An asthma medicine gives children with rare muscle diseases energy for a whole school day

At Gothenburg's Queen Silvia Children's Hospital, researcher Eva Michael and her team tried something simple for a hard problem: congenital myopathies are rare inherited muscle diseases with no drug treatment at all. In a trial with 18 children and young people aged 6–16, the long-used asthma medicine salbutamol, taken by mouth, improved motor function and strength — grip strength rose by about 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds), children walked farther in six minutes, and lung function improved too. It was well tolerated, with no serious side effects, and families noticed something the charts only hint at: children had energy left for school, activities and homework. The study, published in eClinicalMedicine, needs confirming in larger trials — but for diseases with nothing, a familiar medicine is a hopeful start.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation