Quote:
Originally Posted by Rathji
I think that statement is misleading.
I am guessing it is primarily banned because it is a method of improving your performance, not because you can kill yourself by using it.
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Im sure its a banned substance because it is a performance enhancing drug, but there is for sure a high risk associated with it. There are stories from the 90's and the heyday of EPO pre-test era where they were abusing it so much people would die in their sleep. They would take so much EPO that the body would respond by creating to much red blood cells. This lead to multiple riders dying in their sleep as their heart would give out from having to pump this sludge at night when they were being inactive. In response to this, team directors and coaches would wake the athletes up in the middle of the night and get them to ride their bikes for a bit to speed up blood flow essentially.
So while I agree its primarily banned for its benefits performance wise, there is definitely health risks. Granted, there was also no "Sport/Team doctors" guiding these pros so im sure a lot of that was due to uneducated abuse of EPO.