In November, a new ACSM pronouncement titled, “ACSM Consensus Statement: Blood Doping in Sport” was published in the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (MSSE) journal. Consensus Statements are official pronouncements of the College and represent ACSM’s stance on the topic at hand. They provide a mechanism by which the College can make an official comment in a timely and efficient manner on topics of high importance or with broad impact. The goal for the document is to present a well-rounded summary of the topic under consideration. This new statement was developed using a blend of research evidence and consensus of expert opinion. Further, the paper underwent a rigorous review and approval process.
The new statement, ACSM Consensus Statement: Blood Doping in Sport” will serve as an update to the previous “ACSM Position Stand: The Use of Blood Doping as an Ergogenic Aid” published in 1996. The new statement revisits blood doping in sports, and offers an informative, structured review of contemporary blood-doping practices, detection strategies, and physiological implications focusing on methods such as blood transfusions, and erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs). Information relating to the science and technology of the most controversial methods, interventions, and detections of the last 25 years, and highlights of information differing from the previous position stand are presented in the latest manuscript.
The paper was authored by the expert writing group of Laura Lewis, Ph.D., Jakob Mørkeberg, Ph.D., Robert Chapman, Ph.D., FACSM, Yorck Olaf Schumacher, M.D., Matthew Fedoruk, Ph.D., Daniel Eichner, Ph.D., and Benjamin Levine, M.D., FACSM.
The paper and accompanying resources are freely available to view and download. For access to the paper, click here. In addition, a power point slide deck for academic use is also freely available.
For more information on ACSM’s pronouncements and to view ACSM’s additional official statements, click here.
