Myostatin manipulation doubling lean muscle

Wired talks about new strength and muscle enhancement technology

Johns Hopkins’ Se-Jin Lee recently found that overproduction of one myostatin inhibitor pumps the mice up even more than previous results instead of 60% up to 81 percent in females and a whopping 116 percent in males. Results of human clinical trials are pending.

Researchers at the Salk Institute in San Diego found that an existing medication, called GW1516, raises the levels of this gene, resulting in a 68 percent endurance improvement in fit mice.

In related news, the mainstream media (NY Times) is advocating allowing all performance enhancement in sports. This site agrees that all performance enhancement should be allowed in sport and in society in general.

Once upon a time, the lords of the Olympic Games believed that the only true champion was an amateur, a gentleman hobbyist untainted by commerce. Today they enforce a different ideal. The winners of the gold medals are supposed to be natural athletes, untainted by technology. After enough “scandals,” the amateur myth eventually died of its own absurdity. The natural myth is still alive in Beijing, but it’s becoming so far-fetched — and potentially dangerous — that some scientists and ethicists would like to abandon it, too.

Norman Fost, a professor of pediatrics and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin. “The claims of the common fatal or irreversible harms of anabolic steroids are without any medical foundation. There’s no reason to think the risk of injury or death is as high as the risk from simply playing sports like football or baseball.”