As a kid, I always used to dream of becoming like my childhood idols and erstwhile WWF superstars like Sid Justice, Ultimate Warrior, Mr Perfect, Hulk Hogan etc. One thing I was always crazy about was their height and their flexing biceps. I managed to achieve the height, well almost(I am a six footer), but never quite managed to have that well defined body. So a well built muscle mass still remains an elusive dream for me. Besides, I have a few very good friends into serious gymming. After I saw some peculiar changes in guys when I was in my college I was forced to do some research on what exactly is the reason behind it.
Anabolic steroids was a rage among teens in those days and still continues to remain thanks to the every publicised 6 pack abs(SRK in Om Shanti Om) and 8 pack(Amir Khan in the movie Ghajani) although people are becoming more and more aware of the serious long term side effects of these substances . I had done some home-work at that time on steriods and the other substances like erythropoietien which is basically a glycoprotein hormone that functions as a cytokine for erythrocyte precursors in bone marrow. To put it in simple words, it temporarily increases the capacity of the body to intake and utilise more oxygen. These reasons led to its history of usage as a blood doping agent in endurance sports such as cycling, rowing, distance running, cross country skiing, biathlon, triathlons etc. However the thirst for success and the accompanying fame and money led the atheletes to forget all the side effects like hypertension due to effects on kidney, depression resulting from body's dependence on those substances, and heart attack caused by inducing proliferation of smooth muscle fibers in all muscles including the heart.
Even after all this substance abuse, the bodies of atheletes would have reached their biological barriers in every other sport by 2020, leaving no other option to break records. Or will it ?
Recent advances in science and medicine are poised to take doping to a new level altogether. Enter the world of Genetic Doping.
Genetic doping very cleverly uses a protein called Myostatin that acts as an inhibitor to the growth of muscle tissue. If Myostatin would not be present, our muscles would keep on growing even if we stop excersising our bodies. It is used for curing patients with conditions like muscle atrophy. If there could be a simple way of administering this to atheletes, their muscular tissue would keep on growing at a phenomenal rate for their entire life. And the bad part is it is already being done somewhere by somebody. However the long term side effects like forever growing muscles would make this such of doping an improbality for almost everyone. Here comes scientific research to the rescue again. Now, myostatin can be administered as tablets causing short term changes rather than injections causing permanent lifelong change in the body.
To make matters worse for testers, its virtually impossible to accurately test the person for this kind of genetic doping. Genetic testing is not possible by the ubiquitous urine testing. Blood samples would have to be taken to test the DNA through very expensive testing procedures. Dope testing is a profession where there will always be constant competition between the dopers and testers who always keep trying to outsmart each other.
The ethical question is - Are we ready to make life altering changes to ourselves just for the sake of breaking a few records ?
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