o supply sufficient oxygen to the increasingly worked muscles.A greater blood volume increases the amount of blood returning to the heart and therefore will allow a greater amount to be pumped out each heart beat, allowing the heart to pump more blood without increasing the heart rate. This is known as the Frank-Starling mechanism.Red blood cells are an important acid buffer as well. With more blood cells you should be able to buffer more lactic acid. This means that EPO use may boost both the aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. With EPO use, you could raise your haematocrit to about 55%, thereby increasing your blood's haemoglobin content to 17.7 grams per 100 ml. Compare this to a normal haematocrit of about 45% and a haemoglobin content of 15 grams per 100ml, an 18% increase. This would mean a delivery of an additional 3.6 ml of oxygen per 100 ml of blood to active muscle - a serious advantage!What advice would you give to someone who asked you if they should take it? DON’T TAKE IT!!Erythropoietin use in fit young adults could have severe consequences. By boosting haematocrit levels above 50%, they are replicating polycythaemia, a disease that makes blood viscous. The athlete may go into cardiac arrest, have a pulmonary embolism, develop clots in any small vessel in the body, and experience seizures with hypertensive encephalopathy (inflammation of the brain causing disorientation, drowsiness, delirium, and possibly coma) that could be fatal. One of the greatest risks is the combined use of EPO and steroids. If both drugs were used simultaneously, a stacking effect would occur, but it is more serious than that. When administering testosterone and erythropoietin in combination, it was found that the increase in erythropoiesis was much greater than the additive effect of both agentsSteps to reduce the risks may be to create a hyperhydrated state within the body and thus "diluting" the blood, or to take aspirin, intrav...
