Question about blood doping

[silverpig]

With the recent blood doping stories from the tour de france I got to thinking about something. Now, I might have this wrong, so someone should correct me.


As far as I understand it blood doping refers to a transfusion of blood to an athlete from someone with a similar blood type. The extra red blood cells allow the blood to carry more oxygen to the muscles, increasing performance. Apparently now they can detect the addition of another person's blood to an athletes during doping tests.

Why don't athletes just have some blood drawn from themselves, put into storage, and then re-injected after they build it back up? Are the timescales all wrong?

 

[CatKillaZ]

I think they do that as well

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: CatKillaZ
I think they do that as well

How is that detectable though?

 

[George P Burdell]

In an autologous transfusion, the athlete's own RBCs are harvested well in advance of competition and then re-introduced before a critical event.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_doping

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: CatKillaZ
I think they do that as well

How is that detectable though?

unusual amounts of red blood cells that differ from normal levels

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: CatKillaZ
I think they do that as well

How is that detectable though?

The end result (higher red blood cell count) is the same either way.

Plus with your own you're going to be short for a while so it's far more beneficial to use someone else's.

Viper GTS