Five Mysteriously Bizarre And Extremely Weird Medical Disorders You've Probably Never Heard Of (Part 1)

blessing97 (54)in #steemstem • 7 years ago

It is no news that millions of persons round the globe are affected by common illnesses such as malaria and typhoid each and every passing year, with thousands or even millions losing their lives annually. Little wonder then, that The United Nations Childrens' Fund (UNICEF) had this to say about malaria;

Malaria kills one child every 30 seconds, about 3000 children every day.
Over one million people die from malaria each year, mostly children under five years of age, with 90 per cent of malaria cases occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Source

The numbers when viewed are indeed shocking, but what if I told you that hundreds and thousands of persons literally die from some strangely bizarre illnesses which most persons alive today have probably never heard of. Also, bear in mind that these are not your everyday common colds or fevers which you could get cheap drugs from a local pharmaceutical drugstore in order to treat or possibly abate the condition till you can get to a hospital and see your regular doctor for more professional treatment and prescription. Some are so strange and weird that they do not even have medical names assigned to them, but rather nicknames which you're more likely to see in a sci-fi or horror movie than in a standard science text. Below are the first five which I would be talking about today in this article, with more to follow in subsequent or future posts.

1. Exploding Head Syndrome(EHS):

This disease which is also known or referred to as episodic cranial sensory shock is a parasomnia(a sleep associated disorder) in which victims often experience loud painless bangs, violent bomb explosions or even a clash of cymbals all in the head just before falling asleep. Although these loud "imagined" noises are often painless in nature, they are not very pleasant either as they tend to cause severe levels of fear and distress.

Although the causes or mechanisms of EHS are currently unknown, one thing we do know for sure is that they aren't your usual headaches as they are quite rare. Symptoms of EHS apart from the loud bangs also include; confusion, myoclonic jerks, tachycardia, intense sweating and several others. It is estimated that up to 10% of persons who have been affected by EHS at least once in their lifetime have reported visual perturbations such as experiencing visual static, lightning or flashes of light (source). Some individuals have even gone as far as attributing the cause of EHS to be spiritually orchestrated attacks from unknown forces, but of course there is no scientific evidence to back up these outrageous claims.

According to my research, this disorder has been known to affect persons less than 10years of age and also persons up to 58years of age (source), and although persons experiencing EHS do not necessarily have to worry about their heads literally blowing up to bits just as the name suggests(well, at least not anytime soon), they probably already know that more often than not EHS symptoms could be a pain in the butt.

2. Stone Man Syndrome(Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva):

The stone man syndrome is a disorder which sent cold shivers down my spine the very first time I read about it, as it terribly terrified me. The stone man syndrome or better still Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva(FOP) is a very rare disease which literally turns the human connective and fibrous tissues such as tendons, ligaments and muscles into bone(a process known as ossification) upon incurring any slight or tender damage/injury and whereby even any attempt made to surgically remove the "newly ossified bones" or "new bone growths" would result to the growth of even more bone(pretty scary if you ask me). The disorder is so severe that at a progressive rate the victim could be rendered completely immobile within a few decades.

The disease which affects roughly one in two million people(source) is caused by a mutation of the body's repair mechanism which causes the body to ossify continuously, especially with the presence of minor injuries. As such FOP patients do their best to prevent sustaining any minor injuries whatsoever so as not to quicken the progression of the disease. They do this by avoiding sports and "fall-prone" situations because once a minor injury is sustained at any part of the body, the body abnormally heals itself by clotting that part of the body with bone tissue, so the more injuries you sustain the more "skeletonized" you become, till you become pretty much a "living skeleton", a process which is called Heterotropic Ossification .

No doubt, FOP patients tend to become increasingly frustrated and disheartened with time, as their condition continues to progress increasingly thus limiting their movement while most times also causing increased breathing, eating and drinking difficulties, until eventually simple activities such as cooking or even bathing must be forgone. Research has also shown that FOP patients are likely to become bedridden at age 20 while having a general life expectancy of about 40years (source).

Despite the extremely rare nature of the disease, "Rare Disease Review" has this experience of a patient which reads thus;

Despite the effects of this disease patients such as 18-year-old Seanie Nammock from London do their best to stay positive. Nammock was diagnosed with FOP at the age of 12 when her mother noticed an abnormally large hump on her back after a fall. The inflamed area was being replaced with bone causing excruciating pain for Nammock, which caused her doctor to make the diagnosis. Nammock’s neck and backbone have since fused together preventing her from lifting her arms beyond her waist.4 Nammock can no longer play tag rugby or visit the gymnasium as she used to do. Despite her diagnosis, Nammock does her best to live her life as any normal teen girl would; she spends time with friends, cooks, shops and has her friends help her with hair and makeup.

source

Another experience of another FOP patient is seen below;

Jeannie Peeper became aware of her disorder when she was 8. Her left wrist had locked in a backwards position as a new bone had grown in her arm. Jeannie’s doctors took a muscle biopsy from her left forearm. That caused another bone growth that had frozen the joint. Over the next decade, she grew more bones across her back disfiguring her, her right elbow locking, and her left hip freezing. Once she hit her hip on the corner of the table. It caused another bone growth. This time her right hip froze. Since then she has been in a wheelchair.

source

In summary, to put the extremely rare nature of this disorder into perspective, medical stats have revealed that

As of 2017, approximately 800 cases of FOP have been confirmed worldwide making FOP one of the rarest diseases known.[16] The estimated incidence of FOP is 0.5 cases per million people and affects all races.

(source)

There is presently no permanent medical cure or treatment available for FOP patients presently due to the extremely rare nature of the disease which makes clinical trials coupled with scientific research and study of the condition particularly challenging and difficult, although scientists are making recent significant progress in this field as several drugs are now available which can help FOP patients to effectively manage their present condition, although they do nothing to stop the progressive nature of the disorder.

3. Alien Hand Syndrome(AHS):

Do not let your mind wander too far off into the world of alien and UFO conspiracy theories because this is very real. Imagine one of your two hands literally having a mind of it's own and is therefore able to perform several actions from it's own conscious volition without you commanding it to do so. And just in case you're thinking it to be some cool superhuman ability, it's really not, well at least not according to victims of AHS.

AHS according to wikipedia is described below;

Alien hand syndrome (AHS) is a condition in which a person experiences their limbs acting seemingly on their own, without control over the actions. The term is used for a variety of clinical conditions and most commonly affects the left hand. There are many similar names used to describe the various forms of the condition but they are often used inappropriately. The afflicted person may sometimes reach for objects and manipulate them without wanting to do so, even to the point of having to use the controllable hand to restrain the alien hand. While under normal circumstances, thought, as intent, and action can be assumed to be deeply mutually entangled, the occurrence of alien hand syndrome can be usefully conceptualized as a phenomenon reflecting a functional "disentanglement" between thought and action.

AHS has been seen to be caused by the apparent separation of lobes situated in the brain which occurs mostly when a person has the two brain hemispheres surgically operated upon, and sometimes after having strokes, tumors or even Alzheimer's disease. A patient's AHS experience is related below;

Fifty five-year-old Karen Byrne lives in New Jersey. She had a surgery at 27 to control her epilepsy. Since then something bizarre started happening with her. Her left hand, and occasionally her left leg, behaved as if they had a mind of their own. ‘I’d light a cigarette, balance it on an ashtray, and then my left hand would reach forward and stub it out. It would take things out of my handbag and I wouldn’t realise so I would walk away. I lost a lot of things before I realised what was going on,’ she said. Not only that, her left hand would slap her suddenly or start unbuttoning her shirt.

(source)

There is currently no known cure for AHS but the condition can be managed by giving the "disobedient or wayward" rogue hand something to literally grasp or hold on to, thus keeping it occupied with a particular task to prevent it from "misbehaving".

4. Fish Odour Syndrome(Trimethylaminuria):

This medical disorder stinks literally. Talking to someone with bad breath is really bad enough, but what if someday you found yourself talking to someone whose breath oozed rotten mackerels? How long do you think that conversation will hold? I wouldn't even be there in the first place to have that conversation if you ask me. Fish odour syndrome(FOS) is an inherited and rare medical disorder which leads to a defect in the production of an enzyme known as the flavin
enzyme(FMO3) which prevents the body from properly converting trimethylamine (TNA) into trimethylamine oxide(TMAO), a process called N-oxidation. This causes a progressive increase in trimethylamine levels in the body thus forcing the body to subsequently release the excess trimethylamine with the aid of body fluids such as sweat and urine while giving off a strong body odour.

Although there is no known cure for trimethylaminuria, persons affected can manage their health by abstaining from certain foods which contain high levels of trimethylamine. Such foods include legumes, eggs, peanuts and seafoods.

5. Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome:

Orgasms are great especially when experienced or shared with someone you love or deeply care about, but would you fancy yourself having up to 50 or more orgasms every day even with your partner? That would be insane! But unfortunately victims suffering from this bizarre disorder known as Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome or better still Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder(PGAD) aren't left with much of a choice as they experience persistent and often uncontrollable arousal of the genitals with or without sexual intercourse or desire. So if you're a man reading this and you think having a "hard on" in public is embarrassing, wait till you hear what male PGAD patients have to say about their medical condition which leaves them with "hard ons" in the public square, cinema, grocery store, or even at their in-laws' house whenever they go visiting. And of course, females are not exempt from PGAD as the condition has been known to affect pretty much anyone irrespective of age or gender. Little wonder most PGAD victims often turn suicidal as they are almost always in a state of embarrassment which could also lead to severe feelings of depression due to the distressing nature of their medical condition. Although PGAD has been linked to neurological hypersensitivity(or ultra sensitive nerves surrounding the genitals), no definite or long lasting cure has been discovered although in recent years a lot of scientific research is been done to provide one.

So that's it folks. These are the five disorders which I just talked about with more to follow subsequently in future posts. Thanks for spending time to read this article, please feel free to tell me what you think about these disorders in the comment section below.