Weird Diseases

Have you heard about people who has the urge to eat glass, or have you seen children who eat mud or gum? They might be suffering from Pica, where the patient has the constant urge to eat food that is not edible, such as glass, gum, paper, paint, hair, and even animal feces.

Doctors say that when people have a deficiency of certain minerals in their body, they tend to eat such inedible objects. You will notice this tendency mainly in pregnant women or in children who are suffering from malnutrition. The real cause of this disease is still not known.

In this ailment, the patient believes or rather she/he is absolutely convinced that their loved ones, mainly their spouse, is an imposter. Sometimes, if things go out of hand, they might even attack their loved ones, whom they think to be an imposter. These people, even doubt their own reflection in the mirror.

The author of Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Caroll) was suffering from this weird disease, and hence the particular name. This ailment is also called Micropsia, and it is said to be a neurological disorder.

Even though the person may not be facing any kind of eye problems, due to malfunctioning of the brain, the visual data becomes distorted. Big things appear small (micropsia) and small things might appear larger in size (macropsia). This is only temporary and mainly associated with the time you have migraine pains.

People who are suffering from such diseases, they believe that they are dead, or that they have lost a body part, or even that they are decaying. Sometimes they are even convinced that some of their internal organs are missing. They think that they are just a walking corpse. All this gives rise to mental depression. This is nothing but a mental disease.

No matter how many times you prick them with a pin, there are people who do not get hurt. That's because they are suffering from Congenital Insensitivity to pain disease. They lack the painful sensation that people get from pin pricks.

This mutation occurs because of gene mutation. This occurs in the synthesis of the channel that passes sodium, which is linked with neurons. These neurons control the pain stimulus in our body. After reading this you are probably thinking that it will be good if you feel no pain, but this is bad in any possible ways.

If you get a major wound, you can feel it and treat it. But these people fail to feel the pain. They may not even realize that they are injured, hence, they won't be able to treat it. Due to this, they may succumb to their injuries.

In this disease, the person is born without any facial muscles, or cannot use them if present. These people cannot blink, smile, frown, or even sleep. Feelings cannot be expressed due to these paralyzed muscles. This is a rare disease and there is still no treatment for it.

Other Diseases

• Progeria: Rapid aging in children
• Latah: Going into trance and mimicking other people, and doing what you are asked to do without second thoughts

• Exploding Head Syndrome: People hear a loud noise coming from their head
• Werewolf Syndrome: In this condition, there is excessive facial hair growth that makes one look like a werewolf
• Fish Odor Syndrome: The breath, sweat, and urine of a person stinks like a fish

• Ondine's Curse: People have difficulty to take in oxygen
• Trichotillomania: Urge to pull out one's hair
• Kleptomania: Tendency to steal things irrespective of their value
• Stendhal Syndrome: Exposed to beautiful arts, the person gets dizzy, or gets rapid heart beats and hallucinations

• Medical Student Syndrome: Mainly medical students believe that they are suffering from the disease that they are treating or studying about.

These were some of the weird diseases that people across the world suffer from. Since they are rare, many people do not have much knowledge about them.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this story is solely for educating the reader. It is not intended to be a substitute for the advice of a medical expert.