Mayo Clinic Medical Edge
N22 Blood Doping
Intro: When cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted he used performance enhancing
drugs, the practice of blood doping hit the media spotlight. But how exactly does it
boost performance? Experts at Mayo Clinic explore the science behind blood
doping.
Video
TRT 2:13
Audio
In professional sports, the stakes are
high. Athletes want to win.
Voice of Vivien Williams
Michael Joyner, M.D.
Mayo Clinic Anesthesiologist
Voice of Vivien Williams
Michael Joyner, M.D.
Voice of Vivien Williams
Michael Joyner, M.D.
Voice of Vivien Williams
“It's you verses the clock, you verses the
other competitors, you against yourself.”
And there’s big money. Some will do
whatever it takes to be the best.
“We live in a performance-enhanced
world, so we have performanceenhancing drugs in sports.”
Mayo Clinic Dr. Michael Joyner is an
anesthesiologist who’s research focuses
on understanding elite athletes; how they
reach maximum performance. He says
it’s all about oxygen delivery to the
body’s tissues.
“One of the things that determines the
maximum ability of somebody to use
oxygen is how many red blood cells they
have circulating around in their body.
Blood doping is an effort to raise the
number of blood cells by taking blood
out, storing it, and then re-infusing it
later.”
Red blood cells carry oxygen to the
body’s tissues. When the stored blood is
returned to the body, there’s a sudden
boost of red blood cells. Those cells
carry higher than normal amounts of
oxygen to muscles, enhancing
Michael Joyner, M.D.
Voice of Vivien Williams
Michael Joyner, M.D.
Voice of Vivien Williams
To sports the Dr. Joyner
Michael Joyner, M.D.
performance.
“The other thing people do is use a drug
called erythropoietin or EPO to boost the
body's natural production of red blood
cells.”
An injection of EPO stimulates your bone
marrow to make more red blood cells,
boosting levels of oxygen getting to your
muscles and boosting performance.
“The body's own factory that makes red
cells gets cranked up.”
Both techniques are not just for athletic
enhancement. They’re needed in the
medical world. EPO is used to help keep
up red blood counts, such as for people
on dialysis. And removing blood to put
back later is common during surgery. Still
blood doping for performance
enhancement is illegal in the sports
world. And Dr. Joyner suspects that as
long as the stakes are high, some
athletes will be tempted to dope.
“I think the athletes would tell you that
they would be happy to not dope if they
were convinced the playing field was
level.”
For Mayo Clinic News Network, I’m
Vivien Williams.
Anchor tag:
What kinds of athletes use blood doping? Dr. Joyner says the answer is endurance
athletes such as cyclists, swimmers and runners. He also says the effects of blood
doping are temporary.
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