Everyday Fitness

I say "steroid" because it isn't a steroid by scientific definition. First of all, myostatin is normally made in the body to stop muscles from growing. So the idea is this: block myostatin from working and you get muscle growth. This most certainly turns out to be the case. Clinical trials involving myostatin inhibitors are intended for treating diseases of muscle wasting, like Duchenne's muscular dystrophy.

However, the obvious implications in competitive sports are hard to ignore. Myostatin inhibitors have the potential to achieve the desired results of anabolic steroids with none of the traditional draw backs. We've found cases of animals, and even the odd human, who lack myostatin in their bodies. A perfect example is the Belgian Blue breed of cow. Look at that beast! Scientists have been able to engineer mice with similar genetic changes as Belgian Blue cows. This link shows normal mice in the first column, genetically engineered mice in the second column, and mice treated with a myostatin inhibitor in the third column. Follistatin is one of the current therapies in development to block myostatin.

So what about human examples? There's little Liam; here's an exerpt from another blog:

"He could do the iron cross when he was 5 months old," said his adoptive mother, Dana Hoekstra of Roosevelt Park. She was referring to a difficult gymnastics move in which a male athlete suspends himself by his arms between two hanging rings, forming the shape of a cross.

Liam has the kind of physical attributes that bodybuilders and other athletes dream about: 40 percent more muscle mass than normal, jaw-dropping strength, breathtaking quickness, a speedy metabolism and almost no body fat.

Liam can run like the wind, has the agility of a cat, lifts pieces of furniture that most children his age couldn't push across a slick floor and eats like there is no tomorrow -- without gaining weight.

Liam Hoekstra was hanging upside down by his feet when he performed an inverted sit-up, his shirt falling away to expose rippled abdominal muscles. It was a display of raw power one might expect to see from an Olympic gymnast. Liam is 19 months old.

It makes you wonder how many Olympic athletes have altered myostatin genes...