“I Couldn’t Even Walk”: Bodybuilder Defeated Rare Disease From Acne Medicine to Make a Heroic Comeback

Driven by unfathomable courage and consistency, Chris Brine, who was once told he could never walk again, transformed himself into a bodybuilding champion. Currently, Brine, hailing from New Zealand, is training rigorously for the world championships scheduled this month. While it is astonishing the changeover he made in his life, it is also intriguing to know what led him to an immobile state.

Growing up, sports meant everything to Brine. He played every sport–outdoor and indoor. From believing that everything revolves around the sport to getting confined to a bed struggling with intolerable pain, it is nothing but a nightmare. In an unfortunate turn of events, or rather a rarest of rare cases, the side-effect of the medicine he was prescribed to treat acne caused him to be admitted to a ward that had patients older than him by half a century.  

The doctors diagnosed it as growing pains

The kiwi bodybuilder had no clue what was happening to him. What was assumed as growing pains left the teen, Brine in chronic fatigue and bedridden. It was later diagnosed as a side effect of his acne medication; he had developed a condition called lupus. He was unaware that there was a side-effect of this kind. His condition worsened and “Soon, I couldn’t even walk or hold my hands up.”

Most cases of lupus, a chronic autoimmune condition that can damage every organ, usually require lifelong treatment. In Brine’s case, he had to be admitted to the arthritis ward among patients who were in their late ‘60s or older. Speaking of his excruciating pain, he stated, “I couldn’t even have sheets on my hands because of the pain.” 

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He spent 18 months battling and enduring the condition. When he was discharged from the hospital, he was a 16-year-old feeling depressed and disheartened. From being on the U55kg rugby team to emerging as a 120-kg survivor in 18 months, he resolved to take charge of his life thereafter. 

Brine joined the NewZealand army before getting into bodybuilding

Stepping out of the hospital in a wheelchair, he developed a different perspective on health and life. He chose to join the army as “The army was the hardest thing imaginable, and something I was passionate about anyway,” Brine said. Brine discovered a new sense of self after losing weight by marching, running, and training. “I figured a lot of it out myself. Knowing what I know now, there were easier ways than starving myself,” he said.

After six years in the infantry, he now coaches and trains people, helping them improve their health. Brine views his days of suffering as a means of changing his perspective on health. He who was a teenager without any control over his body is now exercising complete control and expanding his horizons as a bodybuilder. 

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