Everyday Asprin & red blood cells...?

thefd
Posts: 1,021
I can't seem to find an answer online (not one I can understand), so I'm wondering if anyone here knows.
Drug cheats take EPO to thicken the blood by increasing red blood cells. Does taking everyday Asprin (which thins the blood) actually reduce red blood cells? Therefore reducing how much oxygen is carried in the blood? And therefore meaning I am making my cycling life harder for myself?
Drug cheats take EPO to thicken the blood by increasing red blood cells. Does taking everyday Asprin (which thins the blood) actually reduce red blood cells? Therefore reducing how much oxygen is carried in the blood? And therefore meaning I am making my cycling life harder for myself?
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I think like warfarin - aspirin thins blood in that it stops the blood cells sticking together - not sure it actually reduces the amount of cells. Or so my vampire friend 'Pointy Tooth O'Malley' saysThe dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns
momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.0 -
Have you got it a bit the wrong way around? EPO is not taken to thicken the blood, that is actually deleterious. It's taken to upregulate the synthesis of red blood cells which has the side effect of thickening the blood. Look up polycythaemia if you're interested.
Warfarin (inhibits Vitamin K which is required for synthesis of various clotting factors) and aspirin (irreversible COX inhibitor) have no effect on the production of red blood cells and therefore the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood.Specialized Allez 2010
Strava0 -
aspirin doesn't thin the blood. It acts on the platelets in your blood- they are the things that stick together to form clots, aspirin stops them sticking together (and to things like cholesterol stuck in the walls of your arteries). the cox inhibitor bit is the anti inflammatory part- it seperately acts on thromboxane to stop clotting.0
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Same as Warfarin, it doesn't actually make the blood thinner it just reduces its ability to clot (Wife has been on and off it for 10 years).
Cheers
StewAn aging Trek 5500 OCLV
Not so aging Pina Dogma (AK61)0