Lance Armstrong, winner of 7 consecutive Tour de France bicycle race titles, ultimately admitted that his victory was fuelled by drugs i.e.EPO, steroid and even blood transfusion. His career is ended now and all his trophies were stripped, but curiosity might drive us question how that “EPO” makes him an infamous cyclist nobody can beat.
EPO?
EPO, short of Erythropoietin, is a hormone produced mostly by kidney to ultimately create red blood cells (RBC) in red bone marrow, in response to tissue hypoxia (low oxygen in tissue), blood loss or iron therapy (in those who have iron deficiency). It is normally-occurring hormone that keeps our RBC produced. However, EPO, as was used by Lance Armstrong, was artificially harvested, or we can say “Drug”. That EPO drug is epoetin alfa (under trade name Procrit® or Epogen®) which is used therapeutically for people with low red blood counts (such as those received chemotherapy or anemia). On the other hand, EPO comes at a price. Because EPO excessively increases the number of RBC, it could raise viscosity of blood, thus makes it hard for heart to pump (due to high resistance to blood flow), and eventually stroke.
So why does EPO relate to winning?
Running, cycling or weight lifting is sport requires strong endurance. Therefore, oxygen delivery to muscle mass is an important key to success, yet it is a limited factor in normal individual. So, to increase athlete’s performance in sport, they need to increase their blood oxygen-carrying capability. But how?
One among other answers to this question lies inside red blood cells. Since RBC transport oxygen, athletes have tried to increase their red blood cell counts known as “Blood Doping” or “Artificially Induced Polycythemia”, as was done by Lance Armstrong. As explained above that EPO might lead to stroke, evidence pointed out that 15 cyclists had died from EPO-related stroke or heart attack in 1980s, which ultimately drove International Olympic Committee to ban the use of epoetin alfa in sport.
EPO, one among other banned substances Lance Armstrong used, was an indicator that his winning was of no meaning but cheat. Additionally, that might give an implication that Lance had not physically pushed himself to the limit, instead he relied on drug that makes no sense to the beautiful definition of “Sport”.
Kenyans are *always* marathon running gold-medalists
Have you ever wondered why those Kenyans always place themselves on top of the list in marathon winner? Of course, their endurance is so strong, and that might explain how they possibly run kilometers non-stop. So, the way we explain it is the way we look at their training ground. Kenya is an African country with highland, specifically more than 2 000 meters above sea level. Because high altitude is scarce of oxygen, their body produces natural EPO to increase their RBCs and even more when they greatly exercise (our body needs more oxygen when exercise). Therefore, their performance and endurance were boosted when they compete in lower land i.e. in Phnom Penh, because their EPO level was higher than athletes trained at lower altitude. Thus, many athletes around the world now become attracted to set up their training camp in Kenya as well.
As epotin alfa is banned, however, it is difficult to detect (high reticulocytes counts) as it is identical to natural Erythropoietin.
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