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12/16/08
The process known as gene doping is about to take the world by storm. Within a decade, there will be notable laboratory progress toward manipulating the outcome of a pregnancy with regard to characteristics of the baby. Gender, likelihood of certain diseases or defects, and other traits of the baby will be examined and selected before inception. This will allow babies to be born healthier with better statistical genetic chance for a long and vigorous life. This technology translates to the bodybuilding stage and the sports performance world as well. The same brilliant minds that have delivered undetectable steroids to the Olympic Games for decades are now working to make genetic manipulation, or gene doping, a reality. Here are a few of the techniques they are studying.
Gene identification
Soon, scientists will be able to determine which children will be born with additional physical gifts, making them more apt for strong performance in sports as children and adults. Parents who wish to will be able to ‘select’ which version of their child they’d like to be born. While it does sound like creepy science fiction, it makes sense to some. If two world class athletes decide to have a child, and they select the gene technology most likely to create offspring with additional physical talents, we may soon see a generation of “super babies” that can outperform all previous generations due to their genetic gifts.
Recombiant DNA Advancement
Artificial hormones introduce into the body cause the body to change in order to allow for greater sports performance or higher levels of muscle mass and strength. Growth hormone allows the muscles to experience a level of growth and development at rates not seen since the toddler years. While it’s nothing for a four-year old child to add 10% of his body mass as muscle in a year, when a 30-year old man does it, you see some tremendous results. Insulin and EPO (erythropotein) also fall into this category.
Gene Therapy
As we age, the toxins from our environment (as well as byproducts of our own body’s processes) cause tissue in the body to deteriorate. This death of cells can lead to cancers and other debilitating illnesses. Gene therapy involves injecting cells into an area to alter its function or health of that particular area. This allows scientists to promote certain functions (such as muscle growth) or stop others (such as illnesses and infections). It’s long been suspected that some Olympia athletes have cellular injections in certain parts of their body to stimulate performance. This brings us to…
Gene-influencing Technology
These are the drugs that influence genes. As previously mentioned, these are drugs which work to stimulate genes into producing a particular enzyme or chemical leading to a desired outcome. Anabolic steroids will be a thing of the past when sports performance researchers deliver the technology to cause the back, legs, or chest to increase in muscular size, strength, and speed from a simple injection of tissue. While it may allow sports to become a battle of the ‘lab coats’, the results we see on the field will be astoundingly different from those we see today.
