Erythropoietin: Advantages and Disadvantages for Athletes

Erythropoietin: Advantages and Disadvantages for Athletes EPO (Erythropoietin), its advantages and disadvantages for endurance athletes. For the purposes of this essay an understanding of what EPO (Erythropoietin) is will be established. An understanding of how EPO works in the body will also be established. EPO’s use in medicinal practice is wide and varied and will be referred to also. Given an understanding of its mechanism and its effect on the body, its usefulness to endurance athletes will be established. Studies on its effectiveness will then be analyzed and referred to with reference to the health risks attached to this use. This will culminate in a brief overview of the history of EPO usage or â€Å"Blood Doping† in professional sports. EPO acts in the body as a glycoprotein hormone that regulates red blood cell (RBC) production. Its function is as a protein signaling molecule for RBC precursors in the bone marrow. EPO is produced naturally in the body by interstitial fibroblasts in the kidneys and by perisinusoidal cells present in the liver. Production of EPO in adults is most common in the kidneys. Notwithstanding, EPO is also involved in the healing process after the infliction of wounds and is part of the cerebral response to neuronal trauma. In terms of modern medicine, EPO is harvested from cell cultures and is used to treat anemia (a decrease in the bodies RBC count). EPO is also used in the treatment of Myelodysplasia, which is a type of cancer that inhibits the bone marrows ability to produce healthy RBCs. Most EPO prescribed to patients contain major health warnings about increased risk of heart attack, stroke and even the reoccurrence of certain tumors. Put simply, athletes who harness the power of EPO can go harder for longer. EPO allows bone marrow to create RBCs and thus extra hemoglobin. Consequently EPO is most generally utilized among endurance athletes as a means to increasing their RBC count which in turn results in better oxygen transportation along these lines and a vast improvement in aerobic respiration. The quicker the rate of high-impact respiration, the higher the level at which the competitor can work without using the anaerobic frameworks which deliver lactic acid and increase weakness. Traditionally, â€Å"blood doping† involved training at high altitude for a period of between 4 and 6 weeks. The blood that was rich in oxygen was then harvested from the body exactly as one would donate blood. The oxygen rich blood was then transfused back into the body at sea level prior to or during competition. Despite its natural occurrence in the body it can be synthesized into a serum that people can inject through the skin. Therefore its usefulness for endurance athletes is quite apparent. A vast number of studies concerning the effectiveness of EPO injection for Endurance athletes. The primary study to be analyzed as part of this essay is â€Å"Hemoglobin Mass and Running Time Trial Performance after Recombinant Human Erythropoietin Administration in Trained Men† by Yiannis Pitsiladis et al. The study was undertaken by infusing long distance runners with EPO every other day for a month. Their times were enhanced 3% to 6% on average after 4 weeks of use. The Pitsiladis study was part funded by the World Anti-Doping agency. They stated the reason for funding the study was the find ways of increasing the detectability of EPO use among professional endurance athletes, rather than to highlight the drug’s effectiveness. Be that as it may, the current report made no notice of any such testing or test outcomes. The study did note that EPO infusions, which expand the bodys RBC mass (consequently prompting more prominent oxygen conveyance and speedier running exhibitions on persistent occasions), additionally diminish the bodys aggregate blood plasma volume. A further study by Prof. Max Gassmann from the University of Zurich stated that EPO usage had massive psychological benefits to an athlete. He found that there were serious gains to be made in terms of motivation after treating genetically modified mice that produced human EPO solely in their brains. He surmised that EPOs possible mental health benefits were limitless given proper dosage and that it could be used to potentially alleviate the devastating symptoms suffered by Schizophrenics. I contrast to this, a peer reviewed study of the effectiveness of EPO doping for cyclists suggested that there was no tangible evidence to support the claim that EPO enhances performance in top athletes. The study was titled â€Å"Erythropoietin doping in cycling: Lack of evidence for efficacy and a negative risk benefit† by J A A C Heuberger et al. The summary of their findings suggested there was no increase in performance for top cyclists and that performance was based on more than V02 max results and that higher power output for longer doesn’t correlate with athletic performance, particularly in cycling. The main finding of the report was that the health risks associated with EPO supplementation were simply not worth the increase in V02 max or power output. Athlete’s use of artificial EPO became a very popular method of performance enhancement, specifically for cyclists in the 1980s and has been linked with many champion athletes being stripped of titles and banned from the sport. The most famous case of admitted EPO use was by seven times Tour De France Champion, Lance Armstrong. Advances in retroactive testing of blood, hair and urine samples may lead to other high profile athletes suffering the same fate in the years to come. However athletes prior to the EPO era were more inclined to use anabolic steroids and amphetamines as a means of performance enhancement. To summarize, EPO usage leads to an increase in RBC mass and its ability to transfer oxygen molecules around the body. It allows for an increase in Vo2 max and power output. However its effectiveness on the performance of top athletes is up for debate as an increased ability to go harder for longer does not necessarily lead to increased athletic performance. Despite this EPOs prevalence endurance sports would suggest that many athletes across different codes consider it a performance enhancing substance, despite the obvious health risks. References Amby Burfoot. (2013).Study: EPO Effective, Long-Lasting.Available: http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/study-epo-effective-long-lasting. Last accessed 22nd Nov 2014. J A A C Heuberger et al. . (2013). â€Å"Erythropoietin doping in cycling: Lack of evidence for efficacy and a negative risk benefit†.British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 75 (6), 1406-21. Andy Layhe. (2011).Types of Drugs and Methods Used in Cycling. Available: http://bikepure.org/resources/list-of-banned-substances/types-of-drugs-and-methods-used-in-cycling/. Last accessed 22nd Nov 1014. Carsten Lundby and Niels Vidiendal Olsen. (2011). Effects of recombinant human erythropoietin in normal humans.The Journal of Physiology. 589 (1), p1265-1271. Yannis P. Pitsiladis et al.. (2013).Haemoglobin Mass and Running Time Trial Performance after Recombinant Human Erythropoietin Administration in Trained Men.Available: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0056151. Last accessed 18th Nov 2014. Elizabeth Quinn. (2014).EPO and Blood Doping in Sports.Available: http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/performanceenhancingdrugs/a/EPO.htm. Last accessed 19th Nov 2014. Johannes Vogel, Max Gassmann. (2007). Erythropoietic and non-erythropoietic functions of erythropoietin (Epo) in mouse models.The Journal of Physiology. 584 (1), 709.

Internet Hackers :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Hackers Last year, two Cloverdale teenagers pleaded guilty to federal charges. What did they do that the FBI raided their homes and seized their computers? They hacked into Pentagon computer systems. These two teenagers, Makaveli and TooShort, were also suspected of breaking into computers at universities, government agencies and military bases. This example and many others show the increase of hackers and their crimes over the years. In another story that is similar to the story about Makaveli and Too Short, from a BBC News story, Hackers target Nasa and Pentagon, an international group of computer hackers broke into Pentagon computer systems and also said they had stolen key software from Nasa. The group consisted of eight Americans, five British and two Russians. They called themselves the "Masters of Downloading." They were considering selling the information to international terrorist groups or foreign governments. The number of hacker related crimes seems to be increasing y ear by year. Theft on the internet is costing companies billions, and the high-tech industry is struggling to stop it. According to Michael Meyer's Crimes of the "Net", last year roughly $2 billion worth of software was stolen over the internet last year. Also that year, the leader of an international piracy ring operating out of Spain, pleaded guilty to a brand of fraud destined to become commonplace. According to U.S. investigators, they stole 140,000 telephone credit-card numbers. Hackers used the numbers to make a total of $140 million worth of long-distance phone calls. Now, the question is who is really at loss here. The answer is simple. Companies like GTE, AT &T, Bell Atlantic and MCI. Because of these hackers, those companies lost a lot of money. What actions must be taken to stop these theives? According to the hackers, they call what they are doing sharing. Hackers are criminals that steal from others to better themselves. They are leeches, feeding off ot her peoples' personal items. People have to become aware of the risk they face with hackers. Software and phone cards isn't the end of the stealing hackers. Everything from computer parts to flowers and teddy bears are at risk to hackers. With the increasing technology, the abuse is almost endless.

Unicorns Are Real After All

Unicorns Are Real After All The Lavada Johnston Story â€Å"I just don’t understand how people can go through with one-night stands, I just can’t do it. † I just sat there for a little while in silent disbelief. I was trying to decide whether or not I should take offense to the statement or not. Before I could formulate my response, my friend Lavada said, â€Å"No offense to you, or anyone else, I just don’t get it. † Throughout my life, I thought I had encountered pretty much every type of person, and I could’ve sworn that I had my generation completely pegged. However, since meeting Lavada Johnston, my iron-clad definition of people my age has been greatly disproven. I first met Lavada, in my Stage Crafting class. Because it was the beginning of the semester, I didn’t really know any of the other theater students just yet. But for some reason, I felt drawn to her. She had a very intriguing look about her. She had a curvaceous and voluptuous body type. Her hair was jet black, nails painted black, black eye make-up, and a lip ring. My first impression was that she was either of the gothic or emo persuasion, but she didn’t exactly have the particularly â€Å"dark† quality that most gothic/emo people I’ve met possess. She had sort of a quirkiness about her that didn’t seem intimidating. In fact, it was pretty much very inviting. I consider myself a pretty good judge of character, so I decided to befriend her. To my surprise, it didn’t take long at all for us to develop a rather strong friendship with each other. The more I hung around her, the more interesting she became to me, and still does now. She sometimes seems sort of reserved and maybe even shy sometimes, but all of that goes out of the window when she is comfortable. She is full of life, a vibrant fun loving college student. When I found out that her natural hair color is actually blonde, I wasn’t even surprised. In fact, once I thought about it, it really suits her, and her personality. Like myself, Lavada is a theater major. She wants to pursue musical theater, but for some reason, she is shy about singing. This is something I didn’t understand considering she has an amazing singing, and perfect for the theater. Her musical interests are also something that caused us to spark such a quick friendship. Turns out we are both Family Force 5 fanatics, although Lavada may be border lining obsession. All of the things I’ve mentioned about her are all things I find very interesting about her. But there is one particular reason that piqued my interest enough to really cause me to press even further into her life and to explore her outlook on the world around her. One day after grabbing lunch in the union, Lavada and I were walking together, seeing how my dorm was in the same direction as hers. We had what eventually became a very serious discussion. I’ll never forget my mixture of surprise and disbelief when I found out Lavada’s secret. I’m not exactly sure how we got on this topic of conversation, but somehow we ended up discussing sex. However, it’s not like it’s uncommon for college students to talk about sex. In fact, what college student hasn’t had sex before, right? Wrong. I still can hear the words as clear as a bell in my head, â€Å"Scottie, I’m a virgin. † When she told me this, there was no way I could hide the shocked expression plastered all over my face. It took me a while to even gather that she was serious. Lavada Johnston is a twenty-one year old college student, who has never had sex. Part of me felt guilty for being so surprised by this confession. I mean, it’s not like it’s a bad thing or anything like that. It was just, I’ve never known such a person to resist. But then I decided that I must be missing something here. Maybe I should read the fine print, I thought. But as I pressed further into Lavada and her sexual activity, the more I believed her. I said to myself there has to be some technicalities or something because you can’t just go your entire life without having sex, unless you’re one of those insanely religious people or something. Seeing how Lavada wasn’t anywhere near being a religious type person, my curiosity was piqued even further. For lack of a better one, my first question was simply, â€Å"Why? Lavada looked around, gave an innocent but rather vacant expression, flailed her hands up and said, â€Å"I don’t know. † By this point, I began to seriously pester her and express my whole-hearted awe in her confession. Over and over again, Lavada gave me not one excuse or reason as to why she had never had sex. Everything she said was enough to cause the average girl to have the occasional â₠¬Å"I hate boys† syndrome, but never is it enough to hold back the raging hormones we’re faced with at this age. Or so I thought. I decided to have an official interview with Lavada, in which I would be determined to find the answers I was looking for. Lavada Johnston was born in Winona, Mississippi and then later moved to Eupora, Mississippi, which is where she stills whenever school isn’t in session. She attended Montgomery High School in Kilmichael, where she graduated in the year 2007. Throughout her school days, Lavada seemed to be the classic headstrong rebel type of girl who got into plenty of trouble for fighting. Her family moved around a lot, so she never stayed in one place for long. This made it really hard for her to develop a strong circle of friends. Therefore, she turned to books. She loves to read. She was one of those Harry Potter type kids, into mythical creatures, magic, vampires, you know, the whole nine yards. As far as music goes, aside from Family Force 5, she is pretty much hard rock oriented. I asked her why she chose to come to Ole Miss. She responded with a very straight forward answer. â€Å"It was either here, or Mississippi State, but if I had gone to state, I know I would’ve gotten into too many fights. I simply laughed and nodded in agreement at my friend. It is safe to say, that since coming to college, she has finally found steady friends, which of course she loves because she hasn’t ever really had that before. I of course was and still am both grateful and happy to be a friend to her. The more I hang around Lavada, the more I see the kind of person she is. There is no denying that is sweet and kind to any everyone. I obser ved that she has a hard to saying no to people, even if she wants to. In my opinion, Lavada possesses something that is rare in our generation. And I don’t mean her virginity. Although, I do believe that it truly reflects the kind of person she really is. She’s someone who isn’t concerned with impressing others. The fact that she has yet to swipe her â€Å"V- card† speaks volumes about her values and the standards that she holds for herself. She is kind, fun-loving, and seems to sincerely care about her fellow human-being in a way that is apparent in her everyday life. I truly wish more people our age would take a lesson from Lavada, and maybe we could all make a change for the better.

Did nuclear weapons keep the peace during the Cold War Free Essay Example, 1500 words

Deployment of the nuclear weapons was a fundamental development in the history, whereby these weapons served as a way of raising the destructive power. In this case, a thermonuclear weapon was developed without limits, and there were destructive yields with reduced periods for delivering the ballistic missiles; thus, escalation of the Cold War would have caused the end of civilization. The nuclear weapons emanated from international relations, which were experienced during the discrepancy in 1945, where there was a war between the capitalists in the west and the communist in the East (Morgenthau, 1964, 25). Moreover, nuclear altercation initiated establishment of peace through there were speculation on return of great political power. In fact, there degree of expectations concerning other systems of the world was realistic, thorough a counterfactual surveys related to the history. Focusing on the period after the cold war, there were attempts to alter the bipolar international system, which did not require mutually assured destruction (Booth instead, it was a form of reinforcement. We will write a custom essay sample on Did nuclear weapons keep the peace during the Cold War or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Furthermore, development of the nuclear weapons led to destruction of the continental Europe and dereliction of the Britain finance. Similarly, there were no chances for the USSR and USA to recover from the effects of the Second World War. The political dissections were not caused by the nuclear weapons during the Cold War; in fact, there were attempts for overthrowing the USSR when Bolsheviks was in power during 1917. USSR made a significant contribution to the process of planning war, and during the late 1930s, they choose their partners. In USSR, there was need for capitalist powers in Europe, which led to conflicts among the citizens, and there were efforts to agitate the revolution of workers in other states in Europe (Jervis, 1989, 20). However, there were interior tendencies on the international stages in 1920s and 1930s. A sever relationship of power and fear would have been intensified between the East and the West were it not for the development of the nuclear weapons. In situations, there would be no peaceful coexistence if there were no mutually assured destruction (MAD). The foreign policy of the Khrushchev was criticized by Molotov, whereby eliminating chances of a predicament through a reconciliation process with a focus on spreading the insurrection using the violence and inferences of MAD (Fursenko & Naftali, 2006, 25).