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e058961 e058961
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8 years ago
John Lemon decided to go on a sabbatical to learn from the Dalai Lama in the Tibetan mountains. While up in the mountains, he noticed that he became quickly winded during physical activity, but after a couple of months, this symptom disappeared. He stayed up in the mountains for 6 months, and then came back down to sea level a changed man. During a normal medical checkup, he is told that his erythrocyte count is higher than normal. (a) Explain this finding. (b) What other physiological changes likely occurred during his sabbatical (concentrate on respiratory and cardiovascular changes). (c) Will his erythrocyte count remain high forever? Why or why not? Wink Face
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8 years ago
Erythrocytes are red blood cells which consist of hemoglobin, a protein on which there are 4 points where oxygen molecules attach for transport. Because erythrocyte count is inversely correlated to amount of oxygen in the air (over an extended time period, of course), when someone lives at a higher altitude where the air is thinner, (oxygen availability decreases), their body and blood must become more efficient with its transportation of blood, (erythrocyte/ red blood cell count increases).

This is often useful for athletes and it is why the US Olympic Training Center is found in Colorado, in the mountains, at a high altitude. The athletes want their bodies to be more efficient with oxygen so that when they return to their competitions, their bodies don't need as much oxygen to perform the same level task, and can use the excess oxygen to perform at a higher level.

When athletes inject themselves with erythrocytes rather than just training at high altitudes and letting the increase occur naturally, it is referred to as blood doping. Cyclist Lance Armstrong is notorious for his illegal blood doping that may have one him several Tour de France competition.
Source  This is the wikipedia page on blood doping for further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_doping
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