Originally posted by Hunter
Just over the past few months BRAIN did stories of avid cyclists well known in the industry droppiong dead while riding from heart attacks. One was a former trainer of Lance. I remember another well known runner named Jim Fixx while running dropped as well.
One thing that may or may not be a factor here is blood doping. This is something that has happened in sport to give athletes an edge, and up to a point, is undetectable.
Basically, an athelete either transfuses his own blood or takes Erythroprotien to increase his Hematocrit level or count. What this does is give your blood more red cells like you are living at a super high altitude. having more red cells gives you an advantage over competitors on getting oxygen to muscles. Lance does something similar but legal where he sleeps in an oxygen deprivation tent to natually raise hematocrit.
The drawback, when blood gets this thick (hemtocrit over 50%), if you get dehydrated, the blood can turn to jelly and BAM instant heart attack.
Not saying this is what happened to these particular atheletes, but it is certainly possible that this or something similar contributed so when dealing with elite atheletes, perhaps a) sometimes we dont have all the facts and b) regular causes of heart attacks don't nececarily apply.
peas,
Jester
P.S. not an expert, just repeating what I read on this during TDF.