BY LYN JERDE SUN NEWSPAPERS
(Created: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 9:49 PM CDT)

A passel of kids, dressed in white karate clothing with white belts, ran between the ball pit and the slide at MyGym in Eden Prairie.

"OK, guys! Yellow line! Ten seconds!" shouted karate instructor Jake Erling.

Within 10 seconds, the children were standing on the yellow line, at attention, waiting their turn to try a thrust kick.

As a student swept his foot over a giant ball, Erling praised, "Did you see that control and strength? Not even I can do it that well."

Tedra Bonner, who co-owns the Eden Prairie MyGym with Shelli Kargella, said "Mr. Jake" commands both respect and affection from his karate pupils, who range in age from 3 to 12.

"He brings a sense of authority," Bonner said. "But that authority comes from caring and integrity."

Now and then, "Mr. Jake" will have a karate pupil who has a special challenge, such as autism or asthma.

The children may not know his story unless they ask him, but their parents are told from the moment they enroll their children in Erling's classes: "Mr. Jake" was born with the genetic disease cystic fibrosis, and later developed insulin-dependent diabetes and chronic pancreatitis.

As a child, he remembers hearing schoolmates say, "My dad says you're not going to live past 13."

Erling will be 30 in November.

Erling, of Minneapolis, said he was 5 years old when doctors determined what caused his bloated belly and constant stomach aches.

According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (www.cff.org), cystic fibrosis is a life-threatening genetic disease that affects about 30,000 people in the United States.

About one in 31 people, or about 10 million in the United States, carry the gene that causes cystic fibrosis. To develop the condition, a child would have to inherit the gene from both parents.

Children with cystic fibrosis develop sticky mucus that can clog their lungs, pancreas and other organs, resulting in digestive and respiratory problems that, 50 years ago, usually resulted in the child's death before he or she completed elementary school.

With modern treatment, the median life expectancy for people with cystic fibrosis is in the mid-30s.

"The future goals and plans for children with CF should not be limited in scope," says a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation pamphlet. "They should be encouraged to pursue their academic, career, and life goals to the fullest."

Erling said that was exactly the approach that his mother, Susan Martinez (now of Edina), and his father, Rich Erling (now of Maple Grove), followed as Jake grew up in St. Paul.

When children in the schoolyard, or others, predicted out loud that Erling would die by age 7, or 10, or 13, his mother would say, "They don't know what they're talking about."

Never, said Erling, did his parents tell him that his condition would limit what he could and could not do.

"I tell the same thing to a lot of people - that, if you feel mentally that you are healthy, you will be," he said. "That's what I tell the kids - that they have no boundaries."

That's why, shortly after his diagnosis, Erling enrolled in tae kwon do classes in St. Paul.

The martial arts training, he said, not only helped him overcome his difficulty with shortness of breath and fatigue, but also instilled strength, flexibility and self-confidence.

He said he passes that attitude on to his pupils, especially those with physical or psychological challenges.

"I like to reach out to challenged kids," he said. "After all, I'm physically challenged. But I have a black belt. And I'm healthy."

He earned the black belt at 14, he said, after advancing in his martial arts training with American-style karate, after the family moved to Brooklyn Center.

One of the people who was there for him when he was awarded the black belt was his physician, Dr. Stephen Kurachek, a specialist in pediatric critical care and pediatric pulmonogy at Children's Respiratory and Critical Care Specialists in Minneapolis.

"He's a people doctor, not just a book-smart doctor," Erling said.

Erling still faces physical struggles.

He developed diabetes at age 15 - a common diagnosis for people with cystic fibrosis.

Because he no longer has an insulin pump (partly because he is so active), he must give himself insulin injections five times a day.

The pancreatitis set in two years ago.

At times, he said, it is a challenge to manage all his conditions, which sometimes have contradictory dietary requirements.

The story of his health journey is posted on the wall at MyGym, including what Erling sees as its happy ending - his engagement to Natalia Velasquez. They got engaged last Christmas, and hope to be married next summer.

Erling said he knows at least three people with cystic fibrosis near his age.

He said he owes his condition largely to martial arts.

"If you teach kids that physical fitness is important from day one," he said, "they will copy that into adulthood. And if you make physical fitness fun, what kid wouldn't want to do that?"

About cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis is a condition that can be passed on to children of two parents who carry the gene causing the disease.

Jake Erling said no one else in his family has been shown to have cystic fibrosis; the only other possible sign of it in his family history was the mysterious death, at age 5, of his grandfather's brother.

An early symptom of cystic fibrosis is a salty taste on the child's skin.

Other symptoms include persistent coughing, sometimes with thick phlegm; shortness of breath; upset stomach or excessive appetite without weight gain.

The standard test for cystic fibrosis is a "sweat test," in which perspiration is collected and analyzed. A high level of salt in the sweat is consistent with cystic fibrosis.

Cystic fibrosis affects different patients in different ways. Managing the condition commonly entails keeping the lungs clear of mucus and ingesting enzymes to assist with digestion.

Detailed information about cystic fibrosis can be found at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Web site, www.cff.org.