Blood results and what to look for.

[grizzlee]

Hey guys, you are all very well up to date on blood parameters and what to look for in blood results that is why im posting this in the clinic and not in the other forums.
Right, where to start. I work for a healthcare company and I system test their hematology blood analyser (used by a lot of labs for doping results). So today I just decided to test my own blood and got a full read out (Man this thing tests everything) So basically what readings should I look for to determine whether I would be suited to endurance sports or really what readings do teams look at to determine if a rider has a lot of potential or not. ill post up my results when I know what to look for.

 

[vedrafjord]

Not sure if values have any meaning for a clean athlete really! I guess high Hgb is a potential sign of high endurance but it's not necessarily meaningful on its own.

For doping on the other hand, it's been alleged that back in the day teams would look for an athlete with a naturally low hematocrit, as they could take more EPO and get a bigger % increase up to the magic 50% threshold.

 

[grizzlee]

Not sure if values have any meaning for a clean athlete really! I guess high Hgb is a potential sign of high endurance but it's not necessarily meaningful on its own.

For doping on the other hand, it's been alleged that back in the day teams would look for an athlete with a naturally low hematocrit, as they could take more EPO and get a bigger % increase up to the magic 50% threshold.

Cheers thanks for that.

OK so from the results I obtained my
Hematocrit is 49%
hgb is 16.1
Anything else I should be looking for?

I Should also state im 38 years old 5 ft 10" and 15.5 stone so very unfit. I used to be a pretty good sprinter in my youth and have some national medals to my name but im thinking about taking up running again (this time long distance) thought it would be fun to see if my parameters changed much after training.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

Cheers thanks for that.

OK so from the results I obtained my
Hematocrit is 49%
hgb is 16.1
Anything else I should be looking for?

I Should also state im 38 years old 5 ft 10" and 15.5 stone so very unfit. I used to be a pretty good sprinter in my youth and have some national medals to my name but im thinking about taking up running again (this time long distance) thought it would be fun to see if my parameters changed much after training.

Loose 5 stone and you will be our new Horner. Give Foxy a ring.

 

[grizzlee]

Loose 5 stone and you will be our new Horner. Give Foxy a ring.

Haha very funny I was wondering how many posts it would take to start having a pop at my weight. I actually thought 2 or 3 serious posts before it degraded. I should have known better!

 

[gillan1969]

Haha very funny I was wondering how many posts it would take to start having a pop at my weight. I actually thought 2 or 3 serious posts before it degraded. I should have known better!

the joke's on Horner not you....

 

[Catwhoorg]

What the ret% and ferritin ?

You are towards the upper limits of a normal range of HGB for a 38 year old male, high but not crazy high.


More importantly body shape, and composition have a key part to play. You say you used to be a sprinter, those fast twitch muscles don't help so much in the endurance sports.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

the joke's on Horner not you....

Check.

49 and 16 are good numbers, when natural...

 

[grizzlee]

the joke's on Horner not you....

I know, I was just commenting on the joke.

Im not very sensitive about my weight, I did actually find it quite funny.

 

[grizzlee]

What the ret% and ferritin ?

You are towards the upper limits of a normal range of HGB for a 38 year old male, high but not crazy high.


More importantly body shape, and composition have a key part to play. You say you used to be a sprinter, those fast twitch muscles don't help so much in the endurance sports.

%retic = 1.64 (if im reading this right).
ferritin = im not sure about this, cant find it on the print out, what is ferritin? I might be able to find it under a sub heading, has it got an abbreviation?

 

[Catwhoorg]

%retic = 1.64 (if im reading this right).
ferritin = im not sure about this, cant find it on the print out, what is ferritin? I might be able to find it under a sub heading, has it got an abbreviation?

Its basically the iron other than that bound to the HGB.

Its not necessarily tested in a standard screen, but a mismatch between HGB levels and ferritin can be useful diagnostically for some slow onset issues.