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Cheating at Paralympics could involve self-harm
Olympics Headlines
- Paralympics officials on the lockout for boosting
- Cheating at Paralympics could involve self-harm
- Pistorius to run again, this time at Paralympics
- Pistorius runs again, this time at Paralympics
- Classifying disabilities tricky at Paralympics
- After judo gold, Harrison might go for Rio in 2016
- Paralympic cauldron lit in central London
- Valerie Adams seeks her Olympic gold medal at IOC
- Full TV coverage for Paralympics, just not in US
- Brazil minister not concerned with hotel shortages
By MARIA CHENG,
Updated August 27, 2012
LONDON (AP) Paralympics officials will be testing for more than just the usual banned drugs in London, where they also will be on the lookout for a practice called boosting in which wheelchair athletes use painful stimuli to cause a blood pressure spike that enhances performance.
In able-bodied athletes, intense physical exercise automatically raises the heart rate and blood pressure. Athletes with a severe spinal cord injury don't get that boost.
To get a rapid rise in blood pressure, wheelchair-bound athletes may resort to inducing a state called autonomic dysreflexia. That is a reflex that occurs when the lower part of their body is exposed to painful stimuli, like using tight leg straps or sitting on a sharp object.
International Paralympic Committee spokesman Craig Spence says "it's very dangerous."
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