Creatine Kinase Levels

Nichols family's last hope lies in controversial, miracle treatment

There are a number of words that could be used to describe Myles Cook, but hopeless isn’t one of them. At only 16, the West Liberty High School student lives with a countdown ticking in the back of his mind and he believes his time is running out.

When Myles was just 6 years old, he began feeling tired. Long walks would wear him down and he became breathless a little quicker than the other kids.

“Lots of things led to the diagnosis,” said Myles’s mother, Glenda.

First, there were the blood tests.

“There’s an enzyme in your blood called creatine kinase,” explained Glenda. “It should be at around 200. Myles’s CK levels were at 20,000.”

Then there was DNA testing and a muscle biopsy, during which doctors removed part of Myles’s thigh muscle. After nine months, Myles was finally diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

DMD is the most common, and the most fatal, form of muscular dystrophy, affecting 1 in 3,500 male children. According to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, it is a genetic disorder caused by the absence of dystrophin, a protein that keeps muscle cells intact. DMD affects the heart and lungs and children with DMD rapidly deteriorate. With a life expectancy of mid- to late-20s, Myles knows his clock is ticking.

“When I was about 10, it started getting harder to move around,” Myles remembered. “It was harder to go up steps, getting up off the floor, getting out of bed.”

In sixth grade, Myles went from walking to a wheel chair.

“I started falling and was short of breath. I got fatigued really easily,” he said.

At first, the wheelchair stayed at school and Myles used it to conserve energy. When he reached seventh grade, he depended on the chair more and more.

“I got a lot of questions from the other kids,” he said. “I can’t do much with my friends anymore.”

Myles is now nearly wheelchair-bound. He can still walk short distances, and he was even able to lift his foot over the lip of the shower last week. Though this is more than what most Duchenne kids can do at his age, Myles and Glenda still know what it means.

“This disease holds him prisoner. His friends can’t just come and pick him up and go to the mall. There are a lot of social barriers,” Glenda said. She said Myles’s disability defines him. “First people see the chair, then they see him. They question his intelligence. Plus, he’s a black kid with white parents.

Ginseng protects your muscles : Vitatalks.com

Panax (Korean ginseng) may help reduce exercise induced muscle damage (Jung et al 2011) .  Supplementing Korean ginseng helped to lower creatine kinase activity – a measure of muscle protein breakdown, and it also lowered levels of an inflammatory marker called interlukin-6.  Interestingly it helped to improve insulin sensitivity as well, perhaps making it of some use for improving blood sugar control. Research on American ginseng  (Hsu et al 2005) suggests that it to may protect muscle tissue from exercise-induced damage.  Supplementing with this resulted in lower creatine kinase levels. Ginsengs of all kinds have long been used for endurance enhancement and stress protection, which may offer further benefit to those engaging in frequent sports or general exercise programs.

References:

Hsu CC, Ho MC, Lin LC, Su B, Hsu MC (2005) American ginseng supplementation attenuates creatine kinase level induced by submaximal exercise in human beings.  World J Gastroenterol. 2005 Sep 14;11(34):5327-31.

Jung HL, Kwak HE, Kim SS, Kim YC, Lee CD, Byurn HK, Kang HY (2011). Effects of Panax ginseng Supplementation on Muscle Damage and Inflammation after Uphill Treadmill Running in Humans.  Am J Chin Med. 2011;39(3):441-50.

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