http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/sports/17blood.html?_r=1&hp
A Promising Treatment for Athletes, in the Blood
…The method, which is strikingly straightforward and easy to perform, centers on injecting portions of a patient’s blood directly into the injured area, which catalyzes the body’s instincts to repair muscle, bone and other tissue. Most enticing, many doctors said, is that the technique appears to help regenerate ligament and tendon fibers, which could shorten rehabilitation time and possibly obviate surgery…
well, the WADA clearly states that any manipulation and/or transfusion of autologous (and of course homologous) blood is forbidden. And if it’s forbodden to draw blood from an athlete, centrifugate it and reinject the red blood cells, then i suppose reinjecting plasma is illegal too.
Plasma would not have any blood cells, specficially red blood cells - which is described in WADA’s prohibited methods. Also would be allowed if TUE were granted.
but it still remains a manipulation of autologous blood, so i suppose - w/o a TUE, like you said - it is or might be illegal…
but it still remains a manipulation of autologous blood, so i suppose - w/o a TUE, like you said - it is or might be illegal…
Perhaps true, but this is a new medical procedure for the purpose of injury treatment/therapy. It doesn’t provide any artificial performance enhancement per se. Therefore WADA would be well advised to clarify their standards to allow this kind of therapy.
well if you recover faster from an injury or training-induced stress/micro-injuries this method can be (and has been) used in a performance-enhancing manner. So IMHO they should only allow it in case a TUE is granted (which isn’t that hard to get…)
well if you recover faster from an injury or training-induced stress/micro-injuries this method can be (and has been) used in a performance-enhancing manner. So IMHO they should only allow it in case a TUE is granted (which isn’t that hard to get…)
The problem is that the same can be said about any medical treatment. How about icing? Therapy? heat? Ultrasound? Corticosteroid injections? Compression gear?
But a TUE would be fine too.
Yes, this was discussed in great detail here after the superbowl when Hines Ward had this done. You can search for that discussion. I also do this procedure to various reasons on patients and have done so for over 5 years, so nothing “new”.
Thanks for the info.
Acutally a friend of mine was having it done for his tennis elbow here in bermuda a few years ago. When he told me about it i thought it was some quackery. Glad i kept my mouth shut for a change.
Do you think ‘abusers’ will take it to the extreme and use it as a recovery enhancer after punishing events or workouts? Seems there’s always a group willing to push the envelope and no lack of willing facilitators.
No - doesn’t work that way.
Again, if you are contemplating this procedure you are INJURED anyway. This is not going to aid recovery in any way for an achy joint, sore muscle, etc. Ibuprofen or corticosteroid injection would be far more effective (for ex only).
It’s actually fairly common procedure. I’ve done many of them with good results, though it is not for everybody. This is hardly blood doping. It’s all about using your body to heal itself. These types of treatments should be encouraged and developed. It’s generally used after a failure of physical therapy. The alternative is a steroid injection (legal) or surgery.
well if you recover faster from an injury or training-induced stress/micro-injuries this method can be (and has been) used in a performance-enhancing manner. So IMHO they should only allow it in case a TUE is granted (which isn’t that hard to get…)
Wow. I’d hate to be one of your kids…
Wow. I’d hate to be one of your kids…
what’s the problem? given that the intent of your response wans’t insult solely: if the WADA deems this method illegal, then this treatment for athletes should be sanctioned unless they have a TUE. Now if there are medical reasons that justify these means, they will get that TUE right away without much hassle and everthing’s fine. I mself got a cortisone injection once but I had a TUE (and it definately wasn’t performance enhancing…).
Just curious, what level do you compete at. I thought I heard once that WADA routinely ignored TUE requests from not non elites.
Styrrell
As a side note, a big thread is on Letrun.com about this procedure. IIRC Matt Tegenkamp wrote about having it. According to internet chatter WADA is looking into it.
Wow. I'd hate to be one of your kids...
what’s the problem? given that the intent of your response wans’t insult solely: if the WADA deems this method illegal, then this treatment for athletes should be sanctioned unless they have a TUE. Now if there are medical reasons that justify these means, they will get that TUE right away without much hassle and everthing’s fine. I mself got a cortisone injection once but I had a TUE (and it definately wasn’t performance enhancing…).
Because you remind me of all the parents standing around the ring watching their kids spar, and 1/2 of them have copies of the rules in their hands. Everything must be completely and strictly by the letter of the ruling, rather than the intent of the ruling.
“Well, yeah, it’s not performance enhancing, but technically speaking it’s manipulation, etc etc.”, thus necessitating an exact letter of the law response, rather than the intent of the law, which is to prevent a performance gain. And don’t give me the crap about it allowing a faster return from injury, by that “letter of the law” interpretation, you’d have to outlaw things like muscle massages, since they allow a faster recovery from a hard race/workout.
John
@ devlin: i’ve always thought that there might be a tiny difference between squeezing so`s muscles and iserting a needle to withdraw and reinject blood, but maybe you’re right. All I say is that the WADA might be investigating this method and you go nuts. If an injured athlete is fit again after a couple of days/weeks instead of not being able to compete for months because of some blood treatment then that might ring an alarm clock at the WADA. Otherwise you’d probably soon have TdF riders finishing the stage and immediately getting another shot in their legs to recover faster.
Pretty similar to that water/electrolyte/sugar infusions which were banned a couple of years ago. What do you think about that? A wrong step?
And if you consider me to become one of those parents, you’re way off. Maybe just read the previous posts again… and if you still don’t agree with me then, i’ll likely be able to live with that.
@ tyrell: well at least the WADA wants to know my whereabouts every day