Today's sporting world has been shaken by reports of steroid drugs being used to enhance physical ability and stamina. Top athletes are being fined and even suspended as punishment for these illegal activities. Up until recently these drugs could be detected by the analysis of blood or urine samples, but a San Francisco Bay Area laboratory has produced a designer steroid for Who's Who athletes that is undetectable by conventional testing. This steroid, THG, is said to "bulk up" muscles and increase endurance to give an advantage over non-doped competitors. Researchers are scrambling to develop the technology to cope with the problem.
Twenty years ago Isaac Asimov wrote a science fiction story in which athletes used gene modification to develop increased lung capacity, bulging muscles, and increased metabolism. These athletes were able to perform astounding feats of endurance and speed impossible for normal humans. This possibility is no longer science fiction; there is a new kind of doping on the horizon. This research was developed in an attempt to correct the devastating condition of muscular dystrophy that involves the gradual degradation of muscles due to their inability to manufacture a critical protein. One of the treatments for this disease involves using a hormone called insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1). This hormone encourages the proliferation of a type of stem cell found in muscles. Another approach is to boost a muscle's metabolism by increasing the muscle's mitochondria that burns fat and carbohydrates to produce fuel for more energy. Another approach is to gene-dope the liver to produce more myostatin inhibitor which "bulks up" the muscle fibers. All these methods depend on the blood as a delivery system, but gene-doping can be accomplished by injecting these factors directly into the muscle, and would be undetectable by blood or urine analysis. Many fear that this type of gene-doping will be a factor in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. Isaac Asimov's story may become a reality in the near future with production of gene-doped super athletes.
In these last days we are going to need super energetic, super strong Christians to evangelize and witness to the world for the finishing of the gospel commission. God has provided the means for "bulking up" spiritually to meet the challenges ahead. We will need to be prepared to compete with our satanic competitors. However, we have nothing to fear, for victory is assured, and those who wait, or trust, on the Lord will excel in strength; they will increase in endurance, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become faint, and they will fly as eagles (Isa. 40:3) for they will be energized with "designer genes."
