Erythropoietin is available as a drug. Describe its effects on the body.

Why would athletes abuse

it? Explain your answer completely.

Erythropoietin is a hormone that is produced by the kidneys. There is always a small amount of
erythropoietin in our blood at all times. It tells the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells. When
our bodies produce red blood cells at a normal pace our bodies can function at a certain rate. If we get
more erythropoietin in our blood it causes our bone marrow to produce red blood cells at a higher rate
letting our blood carry more oxygen, which makes our body able to endure longer and perform at a
higher rate. Sports athletes are always looking for the new thing to give them the edge in their
respective sport, a way to distinguish themselves from everyone else. There is always the new thing to
do to give you that edge, for baseball players it was taking human growth hormone to help build
muscles at a accelerated rate, another thing was blood doping. Blood doping essentially produced the
same results as using erythropoietin but you had to donate a pint of your blood a week or two before
your big event, then the night before the event you would transfuse the blood back into your system. At
the time that you made the transfusion your body had already replace that blood that you donated the
week before, so by adding the blood back into your system you are adding more red blood cells, letting
your body function at a higher rate resulting in a better performance for your big event. Erythropoietin
does the same thing you just don’t have to do a transfusion to get the same results. Erythropoietin is
injected subcutaneously into your system, and can be done from the comfort of your home,
erythropoietin is harder to detect because your body naturally produces the hormone, although there is
now a way to test for erythropoietin in your urine that gives accurate results.

Myself being a former athlete I know the pressure of having to perform at your best day after day.
Always wanting to improve yourself, to get more attention and all the things that come from that
attention. But I would never use a substance to give myself that advantage, I would hate to look at
myself in the mirror at the end of the day and know that I was cheating. I wouldn’t be able to handle the
guilt, and would be disappointed of myself. Even all the major athletes that you have known and
respected throughout their entire career, finding out that they cheated to get that respect puts a major
sour taste in your mouth towards them, I will never feel the same about them.

I think that knowing about erythropoietin is helpful. I like being informed about all the things that I could
potentially do to make myself at my peak performance, but putting all that aside I like knowing that I put
in hard work every day and tried my hardest time and again, that way at the end of the day I can look at
myself and feel pride in the things that I have accomplished the good old fashioned way, hard work.

Marieb, Elaine N. ( 2006 ). Essentials of human anatomy and physiology. San Francisco, CA. Benjamin
Cummings.