10 strange medical conditions that almost no one has heard of
Over millions of years, people have learned to recognize and treat many diseases, even those that initially seemed fatal. Although much is known about the diseases, some symptoms still cause doctors to doubt. Today we're going to tell you about 10 strange medical conditions that you may never have heard of.
The "Occam's Razor" principle is a concept that is used to make an optimal solution to a problem. The essence of the technique is to choose the simplest among many solutions, and therefore the right one. In the field of medicine, the essence of the principle is that "if you hear the sound of hooves, it is most likely horses, not zebras." This means that you need to choose the most basic ones from the list of symptoms. Do not immediately assume the rarest disease in the world — for example, the presence of complaints of headache and sensitivity to light and sound, most likely, indicates a migraine. Although organisms can also present surprises.
10. Perverted appetite
Perverted appetite is a condition where a person eats earth, paint, money, or paper instead of traditional foods containing vitamins, trace elements, and minerals. Eating such food, people risk causing internal injuries in the form of cuts and tears. They also suffer from malnutrition. Perverted appetite syndrome is a disease that occurs in childhood and lasts no more than a year. If children have mental disorders, the disease can last much longer. Psychiatrists treat such diseases.
9. Alice in Wonderland Syndrome
Alice in Wonderland syndrome is a disease in which the brain perceives the surrounding objects perversely. A person suffering from this disease believes that objects and people shrink or grow to gigantic sizes right before his eyes. He may also suffer from tactile and auditory hallucinations. This syndrome can develop in people who have suffered from migraines and epilepsy for a long time.
8. Alien hand syndrome
Alien hand syndrome is a disease associated with mental disorders. A person perceives one or both hands as parts of the body that live their own lives. The cause of such a disease can be the result of surgical intervention in the brain or epilepsy, when the connections between both hemispheres of the brain are disrupted and the person is unable to control the movements of the hands. People who have experienced this condition claim that they felt that one or even both hands did not obey them.
7. Innate insensitivity to pain
People who have the syndrome of innate insensitivity to pain, absolutely do not feel pain. Many people will think that this is a gift of fate, but you need to know that the body reacts with pain to the disease. The brain sends signals to certain places in the body, so that a person protects himself from the cause of pain, for example, withdrawing his hand so as not to get burned. If a person has a syndrome of insensitivity to pain, the consequences can even be fatal. Such people should examine themselves several times a day to make sure that their health is not in danger: fractures, bleeding, etc.
If you are allergic to water, a rash or bubbles appear on the skin when it comes into contact with water. If a person with such a disease washes up, then the rash formed on his face will last up to two hours. Basically, this disease affects the female half of humanity in adolescence. There is no treatment, but the use of antihistamines, steroid drugs facilitates the course of the disease.
5. Cotard's syndrome
Cotard's syndrome is a mental disorder in which a person believes that they are dead. This illusion is so strong that the skin and soft tissues can begin to die and bleed, and the organs can fail. The disease occurs due to damage to certain areas of the brain. There is no treatment, although antidepressants and shock therapy are prescribed.
4. Ossifying progressive fibrodysplasia (FOP)
Ossifying progressive fibrodysplasia turns the body's soft tissues (tendons, ligaments, and cartilage) into bone tissue. As the soft tissues harden, the person cannot move. This process begins mainly in childhood with the cervical region and slowly descends below. It becomes difficult for a person to breathe, he turns into a living statue. Such patients usually do not live to 40 years.
3. Kleine-Levin syndrome
Kleine-Levin syndrome, or Sleeping Beauty syndrome, is one of the diseases associated with a sleep disorder. People suffering from this disease can sleep 21 hours a day. The syndrome mainly manifests itself episodically. Despite the name, the disease is mainly found in men: they make up 70% of all patients. The root of the problem lies in the dysfunction of the hypothalamus. This is a fairly rare disease — there is 1 case of FOP per 1 million people. After the first attack, the symptom may reappear in 8-13 years.
2. Fatal familial insomnia
Fatal familial insomnia is another sleep disorder. It is caused by brain disorders and prion disease, which occurs due to a violation of protein formation, which leads to gene mutations. For the first time, this symptom manifests itself in middle age as simple insomnia, which worsens over time and even leads to external changes in a person's facial features. There is no cure. The patient's death may occur in 12-16 months.
1. Hyperexplexity
Hyperexplexity is a disease that no one has ever heard of. The syndrome is based on the Moreau reflex. The cause of the disease is unknown, but it is generally believed that it occurs as a result of a mental disorder. A person automatically repeats words or phrases repeatedly, like a parrot, copies the behavior of a person nearby, and executes the commands "run", "jump" and "hit". The disease manifests itself in adolescents. With age, these symptoms fade.
Keywords: Health and medicine | Treatment | Disease | Syndrome