Rare genetic disorder gives MI kid SUPER POWERS!

Rare genetic disorder gives MI kid SUPER POWERS!

www.ctv.ca

ROOSEVELT PARK, Mich. -- 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.

But this precocious, 22-pound boy with coffee-colored skin, curly hair and washboard abs is far from a typical toddler.

"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.

"I would hold him up by his hands and he would lift himself into an iron cross. That's when we were like, 'Whoa, this is weird,'" Hoekstra said.

Liam has a rare genetic condition called myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy, or muscle enlargement. The condition promotes above-normal growth of the skeletal muscles; it doesn't affect the heart and has no known negative side effects, according to experts.

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.

In fitness buffs' terms, the kid is ripped.

"We call him The Hulk, Hercules, the Terminator," his mother said.

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.

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"We call him The Hulk, Hercules, the Terminator," his mother said.

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.

www.ctv.ca
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[edit on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:49:49 -0500 by MemoryShock]

Its not super powers...its just a genetic condition, basically a gene is turned off the regulates the growth of muscle.

The gene was first found in what scientists now call the "mighty mouse",

www.sciencedaily.com...


Some other species of animals have this same mutation. Here is what they look like...

belgium blue cow






normal mouse left, mighty mouse right!





Dog with the mutation:






There are actually only a handful of people in the world that have that mutation and they are abnormally strong. In fact, back in 2005 or 2006 i had made a thread about it, and there was a person on this board that had the mutation too. He said both him and his father had the mutation.

When i asked him how strong they were, he said that his father could lift and hold an entire washing machine with his arm stretched out in front of him. Most washing machines weigh anywhere from 200-250 pounds.

But he did say it came at a cost, he said that they would normally get muscular tears from time to time. And other problems dealing with their veins or something.

Genetic Condition..Super Powers..is there a difference? I say call it Super Powers give him a cap and lets rock.

As the frequency of the earth continues to increase and all the other fun things happen more and more strange things like this will come out!

reply to post by ATSGUY



So you think maybe we can turn this gene off? (At least I think that's where yer goin') Outstanding!! Why not make a generation of supes?

Here comes superman. I better look for cryptonite.

lol, I've got an image in my head of the super-mutants from fallout 3 sitting and typing about their puberty, and how "Weird changes are happening with their body."

That certainly is an incredible mutation. So far the only detrimental side effects I've heard of are muscle tearing... which happens during exercise to an average person anyways.

Absolutely amazing... have we any images of these individuals?

I believe that the future for those who survive will eventually offer up a system in which you pick exactly what you want your child to be by genetic manipulation. I am sure this option would be a great hit.

reply to post by xbranscombex


Interesting they mention Hercules. Would it not stand to reason that this condition could be what caused the legend to be written about and rehashed for thousands of years?

On a side note:

He would be AWESOME in the UFC in about 18 years.






[edit on 3-4-2009 by projectvxn]

[edit on 3-4-2009 by projectvxn]

Originally posted by Toelint
reply to post by ATSGUY

 

So you think maybe we can turn this gene off? (At least I think that's where yer goin') Outstanding!! Why not make a generation of supes?

YES!!!

I was really surprised by the fact that scientists have been doing allot of genetic testing with mice. They have come up with the mighty mouse strain that has the same myostatine mutation as that kid. Also here are some other genes/mutations that they have found

- MRl Mice, these mice have basically the regeneration ability like wolverine. They were created by accident by changing some genes around and it gave the mice these super regenerative abilities. They would cut off the tail, finger digits, fracture the spine, put holes in the heart, put holes in the brain, and holes in the mice ears...Everything would regenerate and without scaring. They also found that if they injected the gene into the cell of a normal mouse, over a peroid of time the mouse would develope the same regenerative abilities as the mrl mice, and the same thing goes for mrl mice breeding with normal mice.


- Smart mouse, Scientists after tinkering and engineering certain mice have found a gene that increased the intelligence of lab mice by 30% or more. Pinky and the Brain, that show wasnt that far off.


- Endurence mouse, again through tinkering and engineering certain mice, scientists have found a gene that basically makes a mouse super fast. They are able to run for 5 hours straight without tiring and almost .

www.webmd.com...

"They are metabolically similar to Lance Armstrong biking up the Pyrenees," researcher Richard Hanson, PhD, says in a news release.

The mighty mice were seven times more active than normal mice. They showed unusually high levels of activity in their cages from the time they were 2 weeks old.

Running on special treadmills designed for mice, the genetically engineered mice left ordinary mice in the dust.

One treadmill test began at a leisurely pace. The researchers raised the treadmill's incline and speed every two minutes until the mice were exhausted and couldn't run for 10 seconds.

The genetically engineered mice ran for 32 minutes, while the ordinary mice pooped out at 19 minutes.

The genetically engineered mice ate 60% more than the ordinary mice, but they were lean and light, weighing half of what normal mice weigh with 90% less body fat.

The researchers also report that the genetically engineered mice lived longer than other mice and maintained their superior running ability.

For instance, mice that were up to 2.5 years old outran mice that were less than half their age, the study shows.

In addition, a 30-month-old genetically engineered female mouse had baby mice during the study, well past the typical mouse-bearing ages.

Find a way to combine all these genes into one super mouse gene and you will have a hulking super strong, super fast mouse, with the intelligence of dog or cat, and the ability to regenerate and live long and stay young well into old age and keep on breeding!

I welcome our SuperMIGhtyMouse overlords...

The thing is that these genes can be basically gene spliced into living mice, well most of the genes can be spliced with gene therapy. I know for a fact that they have done that will the regeneration and myostatine genes.

Scientitsts have found copies of the same genes in other animals and even humans...so we may not be to far off from becoming superFREAKS!

reply to post by ATSGUY


That would be me.
There are different forms of this condition . I personally weigh 235 with 3% body fat. my son at 16 months weighs 28 pounds with probably less than that. He's the size of a 3 year old. My father at 52 weighs 270 with around 5% body fat. We are stronger and larger than most people. My son will pickup my weight vest and carry it around the house. it weighs 25 pounds. I am one of many children in my family. None of them else have the size or stature I have but all have extraordinary strength , and very low body fat %. The downsides are extreme muscle pain associated with tearing . also enlarged livers and other abnormalities . Poor eyesight , temperament, antisocial behavior . Many sociological issues due to being different . My wife understood I was different and our child would be to. we consume around 4000 calories a day just to maintain body mass . at 3000 calories a day i lost 40 pounds in 2 months. Trust me the negatives outweigh the positives. People consider you a freak. When I was younger one of my party tricks was to lift the rear of small cars off the ground. My friends loved it but it usually took a couple days for the muscles in my arms and legs to heal. Mutations and gentic disorders are not a good thing. If we were meant to posses these abilities , there would not be a price to pay.

I wouldn't say hypertrophy is without "side-effects".

For Liam, the condition has one potential drawback: Infants and toddlers need some body fat to feed brain growth and the development of the central nervous system.

Muscles still need nutrients and adequate rest to grow and consolidate.

At a critical time when a child is developing higher cognitive functions and specific motor-neural abilities, a lack of adequate nutrients for brain growth and such means retarded mental capacity.

Your muscles consume far more glucose and protein than any other part of your body.
And since the red blood cells that carry glucose in your blood stream typically reach your extremities last (head and feet), that means there's far less nutrients left for the brain to absorb.

This kid could well expose the longer-term problems of having hyper-active muscle development.

Originally posted by gray-matter
reply to post by ATSGUY

 

That would be me.
There are different forms of this condition . I personally weigh 235 with 3% body fat. my son at 16 months weighs 28 pounds with probably less than that. He's the size of a 3 year old. My father at 52 weighs 270 with around 5% body fat. We are stronger and larger than most people. My son will pickup my weight vest and carry it around the house. it weighs 25 pounds. I am one of many children in my family. None of them else have the size or stature I have but all have extraordinary strength , and very low body fat %. The downsides are extreme muscle pain associated with tearing . also enlarged livers and other abnormalities . Poor eyesight , temperament, antisocial behavior . Many sociological issues due to being different . My wife understood I was different and our child would be to. we consume around 4000 calories a day just to maintain body mass . at 3000 calories a day i lost 40 pounds in 2 months. Trust me the negatives outweigh the positives. People consider you a freak. When I was younger one of my party tricks was to lift the rear of small cars off the ground. My friends loved it but it usually took a couple days for the muscles in my arms and legs to heal. Mutations and genetic disorders are not a good thing. If we were meant to posses these abilities , there would not be a price to pay.

Hey man, wow was it really you that i talked to back in 05/06. Its been a long time.

There was another kid that was born in 2003 i think with the same condition as the boy in the article up top. They have pictures online that show muscular development at a couple months old, like 3-4months with noticeable muscle build in the arms and legs. The kid was born in Norway i think, and just like the kid in the article in the the first post, the parents were worried on making sure he develops properly. The kid eats like a steamroller, almost every hour.

It is a price to pay, hopefully one day scientists can understand this to regulate muscle growth. Maybe we will get to a point were our bodies will build muscle by themselves, but stop at a certain point to not cause any major damage. Could happen within 7-10 years i think.

So gray-matter, you must pay attention to your condition and follow any new medical studies about it. Have you heard about anything recently that can law some ground breaking studies. I know that scientists have been looking for a way to use the mutation to help people with muscular dystrophy.

There is an already existing thread on this topic here.

Please contribute any further comments and/or questions to the above linked thread.

Thank you.

Thread Closed.