Blood Doping

Besides steroids, that are stored in muscle tissues and are easily detectable, blood doping is also quite popular among athletes. The basic concept of this procedure is that certain amount of blood is taken out from the body, usually a couple of pints, then the blood is separated in such way that only red blood cells are left, and then in a few weeks put back into the body. During this period of time, human body replenishes the missing blood. At the time when an athlete needs to perform, his or her red blood cells levels increase after the injection, and that allows the body to be more efficient and to achieve better performance – excess of red blood cells carry more oxygen to the muscles, energy levels increase, endurance of the body enhances.

Urine drug test cannot detect blood doping, neither can a regular blood test – only specific measuring of red blood cells on regular basis can determine if a person has been trying to improve his or her physical performance. Also, very rarely athletes use somebody else’s blood to extract red blood cells from, because it will increase the chances of contaminating a body with various infectious diseases, like hepatitis, AIDS, etc.

This technique is a bit different from those when a person actually uses an illegal substance to achieve specific effects; however, it is still considered an illegal procedure that can disqualify an athlete from a competition, since an athletic performance is altered  by something other that natural gift and hard trainings.