Getting sick is bad, even a common cold can turn a cheerful and cheerful person into a sad, misanthrope sneezing at everyone. However, there are people who suffer from very rare and unusual diseases. And, probably, they would be happy to exchange their illness for an eternal cold.
We have prepared for you a list of 20 most unusual and rare diseases in the world... We will also tell you about which famous people suffered from them (or are suffering to this day).
About 80% of rare diseases are of genetic origin, while others are the result of infections, allergies and environmental causes. And in most cases, there are no effective drugs to reduce pain and suffering for patients.
20. Hutchinson-Guildford syndrome
This condition has a shorter name - Progeria. This is a genetic condition that leads to the rapid aging of the body. There is no cure for Progeria, although doctors have tried hormonal therapy and anticancer drugs. The only thing that doctors can do is to reduce the complications of this disease.
There is a hypothesis that with progeria, some pathological changes that are associated with the usual aging process proceed faster.
19. Fields disease
One of the rarest and most dangerous diseases in the world is named after two twins, Catherine and Christy Fields from Wales. It does not have a medical name, and refers to neuromuscular pathologies. The muscles of the patient's body are slowly destroyed, due to which he loses the ability to move.
18. Fibrodysplasia ossifying progressive
This unusual condition affects the connective tissue. Its congenital classic symptom is thumb malformation. There is no known cure for FOP, as bone removal surgery appears to cause the body to convert soft connective tissue even more into bone.
17. Disease of Hippel - Lindau
This condition is characterized by the growth of tumors in various parts of the body. Many tumors grow in the central nervous system and are often benign. These are known as hemangioblastomas.
This disease occurs in 1 in 36,000 newborns.
16. Microcephaly
A very rare disease that occurs immediately at birth, and sometimes is detected even before birth. The head of a microcephalus is smaller than the size of the skull of a normal child. The disease can be caused by genetic problems, intrauterine infections, or exposure to hazardous radiation (such as radiation) while the baby is in the womb. The disease is usually associated with Down syndrome.
Those with microcephaly tend to have mental retardation, hyperactivity, dwarfism, seizures, and speech problems.
15. Wiedemann-Rautenstrauch syndrome
This extremely unusual disease currently affects only three people in the world. And one of them is Elizabeth (Lizzie) Velazquez, the ugliest woman on earth... People with this syndrome have a loss of fatty tissue under the skin. Simply put, the body cannot store fat for future use. This is not the only, but the most visible outwardly problem with Wiedemann-Rautenstrauch syndrome.
14. Paraneoplastic pemphigus
This is another medical condition that you have probably never heard of. It causes very painful blisters and sores to form. They usually appear in the mouth, throat, lips, conjunctiva of the eyes, genital mucosa, and random spots on the skin. Untreated pemphigus paraneoplastic can lead to patient death due to respiratory failure, sepsis, multiple organ failure, and gastrointestinal bleeding.
13. Morgellon's disease
This extremely rare disease is very poorly understood. Some doctors think it is a chronic infectious disease. Patients complain of sensations like insect bites, itching, or that worms crawl under their skin and there are certain threads. In this case, the threads that they show to doctors are fibers of cotton clothing.
Probably, the discomfort is of a psychogenic nature. There is no cure or effective treatment for Morgellon disease.
12. Vitiligo
This chronic disease, which causes white spots on the skin, affects only 0.5 percent of the world's population to one degree or another. Several famous people suffer from this ailment, including model Winnie Harlow and Holly Marie Combs (Piper from "Charmed"). Michael Jackson had it too highest paid deceased celebrity.
11. The gaping of the eustachian tube
Have you ever heard the echo of your own voice during a phone call with a bad connection? Celine Dion experienced something similar when she suffered from a gaping eustachian tube in the winter of 2018, which forced her to cancel several concerts in Las Vegas.
It is a condition that affects 0.3 to 6.6% of the population and is characterized by prolonged opening of the Eustachian tube. Because of this, patients hear their own breathing (when breathing through the nose) and the echo of their voices. Some patients even attempted suicide, unable to endure constant sound discomfort.
10. Porphyria
While symptoms of porphyria (one of which is purple urine) may seem unusual, it is a serious metabolic condition that affects the skin and nervous system. It can cause constipation, nausea, photophobia, and mental distress. Because this condition is rarely diagnosed, the exact number of patients is unknown.
9. Acromegaly
Less than one in 20,000 people suffer from this very strange and unusual disease, which causes the limbs (arms and legs) to become unusually large and the face to deform over time. Acromegaly suffered from Richard Keel, a Hollywood actor known to audiences as the steel-toothed villain in the 1977 James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me.
8. Osteogenesis imperfecta
A very rare ailment is also called "crystal man disease". It is characterized by extremely fragile bones. Those who suffer from this disease (about 1 in 15,000 people) can have hundreds of fractures in their lifetime. One of the patients suffered from osteogenesis imperfecta smallest women on earth.
7. Tourette's syndrome
Identified by neurologist Gilles de La Tourette in the 19th century, this syndrome is characterized by uncontrolled motor or vocal tics. It affects one percent of the population. Some sufferers are unable to stop themselves from using uncontrollable curses, or offensive and inappropriate language.
It has been documented that Mozart had movement disorders, as well as a strong tendency to obscene language, especially associated with defecation (coprolalia). This led some researchers to believe that he had Tourette's syndrome.
6. Congenital insensitivity to pain
"Yes, this is not a disease, but a gift!" - the reader may exclaim. And he will be right in something. However, it was not for nothing that Mother Nature gave people pain. It helps us to avoid danger, which can be clearly seen when observing those who suffer from congenital insensitivity to pain. They may be injured without realizing it, and they often suffer from undetected diseases.
5. Kuru
This very rare and unusual disease was found in members of the cannibalistic Fore tribe from Papua New Guinea. Researchers in the 1920s observed frequent dementia and severe tremors of the head and limbs in those with this neurological condition. Sometimes this tremor was accompanied by a smile, which is why the press dubbed the disease "laughing death." Gradually, the patient's brain turned into a spongy mass.
The disease was caused by the cultural practice of the Fores who ate the remains of their dead in the hope of gaining their physical and intellectual properties. This is how the chicken was passed from one person to another.
4. Foreign accent syndrome
This is a strange discomfort that often appears after a blow to the head or a stroke. It makes people speak their native language with a strong foreign accent. In some cases, patients may begin to speak a completely different language. In 2016, a young American football player, Reuben Nsemoh, emerged from a three-day coma and began to speak fluent Spanish.
3. Graves' disease
American singer Missy Elliott is often the subject of gossip because of her weight "jumping" back and forth. However, these changes are not caused by one of the the most effective dietsrather, Graves' disease, an autoimmune condition that affects the functioning of the thyroid gland and speeds up metabolism. But don't think Missy Elliott is lucky. She also suffers from movement, language and emotional disorders resulting from this rare condition.
2. Sjogren's syndrome
This condition causes fatigue, joint pain, and dry mouth and eyes. It only affects 0.02 percent of the population. And one of the world's most talented tennis players, Venus Williams, suffers from it.
1. Picacism
Do you think it's weird when a pregnant woman is drawn to eat pickle ice cream or lick chalk? These are small things compared to what people suffering from taste perversion or picacism want to eat.
This eating disorder causes sufferers to eat dirt, chalk, paper, or other inedible substances. The most common form of picacism is known as earth-eating geophagy. In some cultures, clay taken internally is believed to reduce nausea during pregnancy. And in Kenya, you can even buy "food" land with various food additives, such as black pepper.