Lack of Hormone Gave 'Superkid' Big MusclesBERLIN (Reuters) - A German toddler has massive muscles and can lift far heavier weights than other kids his age because of a natural genetic mutation, Markus Schuelke,
a neurology specialist in Berlin, said on Thursday.
Schuelke first examined the child, now four, as a new-born baby when his extraordinary muscle mass caused fears he might have a muscular problem.
But the baby has developed into a healthy boy, normal apart from having muscles twice as big as normal which enable him to lift three kilo (6.6 lb) weights.
Doctors have now proved for the first time that the child's muscles grew so large because of the absence or malfunctioning of the growth-curbing hormone myostatin.
"Myostatin acts as a stop-sign to muscle growth. If it is removed, muscles will continue to develop," said Schuelke.
The discovery may enable doctors eventually to use myostatin hormone therapy to treat people with muscular dystrophy, a degenerative condition for which there is no cure, he
said.
― Huk-L, Thursday, 24 June 2004 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)
four years pass...
can't suppress a natural born hero
― The 69, 666, 420th Beatle (latebloomer), Sunday, 14 September 2008 14:14 (seventeen years ago)