Blood doping and sports
There is no doubt that blood doping can increase athletic performance. Today, the Olympic and sporting agencies discourage blood doping and consider it unfair. As of today, trying to detect blood doping has not been fruitful. There are no fool proof tests to check an athlete for blood doping.
A recent variation along the same lines of blood doping has been developed at the University of Colorado. Igor Gamow has developed a sleep chamber that mimics reduced air pressure seen at high altitude and thus, the body stimulates the production of red blood cells. This enables the athlete to train at sea level and have the same fitness advantage as an athlete that is living at high altitude. Work from Colorado indicates that if one sleeps in the chamber 6-8 hours a day for 2-3 weeks, the hemoglobin concentration can increase by more than 23%. This type of holistic Doping is considered legal safe and natural.
Conclusion
For the time being blood doping remains controversial in sports medicine. While illegal, blood doping still is not detectable by any tests that we have so far. While the procedure does provide benefit to the athletes, there are also some dangerous risks associated with the procedure. However, with the no win attitude and the lure of big money in sports, most athletes will go to any extreme to increase their performance.
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