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Altitude Training and EPO

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... athletes would live at High Altitude camps (8000ft above sea ... their high altitude gear to sleep in so they can maintain their higher hematocrit levels. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Altitude Training and EPO


1
Altitude Training and EPO
  • Lecture 19

2
  • The practice of altitude training and synthetic
    EPO doping is usually done by endurance athletes.
  • Altitude training has been shown to improve
    aerobic capacity and enhance recovery. This would
    be extremely important to an athlete competing in
    a multi-stage event like the Tour de France.

3
  • Altitude training
  • Traditionally athletes would live at High
    Altitude camps (8000ft above sea level) for
    several weeks before the event)
  • More common practice now is to have athletes
    sleep in high altitude tents or live in high
    altitude houses.

4
  • How does high altitude training improve
    performance?
  • At an altitude of 8000ft the air has 75 of the
    O2 at sea level.
  • Lower O2 concentrations in the air means that the
    partial pressure of O2 in the blood decreases.
  • Lower partial pressure of O2 stimulates an up
    regulation of erythrocyte production (RBC) thus
    increasing the hemoglobin content of the blood

5
  • Hemoglobin carries O2
  • in the blood to working
  • muscles.
  • Athletes that live high and compete low (at sea
    level where there is normal O2 in the air) have
    increased carrying capacity of O2 and
    consequently greater O2 delivery to tissues. This
    increases aerobic performance and speeds up the
    recovery process.

6
  • Many studies have shown the benefit of altitude
    training on
  • Speed, power, endurance and recovery
  • Optimally Live HIGH, train LOW
  • This is tough because its a long way up and down
    the mountain to get 8000ft down and back up.
  • More Common Live HIGH, train HIGH
  • Also tough because training intensity is impaired
    by the altitude. Athletes are also at-risk for
    altitude sickness.

7
  • Instead of trying to trying to manage living at
    high altitude companies commercially
    manufacture/sell high altitude systems.
  • tents or houses that athletes live in or bring
    with them that simulate a high altitude
    environment (sleep for 10-12 hours)
  • Tents have normal sea level pressure but reduced
    O2 in the air (15.3 vs. 21 O2)

8
  • High altitude products have shown increases in
    RBC and EPO concentrations in the body.
  • The use of high altitude performance strategy,
    although accepted to benefit performance, is
    controversial because the effect on RBC count
    decreases within several days at sea level.
  • To counteract the acuteness of high altitude
    training elite athletes often travel with their
    high altitude gear to sleep in so they can
    maintain their higher hematocrit levels.

9
  • Erythropoietin (EPO)
  • Glycoprotein hormone that stimulates erythrocyte
    (RBC) precursors in the bone marrow.
  • Produced by our kidney
  • Regulates RBC production
  • Synthetic EPO is available as a therapeutic agent
    produced by recombinant DNA technology in
    mammalian cell culture
  • - used traditionally to treat anemia (decrease
    in the number of healthy RBC) as a result of
    cancer or chronic renal failure
  • - also used as a common blood doping agent in
    endurance sports

10
Increased aerobic capacity
Altitude Training
Hypoxia when O2 availability is limited.
11
  • How EPO works

Kidney
O2 is normal
Higher O2 in the blood feedbacks to kidneys
EPO
EPO
EPO
EPO
When O2 is LOW
Bone (marrow not shown)
12
  • Use of EPO for athletic performance same premise
    as high altitude training strategies.

O2
Performance
13
  • Use among athletes began in the 1980s but there
    was no test for it.
  • Excessive use of EPO leads to an overproduction
    of RBC that the blood becomes so thick it puts
    too much strain on the heart.
  • Evidence of EPO overuse among cyclists surfaced
    in the early 1990s when more than a dozen
    cyclists dies of heart failure in their sleep.

14
  • In 1998 a huge doping scandal at the Tour de
    France tainted the sport and forced cycling
    federations to implement more stringent testing
    measures.
  • EPO use was initially tested for by measuring
    hematocrit concentrations. (this is the
    proportion of blood volume that is RBC)
  • Normal is 41-50 for men.
  • WADA enforced the legal limit of 50
  • Cyclists employed great doctors to keep their
    hematocrit levels at 49.9 with blood thinning
    infusions.

15
  • In 2000, a urine test for EPO was used to detect
    residues of pharmaceutical EPO
  • Test is controversial several athletes that have
    tested positive for EPO use have successfully had
    their cases overturned with a defense that the
    test was unreliable.
  • In 2006 new pharmaceutical EPO (Dynepo) is
    expected to be on the market. It is manufactured
    in human cells and would have an identical
    pattern to human glycosylation that is seen on
    natural EPO
  • It would be undetectable with the current method
    of testing.

16
  • The illegal blood doping era is likely over but
    legal ways to increase whole body hemoglobin
    levels to the ceiling of 49.9 as permitted will
    continue in the future.
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