So we all know that steroids are used commonly today, and were most likely used in the past; after all, human nature does instill the mindset in people to strive to be the best no matter the consequences. But in today's world, HGH and other basic steroids are only the base line. New procedures are being to arise that are allowing athletes to "cheat" in new drastic and sometimes untracible ways.

BLOOD DOPING

• It enhances your performance by increasing red blood cell mass and thereby delivering more oxygen to muscle
• This manipulation has gained notoriety in the sports world for what it can do for an athlete during endurance events
• Blood doping, often called induced erythrocythemia, is the intravenous infusion of blood to produce an increase in the blood’s oxygen carrying capacity. It is a procedure that begins with between 1 to 4 units of a person’s blood (1 unit = 450 ml of blood) being withdrawn, usually several weeks before a key competition. The blood is then centrifuged and the plasma components are immediately reinfused while the remaining red blood cells are placed in cold storage. The RBC’s are then reinfused back into the body, usually 1 to 7 days before a high endurance event. If done correctly, this process can increase the hemoglobin level and RBC count by up to 20%
• www.texarkanacollege.edu/~mstorey/beckham.htm

Notable Blood Doping Scandals

MADRID, Feb 14, 2008 (AFP) - The Operation Puerto blood-doping affair involving about 60 cyclists and which erupted in May 2006, has been reopened, Madrid prosecutors’ said on Thursday. A raid on the Madrid laboratory of Dr Eufemiano Fuentes uncovered doping products, bags of blood and codenames which appeared to link top athletes to a highly-organised system of doping via blood tranfusions. So far, only Italy’s top rider, Ivan Basso, has been sanctioned in the affair. Basso is serving a two-year ban, although dozens of other cyclists - including Spaniards Alejandro Valverde and Tour de France winner Alberto Contador - have in the past been linked to the controversy. Last year the affair virtually vanished under the weight of Spanish legal red tape but now the case has officially been reopened and could lead to a major investigation being carried out by the bodies that have been appealing for sanctions to be handed down.

Photos Courtesy of: www.usatoday.com

GENE DOPING

Alright, this one is far from the realm of commonly thought of enhancements - well with exceptions to Hilter and his "Uber Soldier" Program during World War II.  Gene doping, or synthetic genetic mutation, is possible the most drastic and experimental of all measures taken to "be the best in the sport."

• Gene doping uses techniques similar to gene therapies developed to treat muscle-wasting diseases, such as muscular dystrophy. Injected into an athlete, a harmless virus could carry a performance-enhancing gene and splice it into a muscle cell, said Theodore Friedmann, a gene therapy researcher at the University of California, San Diego (quick genetics overview). A synthetic virus called Repoxygen, for example, has been used this way in animal tests to insert a gene for erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone that tells the body to make more red blood cells, which carry oxygen to muscles. EPO is important in the treatment of anemia, and it's also a favorite doping agent for cyclists, runners, and cross-country skiers. Athletes are well aware of Repoxygen's potential: A German coach was accused of trying to obtain it before the 2006 Winter Olympics. Gene-doping may also work by modifying genes that are already in an athlete's cells but whose functioning he or she might want to control. It's not a new concept. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08/080814-gene-doping.html

• Imagine the myostatin gene, a mutated gene which causes the double production of muscle cells in the host. Look at what it did to this bull.... 

   http://porpax.bio.miami.edu/~cmallery/150/neuro/belgian.blue.jpg