Superkid

[galapogos]

"Superkid," 3, Moves Furniture, Weights

A three-year-old Michigan boy is super-strong.

He can move furniture, hold five-pound weights, and do sit-ups with ease.

But Liam Hoekstra, of Roosevelt Park, appears to have a rare genetic condition -- one that presents special challenges to him and his parents, Early Show Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton said Thursday.

Ironically, learning more about it could lead to treatments for other muscle afflictions, researchers say.

Liam likely has a condition called myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy, which means his body has very little fat and enlarged muscle fibers that make him really strong, Ashton says.

The first human case was documented in 2000 in a German boy.

As a toddler, Liam had very defined muscles, but now he doesn't look much different from any other normal child his age. He's actually a bit smaller, but much stronger, Ashton points out.

It was first believed that since the heart is a muscle, it could be affected by this condition. But we know now that's not the case, she says.

Because of his fast metabolism, Liam needs to eats constantly, as many as six meals a day to avoid a caloric deficit.

And, Ashton has been told, because he's so strong -- he falls, for instance, without getting hurt -- Liam's not learning the appropriate fear judgment of a child testing his or her limits.

But scientists actually hope to figure out how to mimic his condition, she adds, to help treat people suffering from muscle-wasting diseases such as cancer, heart failure and HIV:

[h]

i dunno if you ever saw it, but there was a picture of a huge cat (mystatin blocked/don't have it/dunno what the contion is) on a bulletin board outside the weight room in ccrb... must've been from years ago, the paper was yellowed.

[galapogos]

Nope, didn't see it. I've been to the gym maybe twice while I was there.

[h]

...i remember cuz i saw the picture the first time right when biotest came out with the failed supp... myostat or something like that...

[notle]

gene doping...the future!

[alex]

Does you think that his parents feeds him with 1.5kg of various meats a day to support his mass?

[h]

i'm guessing no... since he's smaller than other kids.
if they fed all he can handle, i think he'd be bigger. but i'm no medical expert, so that's just a guess.

...you can google image myostatin, and see some freakish animals, i guess they're fed all they can eat.