.jpg)
Pittsburgh Steelers player Hines Ward
Pittsburgh Steelers stars Troy Polamalu and Hines Ward used, and benefitted from, groundbreaking blood treatments prior to their Super Bowl appearances this year. If there is anything to be learned from baseball's steroids fiasco it's that the major sports leagues need to start regulating the use of this procedure, and be quick about it.
The procedure, called platelet-rich plasma therapy (PRP), is being used by many professional and recreational athletes and involves the re-injection of the patient's own treated blood platelets into injured areas. The influx of plasma into those areas helps encourage healing and doctors say it could take the place of surgery in some cases.
The argument for the procedure in professional sports is that it speeds up healing time, which means less wasted money for the team and maximun productivity for the player. The same could be said for human growth hormone, which has been banned by Major League Baseball despite no proof that it enhances performance.
The difference between PRP and synthetic HGH is that the former is a re-injection of a substance that occurse naturally in the human body. It then poses the issue of its difference from autologous blood doping, which is illegal in many sports and involves an athlete boosting their number of red blood cells in circulation in order to enhance athletic performance. While plasma therapy is currently being used to promote healing, it won't be long before athletes find a way to use it for performance enhancement. And by then, if league officials haven't already taken the right measures, it will be too late.
Comments
Verrrrrrry interesting. Wonder if the NFLPA has a position on that.
For me, the dilemma has always been "Is the playing field level?" If wealthy teams/players can afford treatments that poorer teams cannot, or if the treatment would harm the bodies of some, it disturbs me. In this case, I'm not sure. The line between "Illegal PED" and "Medical treatment" is getting blurrier all the time.
The insinuation that PRP is tied to blood-doping or HGH is ridiculous. if you actually took the time to consult a sports physiologist instead of plagerizing a NY Times article could understand the procedure better. You inject 2cc's of the patient's own growth factors which were previously seperated from their own red blood cells in a centrifuge. HGH is artificially derived, usually from an animal source,then injected. Blood doping is gained by using pints of blood that were obtained when the athlete was training at higher altitudes. There are detectable markers due to the size and volume of oxygen the hemoglobe is carrying. PRP is used for chronic tendinitis or tendinosis. Conditions like golfers or tennis elbow which have very little vascular activity are helped. It acts as proliferent like Prolotherapy or cross-friction massage. It does not increase performance...
Research and learn.....
B, while I agree with you that there are scientific differences between HGH and PRP (I say that clearly in this post), the basis of both PRP and autologous blood doping are the same - the re-injection of the athlete's own blood cells into the body. Neither of the athletes named in this article used it for "tennis elbow", as you mention. It was used to treat serious knee injuries. And I stand by my educated assertion that, while PRP is currently being used for healing purposes, there isn't enough known about its effects to ensure that it can't be used for performance enhancement in the future.
B, while I agree with you that there are scientific differences between HGH and PRP (I say that clearly in this post), the basis of both PRP and autologous blood doping are the same - the re-injection of the athlete's own blood cells into the body. Neither of the athletes named in this article used it for "tennis elbow", as you mention. It was used to treat serious knee injuries. And I stand by my educated assertion that, while PRP is currently being used for healing purposes, there isn't enough known about its effects to ensure that it can't be used for performance enhancement in the future.
The author of this article is an idiot. It is a very clear case of a "lay" person trying to write about a medical procedure without understanding the procedure or basic human physiology. For the benefit of lay people and the idiot author of this article: Platelet Rich Plasma is no where close to being the same as blood doping. Blood doping involves withdrawing the athletes red blood cells, storing them while the body replaces the blood cells and then returning the stored red blood cells to the bloodstream to boost oxygen carrying capacity to increase performance and decrease fatigue. A platelet is a fragment of red blood cell that the body uses to stop bleeding by plugging "holes". Platelets also have growth factors attached to them to initiate healing once the injury is sealed. Platelet Rich Plasma therapy involves concentrating those platelets and then injecting them into the INJURED TISSUE or JOINT, NOT INTO THE BLOODSTREAM!!! Injecting activated platelets into the bloodstream could be potentially lethal, activated platelets, FORM CLOTS!!!
This author should be fired. Whatever happened to fact checking and consulting experts when you are writing about a subject outside of your area of expertise?
In your article you insinuate by omission. PRP has been used for over 8 years in Europe.It has been studied extensively there. The procedure is new to the US. Teams like AC Milan and Manchester United have used it. The World Track and Field organizations like it. they have the most research about doping and have the most to fear....
I am a physician from Boulder, CO who has performed over 100 PRP injections. To imply that PRP is some sort of blood doping or is analagous to HGH injections demonstrates the author's complete lack of understanding of the proceedure. PRP injection is a LOCAL therapy designed to return an injured tendon back to it's normal state thru self-healing mechanisms. HGH or blood-doping are SYSTEMIC treatments designed to improve the performance of the entire organism to higher-than-normal levels. They are not even close to being similar.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!