used for people with chronic kidney disease (amongst other near fatal diseases). In other words, high science medicine for really sick people... or high science doping tool for really sick dopers!

 

More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythropoietin

 

Apologies to those who I confused with my laymans interpretation of high science and biology! I'm kinda interested in all this blood / iron stuff as I tend to suffer from some kind of iron deficiency... I take iron supplements reasonably regularly just to keep my ferritin / transferrin / iron saturation % in the normal/healthy (docs & lab) ranges...

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@TimHenman: not too sure the partial pressure of O2 changes with that much with altitude - rather the total absolute pressure of the air changes with altitude. At sea level at 20°C air pressure is approx 1.2kg/m3. At Reef altitude is is approx 1.0kg/m3 - 17% less. The higher you go, the thinner the air get and the body compensates for this with higher red corpusal count as you already noted

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You are correct in that this problem is exagerated at low heart rates (such as those found in elite cyclists at rest), this explains sudden death - generally at night (2010 Cape Epic anyone?).

 

We've been through this one already…from http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/williamsons-death-attributed-to-undiagnosed-heart-condition

 

An undiagnosed heart condition was the cause of James Williamson’s death while sleeping at the Cape Epic mountain bike race last week, according to Williamson’s partner Niki Fisher. Fisher travelled to South Africa with Williamson’s family last Wednesday, where she spoke with the race doctor after an autopsy was performed on the 26-year-old.

 

“It appears Jimi had a ‘heart condition’ - where the second chamber of the heart did not push the blood out properly - so to compensate, Jimi's ventricle grew larger,” said Fisher. “This was a genetic condition. It had nothing to do with his riding.”

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back to the real question...why does ADMIN allow it to be advertised??? money talks??? :blink:

 

 

Admin uses Google Adwords on his site, so you should rather ask why does Google allow it. Maybe because its not illegal(shock horror). Supplement producers use names in their product that sound illegal and make you think it has to be awesome because the real thing is banned. EPO-Boost contains high levels of echinacea, which is a herbal supplement that you can buy at your local quack(i mean herbal) shop. Some study at some time suggested echinacea may boost epo levels.

 

USN sells 17 TestoMethoX which sounds like a hardcore illegal testosterone stack, but alas, its not. The difference between using a "testosterone booster" and the real thing is night and day and the verdict is still out on whether these "boosters" actually work.

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@TimHenman: not too sure the partial pressure of O2 changes with that much with altitude - rather the total absolute pressure of the air changes with altitude. At sea level at 20°C air pressure is approx 1.2kg/m3. At Reef altitude is is approx 1.0kg/m3 - 17% less. The higher you go, the thinner the air get and the body compensates for this with higher red corpusal count as you already noted

"approximate barometric

and oxygen pressures at different altitudes, showing that at sea level, the

barometric pressure is 760 mm Hg; at 10,000 feet, only 523 mm Hg; and at

50,000 feet, 87 mm Hg. This decrease in barometric pressure is the basic cause

of all the hypoxia problems in high-altitude physiology because, as the barometric

pressure decreases, the atmospheric oxygen partial pressure decreases

proportionately, remaining at all times slightly less than 21 per cent of the total

barometric pressure—Po2 at sea level about 159 mm Hg, but at 50,000 feet only

18 mm Hg." - TEXTBOOK OF MEDICAL PHYSIOLOGY, Guyton and Hall.

ie. Oxygen partial pressures decrease with altitude.

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If it does as advertised, yep.

 

EPO boosts the amount of oxygen in your blood. The EPO doesn't kill you, but the oxygen does. Oxygen reacts with blood to coagulate -- this is why a wound stops bleeding. When you rest or sleep your heart beats less frequently, because there is less demand for blood. Your blood flows slower. Your blood start coagulating, and you get a blood clot.

And a O3 machine (Ozone)???

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  • 2 weeks later...

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