Professional Athletes are always looking for some kind of advantage over their competition. They will do whatever it takes to be one of the best and that includes the misuse of drugs. Athletes use drugs to enhance muscle, strengthen bones, increase oxygen, reduce weight, stimulate the body and to help with pain. Not only are performance enhancing drugs dangerous but they are banned from Olympic competitions because of the high health risks. Erythropoietin (EPO) is a performance-enhanced drug that has been taken and used by professional athletes to enhance their performance. It is also used to treat anemia. Anemia can come from kidney failure, or from chemotherapy to fix cancer. The athletes who use Erythropoietin (EPO) are considered cheating and is unacceptable in my personal perspective and other professional perspectives. Erythropoietin (EPO) is a hormone, a hormone is basically a chemical messenger released by cells into the blood that naturally occurs and affects a wide range of the body, even though it’s a natural hormone that stimulates the body it can lead to physical affects. Red blood cells are produced in the bone marrow. Erythropoietin (EPO) helps make, produces and regulate red blood cells both in the kidney and liver. Having more red blood cells boosts your hemoglobin levels. Hemoglobin is a protein in red blood cells that help blood carry oxygen throughout the body its main role is to transport oxygen to tissues. The hormone is illegal in all athletic competitions.
The Pros of EPO is endurance enhancement during exercise, faster muscle recovery, used to treat anemia of kidney failure, HIV and certain cancers. The Cons of EPO is death, clots, heart attack, stroke. Erythropoietin (EPO) increases the production of enzymes that protects tissues from injury, improves learning and memory, promotes development of central nervous system and the heart, treats anemia, increases the effectiveness of cancer. Erythropoietin (EPO) is injected straight into your blood stream essentially forcing your body to make more red blood cells, additional more oxygen is carried to your organs which amplifies oxygen in your muscle leads to improvement in athlete performance that’s why professional athlete use it. Erythropoietin (EPO) injections are used to treat anemia, cancer
Just like any other drug erythropoietin has physical, behavioral and long term affects that may include increased blood pressure and hypertension, risk of blood clots, severe dehydration and has been linked to death when used as a performance enhanced drugs.
Erythropoietin (EPO) is commonly used by long distance runners, speed and nordic skaters, boxers and cyclists. Erythropoietin can be detected through drug screening blood screening or a urine test are the most common used method to confirm possible use of EPO.
There’s several other reasons wrong with performance enhanced drugs rather than just the unfair advantage it gives, doping in sports is very dangerous and has harmful effects both physically and medically on your body. Today’s Public knows that athletes use performance enhanced drugs, when you are a professional athlete your sport is your job, today’s athletes who compete and use performance enhanced drugs and get caught are only forced to return their metals and pay a fine but only the people who get caught have the media’s full attention such as Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds. EPO has recently been in the new in a list of New York Time articles I’ve come across several athletes this year in sports have been using illegal drugs to enhance their performance. One particular article I read was about Brett Kenyan, 20-year-old 800 meter’s bronze medalists who tested positive for (EPO) resulted in him being suspended until august 2022. (“2018, November 23 Brett, Kenyan.”) In my personal opinion, although substance abuse has become a major problem in the society any substance that prevents the body from functioning normally and can potentially damage the physically body should be of a concern and shouldn’t be ignored.