Blood Doping and Cell Respiration
What is blood doping and Cellular Respiration?
Disadvantages of Blood doping
Even though blood doping has pros there cons to it as well. There is the EPO (Erythropoietin) it thickens blood which can risk of several deadly diseases such as
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Cerebral or pulmonary embolism
- Autoimmune diseases with serious health consequences
Health risks:
- Hematocrit levels; which is the percentage of red blood cells by levels
- heart attack
- Blood clots
- Lung clots
- Higher risk of getting blood infections
Advantages of Blood doping
Athletes use blood doping to enhance their athletic ability. It increases the hemoglobin in your blood by 20%. When your body more red blood cells it can carry an increased amount of oxygen to their skeletal muscles. Extra blood carries more oxygen to the muscles.
- gives you an advantage in long distance (endurance)
- Allows them to generate more energy
- Oxygen helps the muscles from severe fatigue
Cellular Respiration
Aerobic Cellular Respiration
- It happens in all organisms except yeast, and some bacteria.
- Breaks down food to make cell energy (ATP)
- Happens all of the time in the mitochondria
- Anaerobic: No energy is used
Fermentation
Definition: Alternative cell to respiration that occurs when oxygen is not available.
- Alcoholic (Yeast cells and some bacteria to produce CO2 and ethyl alcohol . (wine and bread))
- Lactic acid ( Glucose is broken down into lactic acid and ATP in muscle cells of animals.)
- Advantage- Burst of ATP when oxygen is low.
- Disadvantages-
- Lactic acid is toxic to cells and causes muscle fatigue
- Few ATP produced
Glycolysis
Definition- Breaks 1 glucose into 2 pyruvic acids and 2 ATP.
- Used by all living organisms
- Anaerobic (No oxygen)
- Occurs in the Cytoplasm
- Followed by fermentation or Aerobic Respiration
What does Blood Doping do to Cellular Respiration?
By blood doping, you are getting more oxygen in your body to go to your muscles. With the more oxygen, it gives more oxygen to the cells, creating more cellular respiration to occur.
Blood Doping Policies in the NFL.
We will not tolerate any blood doping in our profession. Football is a game, a talent, a skill that is not only learned, but earned. There will be no unnatural advantages allowed in the game. In order to insure we are enforcing it to the best of our ability, we will do multiple methods of avoiding any blood doping. We will search the homes of all players and have frequent tests through urine. We will not be informing the players when one of these test days are coming. There is nothing further to be said, thank you.