Gene technology will help identify athletic potential, fabricate new performance-enhancing drugs, and alter genes to speed muscle growth, strength, and endurance. Many genetic methods will be valuable to athletes. These techniques include:

1) Recombinant DNA technology: This involves fabricating hormones and chemicals in test tubes using genetically altered organisms. Good examples include growth hormone, insulin and blood booster EPO.

2) Drugs that influence genes: Some drugs or hormones can influence genes to produce enzymes or other proteins that improve performance. For example, anabolic steroids stimulate genes to produce more muscle protein so that muscles grow (hypertrophy).

3) Gene therapy: This involves transferring entire cells that have not been genetically modified into tissue via harmless viruses in the hope of improving the tissue’s function. Gene therapy can either promote or block physiological processes.

4) Germ-line gene transfer: This involves transferring genes to eggs or sperm in the hope of altering the genetic content of future generations. For example, a gene variant that promotes muscle hypertrophy and sprint speed might be transferred to an egg in the hope of developing a future Mr. Olympia or Olympic sprinter.

5) Gene identification: Scientists may one day identify children who have genes that give them a natural advantage for developing more strength, power, and endurance. Genetic manipulation is a reality and will alter sports, as we know it. (Pediatric Clinics North America, 54: 807–822, 2007)

Athletes take anabolic steroids to increase, strength, power and training intensity. Some endurance athletes take steroids, but the drugs may not boost their performance.

The advice your roommate gave you about curing hangovers may just be a load of crap. Here is a list of common misconceptions.

- Tylenol before you crash helps you wake up happy.

Not! Tylenol needs to be broken down in the liver, but when the liver is busy with all the booze in your system, the acetaminophen (active drug in Tylenol) is processed in a separate pathway where it can become toxic, causing liver inflammation and permanent damage. Instead of Tylenol, go for Ibuprophen, says David J. Clayton, M.D. But don’t take it before bed. Since the pain killing effects wear off in about four hours, its not going to help you the next morning, unless you have to get up for work in only two hours, and in that case maybe you should just call in sick. His advice is “Get up and take 800 milligrams of ibuprofen an hour before you need to be functional. You’ll feel awful when you wake up to take it, but you’ll feel much better an hour later.”

- Morning bloody mary’s cure a hangover.

Its not really a cure, only a delay. It all depends on if you want the hangover in the morning or in the afternoon. Hangovers set in when blood-alcohol levels fall; the worst symptoms strike when levels reach zero, says alcohol researcher Robert Swift, M.D., Ph.D., of Brown University. Instead of booze, choose a sport drink to replace electrolytes and water, to counter dehydration.

- Low-cal drinks are healthier for you.

Wrong! According to a study by Chris Rayner, M.D., people actually get more drunk from diet cocktails. Why? Low cal drinks empty from your stomach quicker. Blood initially passes through the liver, where some of the alcohol is filtered out. But faster emptying fills up the liver, so more alcohol makes it through to your bloodstream. And your brain.

- Munchies before sleep absorb booze and erase a hangover.

Nope. You need to eat food before you drink. That greasy pizza you scarfed before the keg party will slow the alcohol from getting to your blood, and help you from boosting the booze level to painful levels.

- Beer before liquor, never sicker

Not really. It’s all about how fast you drink. Alcohol is still alcohol, no matter what form it comes in. If you stick with beer, you don’t get drunk as fast because its alcohol content is lower than that of liquor. If you switch to the hard stuff, and continue to drink more, and more, and more, you end up on the express train to hangover hell.

(Marie Claire magazine)