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Athletes’ Own Blood Could Nurse Them to Health

nytimes.com — The practice of platelet-rich plasma therapy, in which an athlete’s own blood is injected into a wounded area, could improve treatment for sports injuries.

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 17, 2009

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32 Comments

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  • peteyb1313, on 02/17/2009, -0/+13HOLD THE PRESS. Are you telling me my body will heal by itself?
  • dalnet22, on 02/17/2009, -0/+11Sounds fairly fricken logical.
  • Sagags, on 02/17/2009, -5/+13aka blood doping
  • inactive, on 02/17/2009, -0/+5I love science.
  • Cerealkilla316, on 02/17/2009, -0/+5The term "platelet-rich plasma" is quite contradictory. Plasma is the liquid component of blood- the part without the cells.
  • peteyb1313, on 02/17/2009, -0/+4wasn't this in an episode of house?
  • DirtPile, on 02/17/2009, -0/+4It's a collagen activated mechanism, which is how platelets work. It's similar to cyclists receiving condenced RBC transfusions. Undetectable, but not against any regulation.
  • DirtPile, on 02/17/2009, -3/+7No. Not blood doping.
  • CVL4317, on 02/17/2009, -0/+3is it wrong to use your own body to boost itself?
  • kevman459, on 02/17/2009, -0/+3Blood doping concentrates blood cells to reinject at a later time to give someone more blood cells than their body would normally have.

    This therapy just removes everything except platelets and injects those directly into the injured area where blood normally doesn't go.
  • JoshuaLowe, on 02/17/2009, -0/+2Vampire Jocks

    ...

    From Outer Space!

  • anteyekon4myst, on 02/17/2009, -0/+2How did he die? Bled to death.
  • jascination, on 02/17/2009, -0/+2It has different applications than blood doping, but the two seem pretty similar. There's actually a discussion on it in the "related" section for this article:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/sports/17bloodsi ...

    With blood doping, an athlete's blood is drawn, then once their bodies have regenerated the lost blood, the sample is re-injected into the system. More red blood cells = greater endurance. The procedure mentioned in the original article is about healing and regeneration, rather than improving performance.
  • itsmikey, on 02/17/2009, -0/+2..big deal?
  • inactive, on 02/17/2009, -0/+2pics or it didn't happen.
  • chestr, on 02/17/2009, -0/+2After reading the title I thought it was going to be an onion article.
  • EffinRiot, on 02/17/2009, -0/+2Bloody Hell Yeah!
  • Murdats, on 02/17/2009, -0/+1I read the title fine 5 times before in my feed, then I glance at it just now and see Atheists instead, click it and then realise its vastly less interesting.
  • TehUberGeeK, on 02/17/2009, -7/+8Anyone else read title is as Atheists' Own Blood...?
  • zeth006, on 02/17/2009, -1/+2Great. But this kind of procedure might raise a few eyebrows mainly because athletes like to keep some of their own blood stored in hospitals just to increase their blood cell count just before major sports events. It's well known that a higher blood cell count per unit leads to more availability of oxygen for the athlete and and thus increased performance.
  • zeth006, on 02/17/2009, -0/+1That's always been a debate.

    It's very much like asking "Is it wrong to use a bit of cash and health risk to boost your body using steroids?"

    I'm sure sports rules are designed so that performance is measured solely based on how your body usually is after training and NOT after artificial boosters.
  • weister42, on 02/17/2009, -1/+2A vampire Michael Phelps would just be scary.
  • jason210, on 02/18/2009, -0/+1with his appetite... hmmm he'd eat a town a day
  • Atomic1fire, on 02/18/2009, -0/+1Not really,
    He would be too stoned to realize he was a vampire.
  • zeth006, on 02/17/2009, -0/+1CVL, that argument will never fly with the Olympic committee. "Made from the owner's body" could easilybe exploited to justify steroid use/abuse. Steroids use a synthetically engineered component to boost muscle that becomes "part of the owner's body."

    Like it or not, the body doesn't have have any natural means for temporarily boosting blood cell count or muscle mass. Blood doping requires a needle and a bag and it's illegal for obvious reasons.
  • CVL4317, on 02/17/2009, -0/+1well, i don't believe that this is like steroid or something since it's a method with major component of it made up of the owner's body.
  • rwac, on 02/17/2009, -0/+1There's no health risk involved here.
    Plus, since it's not a competition, who cares.
  • pkjohnson17, on 02/17/2009, -0/+1no kidding, i'm surprised we haven't been doing this for a long time
  • liquidsg, on 02/17/2009, -0/+1And then I purposely bled in my pants.
  • GoustiFruit, on 02/17/2009, -1/+1Lots of athletes are already doping themselves using this technique. It probably began with cycling athletes, Armstrong was a pioneer.
  • wily6, on 02/17/2009, -3/+3Wolverine?
  • ShaunStenning, on 02/17/2009, -0/+0now that is the comment of the day

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