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Posts tagged disease
Weirdest Diseases – Part VII – Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva
Jul 10th
Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a disorder in which muscle tissue and connective tissue such as tendons and ligaments are gradually replaced by bone (ossified), forming bone outside the skeleton (extra-skeletal or heterotopic bone) that constrains movement. This process generally becomes noticeable in early childhood, starting with the neck and shoulders and proceeding down the body and into the limbs.
Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva
Extra-skeletal bone formation causes progressive loss of mobility as the joints become affected. Inability to fully open the mouth may cause difficulty in speaking and eating. Over time, people with this disorder may experience malnutrition due to their eating problems. They may also have breathing difficulties as a result of extra bone formation around the rib cage that restricts expansion of the lungs.
Any trauma to the muscles of an individual with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, such as a fall or invasive medical procedures, may trigger episodes of muscle swelling and inflammation (myositis) followed by more rapid ossification in the injured area. Flare-ups may also be caused by viral illnesses such as influenza. More >
Weirdest Diseases – Part VI – Cotord’s Syndrome
Jul 7th
Cotord’s Syndrome is when a person thinks that they have died, lost their soul, or lost a vital organ, when in fact they have lost nothing. They may even think they do not have blood.
walking corpse
This disorder has been linked to many other disorders including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Other than mental illness this disorder can come about when there is a problem with the persons brain, such as an injury. Some people with this disorder may feel immortal. Although this feeling is very rare among those that have Cotord’s Syndrome. They may test their own mortality by attempting suicide. So you can see that this disorder is very dangerous to the person who has it.
This disorder was named after Jules Cotard, a French neurologist. He first discovered this disorder as well as had a patient with it. He explained in a lecture that she did not believe in God or the devil and did not believe she had certain body parts. She also didn’t think that she had to eat. There are a few other cases that are documented throughout history, this one being in the 1800′s. There are a few cases more recently, such as the one in 1994. A man thought that he did not have a stomach, thus he was starving himself. There is even more recent cases in the 2000′s. More >
Weirdest Diseases – Part V – Argyria
Jul 5th
Argyria (ISV from Greek: ἄργυρος argyros silver + -ia) is a condition caused by improper exposure to chemical forms of the element silver, silver dust, or silver compounds.
Argyria
The most dramatic symptom of argyria is that the skin becomes blue or bluish-grey colored. Argyria may be found as generalized argyria or local argyria. Argyrosis is the corresponding condition related to the eye. The condition is believed to be permanent, but laser therapy has been used to treat it with satisfactory cosmetic results.
In animals and humans, silver accumulates in the body over time. Chronic intake of silver products can result in an accumulation of silver or silver sulfide particles in the skin. As in photography (where silver is used due to its reactivity with light), these particles in the skin darken with exposure to sunlight, resulting in a blue or gray discoloration of the skin. More >
Weirdest Diseases – Part IV – The Vampire Disease
Jul 3rd
The Vampire Disease – Porphyria
porphyria
A rare hereditary blood disease, which causes the inability of the body to reproduce heme, the component of hemoglobin, which is the major component or red blood. Lack of heme causes a porphyriac to experience blood cravings, causing the sufferer of this disease to attack people or animals for their blood in desparate attempt to replace the heme their body could not generate. A driven porphyriac would do this without knowing why he/she had done it.
Porphyria causes skin sensativity to sunlight forcing the sufferer to come out only at night. Garlic, which stimulates heme production in healthy people, contains a chemical that worses then painful symptoms of porphyria. The porphyria sufferer would avoid contact with garlic becaused it caused pain, not because he/she was a Vampire.
More severe symptoms caused by this disease are sores and scars on the skin, exessive hariness, the tightening and stretching of the gums and lips causing teeth to appear fang-like. Aslo, in more severe cases, fingers and nose would sometimes fall off. Bloody sores around the mouth caused by stretching and tightening of the lips may give the appearance of a bloody mouthed vampire that had recently fed from a victim. More >
Weirdest Diseases – Part III – Werewolf Syndrome
Jul 1st
The Wolf Boy, Living Werewolf or Dog-Faced Boy have been fixtures of the sideshow world for centuries.
Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Boy is likely the most famous of the lot however cases of hypertrichosis have been reported and documented long before Jo-Jo.
Hypertrichosis is really a blanket medical term that refers to excessive body hair. It can actually be generalized, symmetrically affecting most of the torso and limbs, or localized, affecting only a small area or location. The term is, however, usually reserved to refer to very above-average amount of normal body hair that is unwanted.
Nearly all the skin of the human body – with the exception of the palms and soles of the feet – are covered with hairs or hair follicles. More >
