Shelby Houlihan Distance star with Blood Disorder?

Correction: Dandelion (singular).

I read the article and thought that Shelby was giving us TMI - this idiotic thread is the kind of thing I expected. It looks to me like she is handling this just fine, and her track performances are all the more impressive now that we know she had to overcome a serious health condition. (The next idiotic thread might well be asking whether Shelby should get a TUE retroactively to allow her to compete minus a spleen and gall bladder).

Caster Plaster wrote:

Well this is interesting. All these best of the best world class athletes having blood disorders. I’m not saying they don’t, but she is the American record holder, just like Caster Semenya has a disorder or sorts and is a national record holder. Geraint Thomas just won the tour. Froome supposedly had a blood disorder and won how many grand tours? Who else has rare disorders yet can dominate on the national and or world scene.

If Semenya has to change her natural expression, is it fair for Houlihan not to also have to change her natural expression? Is there any reason not to believe this condition she inherited is a key part of her success? Her red blood cells stuck around longer than the average person right?

NO, her red blood cells stick around for LESS time than the average person, as they are poorly shaped. If anything, it's a distinct disadvantage. Boy, you are effing dense if that's what you surmised after reading the link and the replies on this thread.

notrump wrote:

I read the article and thought that Shelby was giving us TMI - this idiotic thread is the kind of thing I expected. It looks to me like she is handling this just fine, and her track performances are all the more impressive now that we know she had to overcome a serious health condition. (The next idiotic thread might well be asking whether Shelby should get a TUE retroactively to allow her to compete minus a spleen and gall bladder).

Let me guess, you thought Lance deserved to be left alone after overcoming cancer?

blood? wrote:

If you read about the disease you'll notice that there isn't a cure.

"Splenectomy cures all patients with mild to modern Heritable Spherocytosis..."

Nathan and Oski's Hematology of Infancy and Childhood

I read somewhere that EPO is sometimes used to treat this condition. Does she have a TUE for EPO? Not saying that it wouldn’t be justified if she does.

Yessiree Bob wrote:

I read somewhere that EPO is sometimes used to treat this condition. Does she have a TUE for EPO? Not saying that it wouldn’t be justified if she does.

If she needs EPO for a medical condition she would have to have a TUE to compete.

Dude needs to go wrote:

Sand Dunes wrote:

Reminds me of Seb Coe "blood disorder". . .

Do a little reading, and you'll realize how serious hereditary spherocytosus really is. She's already had her spleen and gallbladder removed. As in the name, it is inherited. Toxoplasmosis (Coe's malady) is contracted. Your comment reminds me of what a complete d!psh!t you are. Pull your head out of your @ss. Is that ad hominem?

just more proof that sand dunes is an idiot

Claiming you lack a spleen and gall bladder is nothing you can fake. Maybe there is some benefit here beyond the norm that we do not know about or maybe there are TUE's. But here we were looking at her improvement and her spectacular performances and it was hard to understand them. Now, we have several possibilities, her body adapting to the loss of a spleen and gall bladder with maturity and after several difficult years of adjustment to high level training, a possibly beneficial physiological adaptation, or maybe therapeutic use exemptions for red blood cell boosting drugs. Regardless of all that, it is amazing that she is so healthy with the loss of what I thought were two vital organs and irregularly shaped blood cells.

blood? wrote:

I recently learned that Shelby Houlihan has a blood disease called 'spherocytosis' that is hereditary.

http://running.competitor.com/2014/02/news/fighting-for-every-step-5-questions-with-shelby-houlihan_94974

Spherocytosis is a disease that affects the shape of a persons red blood cells which can lead to more ruptured red blood cells, and therefore anemia and low hemoglobin levels.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereditary_spherocytosis

Red blood cells are responsible for transporting oxygen throughout the body and are therefore incredibly important in endurance sport. How is it that an athlete with a blood disease is capable of becoming one of the best endurance athletes in the world? Are athletes with this disease allowed blood transfusions which are listed as a treatment for the disease?

Over or under 6 hours before Sage posts another anti doping rant? I have a feeling he throws shade towards a few fellow competitors, but I'll keep their names out of the mix, I am sure we can all get creative enough in who he's referring to..

Yessiree Bob wrote:

I read somewhere that EPO is sometimes used to treat this condition. Does she have a TUE for EPO?

It is very unlikely that she could get a TUE for EPO after having her spleen removed. EPO is used as an alternative to removing the spleen. Because the anemia in these cases is caused by the spleen destroying red blood cells, removing the spleen cures the anemia. Since Houlihan has had her spleen removed, there's no medical reason for her to get supplemental EPO.

Of course, it's always possible that her case is so unusual that she could get a TUE for EPO. However, under the TUE guidelines, the EPO could only be used to get her red blood count up to normal.

zxcvzxcv wrote:

it is amazing that she is so healthy with the loss of what I thought were two vital organs and irregularly shaped blood cells.

It is amazing, but still, there are some real downsides to having ones spleen removed. As she says in the interviews, she has to be extra vigilant to compensate for her weakened immune system. If she isn't, she runs the risk of being killed by a range of infections that would be no big deal for most of us.

Once her spleen was removed, the irregularly shaped blood cells really wouldn't be a problem. Even if the mis-shapen cells were less efficient at carrying oxygen, the body would react by producing more red cells so as to boost oxygen levels.

Dr Doctor wrote:

She sounds like the perfect candidate for a TUE for EPO.

I am not certain, but I don't think you can get a TUE for EPO while you are actively competing. EPO is used as a treatment for cancer and a few other things, but to the best of my knowledge, if you are taking EPO, you are probably not competing. I don't think WADA allows TUEs that give you an advantage. The body chemistry has a balance (normal), medical treatments are not designed to get you to be exceptional, but simply normal. This why doping is not only cheating, but it is dangerous. There are a lot of retired athletes from the 1970s to 90s who struggled with numerous health issues in middle age died in their late 50s from excessive blood and hormone doping. Their cause of death never says doping, but when you have a large number of Nordic skiers per se from the same country die is a similar way, you have to assume it's related to what they did as an athlete. Current athletes who dope, do so with smaller volumes, which not only avoids detection but guards against the health risks. Nearly all of the top times in the women's 400m for example are from prior to 2000...no current could or would take the volume of dope required to run those times.

In reference to Houlihan's blood disorder, the organ removal and any TUEs if she has any, would be designed to get her to normal. I can't say it has always been like that, but the WADA and the IAAF tighten up on the TUE process a couple years ago to ensure TUEs provided no performance enhancement.

Yeah, I'm effing dense AF right? Meanwhile she is absolutely obliterating everyone in her path. Yet her little oxygen carrying cells are poorly shaped, she's disadvantaged, blah Fin blah. Give me a break man. Either she has a distinct advantage because of this or she is on some serious secret sauce. You don't set national records when your oxygen carrying system is severely compromised.

Can you name these athletes who died?

Remember "normal" blood values vary with an upper allowed limit. If they allowed a TUE for EPO you can bet that athletes would put things right at 49.9 even if their normal value would be 40.

Caster Plaster wrote:

Found another idiot wrote:

NO, her red blood cells stick around for LESS time than the average person, as they are poorly shaped. If anything, it's a distinct disadvantage. Boy, you are effing dense if that's what you surmised after reading the link and the replies on this thread.

Yeah, I'm effing dense AF right? Meanwhile she is absolutely obliterating everyone in her path. Yet her little oxygen carrying cells are poorly shaped, she's disadvantaged, blah Fin blah. Give me a break man. Either she has a distinct advantage because of this or she is on some serious secret sauce. You don't set national records when your oxygen carrying system is severely compromised.

Yes, you answered your own question at the very beginning of your paragraph. Truly, a fçk!ng dolt. Next time, do some reading/educating yourself on a subject before making statements that reveal the retard you apparently are. You'll do better in life hiding that as long as possible.

TrackCoach wrote:

I am not certain, but I don't think you can get a TUE for EPO while you are actively competing.

Yes, you can. WADA explicitly says "good medical practice" for kidney transplants may require "the use of...Erythropoietin (EPO) or agents stimulating EPO release (ESA in different forms such CERA and pergylated forms)," on the TUE Physician Guideline for kidney transplants.

Think Aries Merritt.

The larger issue is that EPO is not used in treating HS after a splenectomy, since the splenectomy cures the anemia, which is the reason HS patients get EPO. EPO is a sustitute for splenectomy; they are not used together.

The 1980 Olympic medal tables in track and field are an interesting place to look if you want to know whether heavy doping was associated with higher mortality levels. Most of the medalists were born in the 1950s, and so would be in their 60s now. Among the Soviet men who medaled, 7 out of 29 have died, one probably a murder victim. However, among the heavily, heavily doped Soviet and Eastern Bloc women (almost all of the medalists were from Soviet or East German and nearly all Eastern Bloc--Great Britain got bronzes behind the Soviets and East Germans in the relays, and there wasn't much more), the death rate was much, much lower. Only 2 out of 59 or so different medalists have died, according to wiki's individual pages, one of them Olizarenko, the double medalist from the U.S.S.R., who died of ALS last year, and one of them from Great Britain, although interestingly the Brit later competed in body-building.

It looks like among the men, 4 others have died, Slusarski in a car crash, plus Mennea, Oliveira, and Yifter (at age 72--he was already old in 1980).

5 of the 1976 men's medalists later died in car crashes but mortality otherwise was lower (I counted four other deaths), even though you'd expect it to be higher since they were born mostly in the 1940s and early to mid 1950s (oldest was born in 1939).