This 3 year old boy can move furniture, hold five-pound weights, and do sit-ups easily. No, he doesn’t have a superpower if that’s what you thought; he actually has an extremely rare genetic condition called Myotonic Hypertrophy. He actually doesn’t look much different from any other normal child his age. Few differences are he is a bit smaller, but very much stronger than others.
Experts have said the condition is so rare in humans, scientists don’t know how many people have it. The first human case was documented in 2000, and it was a German boy. It was first believed that since the heart is a muscle, it could be affected by the condition, but it’s now certain that’s not the case.For Liam, the result was having enlarged muscle fiber, which makes him terrifically strong, quick as a rabbit, has the metabolism of a gerbil and almost no body fat. “Liam is everything a lot of us want to be — all muscle, no body fat and he gets to eat whatever he wants,” his mother said. His parents were unaware of Liam’s condition when they adopted him at birth. They believe he inherited myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy from his biological father, who supposedly possessed tremendous strength.
This condition also has its negative effects. Because of his fast metabolism, Liam needs to eat constantly, six meals a day to avoid a caloric deficit. Another is that because he’s so strong, Liam isn’t learning the appropriate fear judgment of a child testing his limits. For example, when he falls without getting hurt he won’t see this as something bad, and probably be less careful around cliffs or high places because he doesn’t know he can get hurt.
Scientists hope to learn more about this condition, so it could lead to treatments to help treat people suffering from muscle-wasting diseases such as cancer, heart failure and HIV.
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