http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1318958/andre-villas-boas-admits-to-jermain-defoe-%27blood-spinning%27?cc=5739%5DAndre Villas-Boas admits to Jermain Defoe ‘blood spinning’ – ESPN FC[/url]

Interesting read indeed after the recent Lance Armstrong debates…

where do you place ‘blood-spinning’ ?

Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas has revealed his medical staff have turned to the controversial ‘blood spinning’ treatment in their bid to get leading scorer Jermain Defoe fit for Wednesday night’s game at Norwich.

Blood spinning is a recognised, though still controversial, technique for speeding up healing both in conventional medicine and in sports medicine.

It is legal – the controversy comes because there is dispute about its effectiveness.

It is used by some specialists in orthopaedic surgery to help with the repair of tendon injuries. It has also been used in cosmetic surgery and urology as well as by athletes such as footballers, most notably at Chelsea.

The technique involves taking a sample of the athlete’s blood and spinning it in a centrifuge to increase the concentration of platelets, the constituents of the blood that promote clotting and assist the healing process.

Blood typically contains six per cent platelets but the spinning process can increase that fourfold. Platelets contain growth factors which aid healing.

Platelet-rich plasma injections – the technical name for the process – have been used to treat many musculo-skeletal injuries, including those of tendons, muscles and joints. Typically two or more injections are needed, between four and six weeks apart, but this may vary on the injury.

Professor Angus Wallace, an orthopaedic surgeon specialising in sports medicine and chair of the appeals committee of the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine, said: “It may work but the evidence in support of it is controversial. It is done in orthopaedics to speed healing of torn tendons in the shoulder.

“It should provide a short-term gain and there is little risk of long-term problems. If it doesn’t work the athlete will not be fit to play because they will still be in pain.”

Blood spinning is not to be confused with blood doping, the technique used by Lance Armstrong, among others, to boost endurance during the Tour de France, which is illegal.

Blood doping involves removing a half-litre of blood from the athlete a month before a race, waiting for the body to regenerate the lost red blood cells and re-infusing the initial blood 24 hours in advance to provide extra oxygen-carrying capacity.

So platelet-rich injections boost healing – possibly – and not performance

I can’t see that if it does boost healing how it can’t therefore be used to improve performance? Surely in any given training schedule there are rest days where you let your body recover which must be a form of healing? If you can reduce/improve these rest periods surely you can improve performance quicker?

Sounds alright to me.

Genuine question; are steroids allowed for injured sports people with a doc’s note? Or does that only apply to non sports related medical problems such as asthma or Messi and HGH for example. If so where’s the line drawn?

thisisnotaspoon – Member
Sounds alright to me.

Genuine question; are steroids allowed for injured sports people with a doc’s note? Or does that only apply to non sports related medical problems such as asthma or Messi and HGH for example

Cortisone injections are steroid based apparently but not an anabolic type but something else i forget… Recently Brad Jones of Liverpool has been on Cortisone for hand pain…. After the beating at Oldham i sodding well wish they were illegal lol

edit

“Cortisone is a glucocorticoid steroid, it doesn’t stimulate muscle growth, i.e. it’s not an anabolic steroid.”

The WADA prohibited list expressly forbids that kind of thing. The 2012 list contained in section M2:

The following are prohibited:
…
3: Sequential withdrawal, manipulation and reintroduction of any quantity of whole blood into the circulatory system

The 2013 edition is a bit different. The passage above is not in M2, but Section M1 now includes

1. The administration or reintroduction of any quantity of autologous,
homologous or heterologous blood or red blood cell products of any origin
into the circulatory system.

It should not be done – reintroduction of any quantity of blood is illegal and icky.

Edit : should have also mentioned that M1 has changed title to apply to all and any blood manipulation rather than just “blood doping”

Genuine question; are steroids allowed for injured sports people with a doc’s note?

By doctor’s note you mean a Theraputic Use Exemption (TUE). If you have a genuine medical reason to need something you are allowed to use it. You need the TUE itself, a copy of which much be registered with your governing body (and team/coach if applicable) This must be done before you fail a test obviously!
Example, EPO is common in roadie circles, it was developed to treat anemia originally. If you have anemia you would be allowed to take EPO, provide you have the TUE to say so.
.
Can’t remember the number but a rather large proportion of riders in the TDF are astmatic. Hmm. No-one there just after an excuse to use the medicenes I’m sure…

Tim – does that new WADA reg cover platelets – strictly speaking they’re not ‘red blood cell products’. If they wanted to prohibit platelet administration they could have said ‘blood products’ as a catch-all, rather than the wording they’ve used, which seems to introduce ambiguity.

Yeah it sounds like they’re not reintroducing red blood cells during the process which I guess makes it OK (by WADA rules at least). I’d say it should be banned though as it’s still unnatural manipulation and if it were proven effective would give an unfair advantage to those that could afford the procedure (as well as risk the health of those that tried it on the cheap).

Ah, looks like I got it wrong! I got mixed up with the UV treatment that Kittel had.

The WADA 2013 FAQs have this to say:

What is the status of platelet derived preparations (PRP)?

Despite the presence of some growth factors, platelet-derived preparations were removed from the List as current studies on PRP do not demonstrate any potential for performance enhancement beyond a potential therapeutic effect.

So there is no performance benefit, so it’s OK – despite the stuff about reintroduction I quoted above.

I still think it’s icky though.

The technique involves taking a sample of the athlete’s blood and spinning it in a centrifuge to increase the concentration of platelets, the constituents of the blood that promote clotting and assist the healing process.

I’m still not sure I understand. I’ve donated platelets, and the process is that they remove some blood, spin it so the platelets can be separated from the rest, then put back everything but the platelets (then take them off to give to a transplant patient or whoever).
Surely in the example described in the quote, if they came from the original donor you haven’t actually increased the quantity of platelets? Or are they “grown” somehow while outside the body?

Next time I do a platelet donation might ask if I can keep half for later in case I get injured 😉

@ Mr greedy I think the body maintains a level and if depleted restock as with red blood cells back to it normal level, with platelets it can be a few hours the small amount of red blood cell you loose a bit longer afaik. They’re then injected back in so you’d have more than normal and the body would naturally then bring that level back down to it’s normal level again.

Levels do fluctuate they monitor those when you donate that’s the table\graph they always keep an eye

Big quote, sorry.

Fro here:http://everything2.com/title/Blood-spinning, don’t know of the bona-fides but suggests more than just therapeutic.

Blood-spinning is a method of providing therapeutic (and, some claim, performance) benefits to the human body through the removal, modification and reintroduction of the body’s own blood. Introduced at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine in 1998, it involves removing a quantity of a subject’s blood and then subjecting it to centrifuge (hence ‘spinning’). The centrifuging process concentrates the platelets found in blood into a plasma which has a thicker constituency than normal blood. The red blood cells are usually discarded during the process.

Once the platelets have been concentrated (to a minimum of five times their normal concentration), calcium and thrombin (an enzyme) are added. This mimicks conditions that would be found in a wound, and the platelets are stimulated into coagulating into a gel. Once they do so, they begin to produce NGFs (Natural Growth Factor hormones) just as they would within the body. These NGFs are the point of the process. Once back within the body, they will serve to quickly heal injuries or accelerate the process of muscle tissue repairing itself during training. It is this latter case that causes the practice to fall afoul of WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency based in Montreal.

The practice has caused a bit of a stir. As of June 30, 2006, several high-profile cyclists have been withdrawn from the 2006 Tour de France on the eve of the race due to their implication in a ‘doping scandal’ which involves blood-spinning. Although legal in other sports (FIFA allows it, for one) the Tour follows WADA rulings on the subject, and it is a no-no.

Blood-spinning should not be confused with blood doping – the practice of freezing and storing the athlete’s own red blood cells for retransfusion for a simple hemoglobin and hence oxygenation boost. Although that is also illegal in some cases, there are obviously more simple medical reasons that might be done – preparation in case of injury, for example – which make that a more complex issue. The anti-doping aspect is more clear-cut in blood-spinning, as substances are in fact added to the spun blood – the calcium and thrombin. Even if those substances are found naturally in the body, the fact that they are added outside the body makes the practice more difficult to defend.

It should be pointed out that WADA does have provisions for blood-spinning to be used as a strictly medicinal procedure – waivers can be granted for athletes who have been injured and who are utilizing the procedure for restorative purposes. It has been shown in some cases to heal tissue faster and more smoothly than mechanical aids (stitching, etc.) and as such is highly useful for contact sports such as football. The resultant gel can be injected into deep tissue injuries such as tendon and ligament tears with less problem than artificial aids, since it is composed of the body’s own substance, and accelerates healing. The WADA first ran up against blood-spinning due to the UK football team Chelsea’s physician Bryan English utilizing the technique beginning in 2003 for rehab purposes, which resulted in the waiver process being set up.

The problem is that the gel can presumably be injected back into the athlete after being rediluted, perhaps in more of the athlete’s own blood. This would give a boost in NGF levels, which would offer an advantage in training by (I am assuming, as I am not a doctor) boosting muscle mass.

Can’t remember the number but a rather large proportion of riders in the TDF are astmatic. Hmm. No-one there just after an excuse to use the medicenes I’m sure…

I remember Rob Warner commenting on an XC race ‘98% of those guys are asthmatic, bless ’em carrying on in the face of illness, heroes every one of them’ (or words to that effect)

Don’t know about blood spinning but it’s a shame blood boiling isn’t performance enhancing! I’d be much quicker than I am.

Thanks midlifecrashes, very helpful explanation. Having read that, I think I’m pretty firmly on the “sounds dodgy, probably shouldn’t be allowed” side of the fence.