New Blood for Athletes?

Hinting darkly that some Scandinavian and Communist countries already employ such techniques, Western coaches and trainers have been searching for years for a safe, drugless way of improving athletes' performances. Swedish researchers may now have developed a technique that can do just that. In a series of experiments at Stockholm's Institute of Gymnastics and Sports, Dr. Bjorn Ekblom gave physical education students transfusions of their own red blood cells, which carry oxygen to muscles and other tissues. The result was the kind of boost in endurance that could mean the difference between a gold medal and none at all.

Called "blood doping" by coaches,

Ekblom's method is based on a well-established physiological fact: muscles under stress need more oxygen than those that are not. Athletes' muscles become fatigued when they are starved for oxygen. To overcome this hunger, Ekblom first removed a total of 1,200 cc. (slightly more than a quart) of blood from each of four students in three separate bleedings four days apart, then kept the blood in cold storage. The bleedings temporarily reduced the subjects' red-cell count, decreasing their oxygen-carrying capacity and thus their endurance by about 30%. But their bodies soon replaced the lost blood. Then, 32 days after the initial bleeding, Ekblom took the red cells, which had been separated from the blood, and reinfused them into his subjects.

The result of the reinfusion was a marked increase in each student's redcell count-and a 25% increase in his endurance. Prior to the bleedings, Ekblom had each one run on a treadmill to determine his normal endurance; the average time from the start of the exercise to exhaustion was 5.73 min. On the day after the infusions, it rose to 7.17 min. Because the body quickly passes off excess red cells, the pickup was not permanent; within 14 days of the infusions, all students' performances returned to prebleeding levels. So far, no adverse side effects have been noted, but other doctors believe that more study is needed to determine if any risk is involved.

Despite uncertainty about whether Ekblom's technique violates existing athletic regulations, a number of U.S. coaches have already expressed interest.

Physiologists point out that the infusion would have little effect in short-time athletic endeavors like pole vaulting and races such as the 100-yd. dash or the 440-or 880-yd. runs; it does not substantially increase the speed at which an athlete can perform. But it does increase the length of time an athlete can function at top speed, and thus for middle-and long-distance runners, it could provide an enormous-and unfair-advantage.

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