Signs of EPO use

forgive me for being ignorant of EPO, but what will it do for you? Can a person legally buy it in the US? If so, where? How much does a person have to take for it to be effective?

I know that there are not very many people who will read this who will take it serious and give their usual load of crap answers, but I would appreciate some serious responses to this.

How long has EPO been around? I've known a lot of very good runners over the years and I don't know of any that have used it. How would you know if someone was using it, without testing for it? What are the side effects of using it?

By reading this site you'd have to believe that there are not any elite athletes that are not using it. Why does everyone have to make excuses why the elite athletes are "elite". Maybe they've been gifted with talent PLUS the willingness to put in the work necessary to be sucessful? Of course that's not the American way, if you're getting beat then it's not your fault, the other guys must be cheating.

EPO stands for erythroprotein, it is used during chemotherapy to boost your red blood cell count I think. It is mainly for cancer patients. (since their rbc count gets severely depleted during chemotherapy)

But somewhere along the line an evil genius came along and came up with the idea of using it to boost the rbc count of endurance athletes. The reason that most sub-elites don't use it (or elites for that matter) is because it is extremely expensive. I think it's costs a couple hundred to a few hundred dollars per injection.

Seb Coe 59??? A bit of a coincidence. I saw the real Coe being interviewed on TV and I was intrigued by the huge size of the veins in his neck? I wonder if that’s an indication of anything abnormal?

It's usually used to treat severe anemia brought on by kidney failure, the use of some AIDS medications (AZT) and some cancer patients on chemotherapy need it as well. The liver produces most of the body's EPO in newborns but then production shifts over to the kidneys soon after birth and remains this way throughout life. EPO has been artificially produced since the mid and late eighties and with advances in biotech, the price has declined considerably.

The amount of EPO in the body can be indirectly determined by counting reticulocytes, (immature red blood cells) Mature red blood cells do not have a nucleus, immature RBCs still have a nucleus. .5-2% of RBCs being reticulocytes indicates an inreased level of EPO, natural or synthetic.

It's not too expensive.

This is a generic version I found on the internet.

I am an Ethiopian. I guess I am guilty!

zulu_guy wrote:

I am an Ethiopian. I guess I am guilty!

IF YOU ARE COACHED BY JOSH HERMANS (WHO COACHES MOST OF THOSE EPO-THIAN FRAUDS), THEN, YES, YOU PROBABLY ARE GUILTY.

mustapha`1416 wrote:

zulu_guy wrote:

I am an Ethiopian. I guess I am guilty!

IF YOU ARE COACHED BY JOSH HERMANS (WHO COACHES MOST OF THOSE EPO-THIAN FRAUDS), THEN, YES, YOU PROBABLY ARE GUILTY.

it is "jos."

Dear Mustapha,

I sense bitterness and dispair in your writing but here I come to rescue from that. I realize maybe the blazing speed shown by the Ethiopians is too much for you at this point. But, don't loose hope, with time and hard work (remember EL G!) you, YOURSELF, will get there too! You may even surprise yourself with sub 27 min, if not better, ha ha!

Till then, stop bad mouthing the Great Ethiopian rather SEE IF YOU CAN PICK UP SOME LESSONS FROM THEIR TRAINING AND INCULCATE THEM INTO YOUR DAILY PROGRAM!!! WITH TIME AND HARD WORK, EVERYTHING IS POSSSIBLE - EVEN A SUB 25 FOR 10K!!!!

LOVE,

MOHAMMED, THE PROPHET!

Signs of EPO :

1. Being Baldini. Ask him on how to run a 14:38 last 5km in a heat-marred marathon.

2. Being Hani Falkia. Ask her how to run 52sec 400m hurdles, while 8 months ago she could only sprinted to a 53sec FLAT 400m (no hurdles at all dudette!. That means NOW she can run 52sec minus 4sec = 48secs 400m!! Some freak time for a greek woman!!

3. Being Michael Phelps = 5 Olympic Golds.

4. Being a russian pole-vault jumper = how many WR in a year?

5. Being a Polska 50km walker ,"This is my third olympic Gold (3x4yr=12yrs!, tell me if im wrong?), and I did my PR in Athens"

Note : That 50km walk WR-holder, 24 yr old russian (I forgot his name), was almost a dead-meat. I guess that russian was not on EPO definately; He crossed the finish-line with his eyeballs looking onto the tartans, wandering around and simply stumbled down inevitably.

Must be hard for the young WR-holder racing in Athens and pieace of cake for the Polska walker.

8. Actually taking EPO, I mean cause everyone else does it anyway;

9. Protecting the peloton;

10. Running guys down who tell the truth about your drug use.

Yeah, that pole-vaulting really stresses the aerobic capacity of an athlete.

The Insider wrote:

5. Being a Polska 50km walker ,"This is my third olympic Gold (3x4yr=12yrs!, tell me if im wrong?), and I did my PR in Athens"

You're wrong. Three Olympics span over 8 years, guy.

Example: 1996, 2000, 2004 (2004 - 1996 = 8)

Signs of EPO :

1. Being Baldini. Ask him on how to run a 14:38 last 5km in a heat-marred marathon

Being downhill helped.

From reading the message board recently I would say there is only one good sign of EPO use:

Being faster than me, u(SA) or u(K)

That's just not possible.

Another idiot

still not good enuff for me.

thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthakyouthankyou

sub 14 5K here I come

Usually a Kenyan or Ethiopian singlet, or being associated with Rosa, Hermens, Templeton, Kostre or a number of other shady characters is enough to tip off the un-naive that the runner is an EPO user.

Why did you leave out all the doping Africans like Lagat and friends?

How to spot EPO use? Cut them and see if they bleed very slowly.