Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution states that an organism will evolve and develop desirable variations and characteristics to ensure its survival. Disease-causing organisms like viruses and bacteria are living true to this theory by evolving and mutating to resist our drugs, vaccines, treatments, and immune systems.

Of course, their quest for survival isn’t in our best interests. But to them, they’re only trying to exist, nothing personal. We would have done the same if we were in their shoes.

10 HIV

There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is the most common and is further classified into four groups: M, N, O, and P. Group M is the most common of all HIV strains and is further classified into subtypes A, B, C, D, F, G, H, J, and K. All these subtypes are genetically different and will readily merge to form new hybrids called circulating recombinant forms (CRFs). Eighty-nine of these CRFs have been identified so far.

This means that people already infected with HIV are still at risk of reinfection, either at the type, group, or subtype level. When they get reinfected, the two strains of HIV merge and create a new strain that could develop drug resistance. This is called dual infection, although coinfection or superinfection could be used, depending on the means of transmission. However, they all mean the same thing.

As if things couldn’t get worse, these hybrid CRFs are still capable of merging with other strains of HIV to create newer and more dangerous hybrids. One of these identified CRFs (called CRF19) is rampant in Cuba, where it was formed by the combination of the A, D, and G subtypes of HIV-1 Group M. CRF19 becomes AIDS within three years as compared to the 10–15 years it would normally take.^[1]

9 Guinea Worm

Since 1986, former US President Jimmy Carter has been on a mission to eradicate guinea worm, a terrible ailment that always ends with a worm of over 1 meter (3.3 ft) in length slowly leaving the body within a torturous span of one month. Only 11 cases of guinea worm infection were reported in 2016, a far cry from the over 3.5 million cases reported in 1986 when Carter began his anti–guinea worm campaign.

If Carter is successful, guinea worm would be the second disease to be eradicated by humans (after smallpox) and the first to be eradicated without vaccines. However, guinea worms are not giving up without a fight.

How? They’re finding new hosts: dogs.

In Chad, one of the last countries still battling guinea worm, incidences of guinea worm infection in dogs have been documented since 2012. About 600 dogs were known to be infected in 2016, although the real figure will definitely be higher. It is difficult to monitor these dogs because they are allowed to roam freely. This unlimited freedom also makes it difficult to keep them away from water, which is what guinea worms need to reproduce.

Adult guinea worms create a burning sensation in infected people, which forces them to seek a source of water to “cool” the pain. The worm then lays its larvae in this water. The larvae are swallowed by small aquatic organisms, which themselves are swallowed by humans who drink this contaminated water.

These larvae grow into adults in the human body, and the cycle continues. No one knows how these dogs are getting these guinea worms, but it has been proposed that it might be from contaminated fish.^[2]

8 Bubonic Plague

The Black Death was a pandemic that spread through Europe in the 14th century, killing about 25 million people or up to one-third of the total European population. It was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium that is transmitted from infected rodents to humans by fleas. The Yersinia pestis bacterium causes any of the bubonic, pneumonic, or septicemic plague in humans.^[3]

As scary as it sounds, Yersinia pestis is still very much around. It is currently present in 25 countries, including Madagascar (which faced a mild epidemic between August 1 and November 22, 2017).

The scarier part of the plague is that it is becoming drug resistant. As of 2017, at least 10 common antibiotics are no longer effective in treating the disease. The resistance is believed to have been caused by the exchange of genes between Yersinia pestis and other bacteria like E. coli, Klebsiella, and Salmonella, which are all found in food.

7 Polio

Polio used to be one of the biggest killers of young children. When it does not kill, it causes lifelong paralysis. However, it has suffered severe blows in recent years, thanks to vaccination. Normally, young children are given oral doses of a weakened strain of the polio virus which allows their bodies to build immunity against the stronger and natural polio.

Now it has been observed that this weakened polio, which usually leaves the bodies of children through their excrement, can regain its potency, mutate, and infect children. This mutated polio is deadlier than the natural polio. Worse yet, vaccination does not work against this type of polio.

As a result, children already vaccinated against polio are not immune to this new mutated polio, which is caused by the same vaccine used to immunize them. During one outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 47 percent of the infected 445 children died even though they had already been vaccinated.^[4]

6 Ebola

Most people heard of Ebola for the first time between 2014 and 2016 when it swept through West Africa. This period—which lasted from March 23, 2014, to January 13, 2016—remains Ebola’s deadliest run ever. It killed at least 11,315 people, five times more than the casualties in all its epidemics since it was discovered in 1976. This figure is even on the low side and is believed to be considerably higher.

The 2014 Ebola outbreak actually started in December 2013 when it claimed the life of a two-year-old child in Guinea.^[5] By March 2014, it was already in Liberia. From there, it spread to Sierra Leone and a few other neighboring countries. During this period, it infected over 28,000 people, which is 100 times more than the number of people infected in earlier Ebola epidemics.

According to two different teams of virologists who studied the epidemic, it was deadlier because it involved a mutant strain of the original Ebola virus. The mutant is called A82V and was recorded as the virus responsible for over 90 percent of all infections.

Researchers believe that the A82V mutant was destroyed with the epidemic because it was poor at jumping to nonhuman hosts like the fruit bats believed to transmit Ebola to humans.

5 Gonorrhea

Data released from 77 countries shows that gonorrhea is rapidly becoming 100 percent resistant to drugs. These days, azithromycin, the major drug used in gonorrhea treatment, fails 81 percent of the time. Other drugs like the extended-spectrum cephalosporins (ESCs), which are the orally ingested cefixime or the injected ceftriaxone, fail 66 percent of the time.

The United Kingdom is one country facing a drug-resistant gonorrhea epidemic.^[6] This mutated strain of gonorrhea, which they call “super gonorrhea,” is totally resistant to azithromycin and could soon be to ceftriaxone as well. Investigations by the BBC revealed that gonorrhea may have become resistant to azithromycin because infected people were taking it alone rather than in combination with ceftriaxone as per UK healthcare guidelines.

4 Cholera

Cholera is caused by the consumption of food or water contaminated with the Vibrio cholerae bacterium. In most cases, it causes mild diarrhea and an infected person might not even know he has it. In the most serious cases, the disease causes severe dehydration, vomiting, and diarrhea that could kill the infected person within hours.

Haiti suffered a devastating cholera epidemic 10 months after the catastrophic January 2010 earthquake. The epidemic killed 9,200 people. However, some international organizations like Doctors Without Borders believe that this figure should be considerably higher because most cholera-related deaths went unreported. In some regions, only 10 percent of deaths were reported.

The Haiti cholera outbreak was caused by a mutated strain called “altered El Tor.”^[7] It is deadlier than regular cholera and has been likened to the deadly cholera of the 1800s. Altered El Tor underwent three mutations that allowed it to bypass the body’s early warning system. It was first observed in 2000 and has been traced to Nepal.

3 Syphilis

Syphilis is also called the “great imitator” because its symptoms often resemble those of other diseases. It is spread through sexual contact, although it can also be transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy.

Researchers have discovered that Nichols and Street Strain 14 (SS14), the two main strains of syphilis, are mutating. As a result, they are developing resistance to common antibiotics like penicillin and macrolides that are often used for treatment.

The mutation is more prevalent in SS14. In one analysis, about 90 percent of SS14 samples were drug resistant versus 25 percent for the Nichols strain. This newfound resistance is allowing syphilis to make a comeback.^[8]

Since 2013, there has been a 15 percent increase in syphilis cases. The good news is that syphilis can still be treated by most antibiotics, although the disease could become resistant to these drugs over time.

2 Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is one ailment that is undergoing a serious mutation. Two new forms of tuberculosis have been identified: multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB).

MDR-TB is resistant to isoniazid and rifampicin, the two most powerful drugs used in the treatment of tuberculosis. Meanwhile, XDR-TB, a more potent version of MDR-TB, is resistant to isoniazid, rifampicin, and several other drugs.

About 580,000 cases of MDR-TB were reported in 2015. Of this figure, 55,100 (9.5 percent) were XDR-TB cases. XDR-TB has been reported in 117 countries, which means that it’s slowly becoming a global problem.

It is speculated that tuberculosis became drug resistant because infected people were not storing or taking their drugs properly. Tuberculosis is treated with a six-month regimen that must not be interrupted. Any form of interruption allows the ailment to develop a resistance to drugs.^[9]

1 Cancer

Cancer has been known to evolve and mutate since the 1970s. This mutation allows cancer to become drug resistant, to expel drugs from the body, and to repair cells already damaged by these drugs. Researchers believe that this mutation is caused by cancer cells that are not destroyed during treatment.

One form of cancer known to mutate is prostate cancer, which requires testosterone (the male hormone) for development. One method of treatment is to starve the body of testosterone, but this stopped working when prostate cancer cells learned to use other molecules in place of testosterone. When this happens, it becomes castrate-resistant prostate cancer, which is often fatal.

Lung and colorectal cancers are also capable of mutating. Their cells become resistant to radiation and chemotherapy regimens, leaving them untreatable.

One proposed method of curing these mutant cancers is by “individual specific therapy,” which is a treatment unique to an individual. However, this method is not foolproof.

One of the first drugs created for “individual specific therapy” was Herceptin, which sticks to the HER2 protein to destroy breast cancer cells.^[10] However, the cancer mutated and started destroying the parts of the HER2 protein that Herceptin stuck to. Most of the time, the body responds by creating HER3 cells. This compounded the problem because Herceptin could not stick to HER3.

Potentially deadly incidents and accidents like earthquakes, lightning strikes, and hard falls are not always bad—at least to people who have benefited from them. Over the centuries, people have been cured of illnesses and other medical conditions after experiencing some of the aforementioned incidents and accidents.

Their medical conditions ranged from blindness and deafness to mental illnesses and even cancer. Yes! People have been cured of cancer after they were struck by lightning, Others miraculously regained their sight after they were headbutted by animals. One man was even cured of deafness after an earthquake.

10 Blind Man Gets Sight Restored After He Is Struck By Lightning

In 1971, Edwin Robinson was in a terrible truck accident that left him blind and partly deaf. That changed on June 9, 1980, when he was hit by a bolt of lightning outside his home in Falmouth, Maine, while trying to get his pet chicken out of the rain. The lightning blasted him to the ground and left him stunned.

That night, Robinson’s sight and hearing were miraculously restored. The incident was widely reported at the time. Robinson and his wife, Doris, received so many calls that they had to unhook their landline telephone—that is, separate the headset from the phone body—to get some sleep. They also received requests to be guests on several television shows.

The couple never made money from the extensive media coverage. All they earned was a hundred bucks and some money to cover travel expenses to television stations. They scuttled an opportunity to make money from the incident when they turned down a television station that approached them to do a show.

The Robinsons rejected the offer because the station wanted full rights to the production. Robinson said the television station would have exaggerated the incident instead of focusing on his miraculous recovery. Doris also mentioned that she preferred a movie focusing on their lives after Robinson went blind and deaf and not just on the lightning accident.^[1]

9 Man Gets Sight Restored After He Is Headbutted By Horse

Don Karkos was one of the many Americans who enlisted in the US military after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Karkos joined the US Navy and was posted to the tanker ship USS Rapaden.

The vessel was tasked with refueling Allied ships in the North Atlantic, which was filled with German U-boats. USS Rapaden was on one of its many runs to the North Atlantic when an explosion occurred in 1942. A metal fragment dispersed by the blast hit Karkos above the right eye and injured his forehead.

Karkos lost consciousness after the accident and awakened in an Icelandic hospital. There, doctors informed him that he was blind in his right eye. Doctors even offered to remove the eye, but Karkos refused. He returned to the US where he worked in a mill before setting up a horse farm in 1978.

The loss of the eye was troublesome for Karkos. He had problems seeing the walls right in front of him and often ran into them headfirst. It got worse when he slowly started losing the vision in his left eye to cataracts. Fortunately, he recovered the sight in his right eye in an accident 64 years later.

Karkos was preparing a horse called My Buddy Chimo for a race when it headbutted him in the blinded right eye and slammed him against a wall. Karkos returned home that night feeling sick. However, he soon discovered that he could see with the right eye—the same one that the horse had hit.^[2]

8 Woman Cured Of Multiple Sclerosis After Lightning Strike

On August 17, 1994, Mary Clamser was cured of multiple sclerosis after she was struck by lightning right inside her Oklahoma home. Multiple sclerosis is a disease that affects the central nervous system and slowly paralyzes sufferers.

Clamser suffered from the disease for 22 years during which she slowly lost control of her legs and ended up in a wheelchair. Clamser was in the shower when the lightning struck. One of her hands was on the metal bar in the shower while the other was on the handle of the flush toilet. She also had metal braces on her legs.

The lightning struck her home and traveled through the main to hit her in the shower. She lost consciousness and woke up in a hospital. A doctor was checking if her bones had been broken at the time she regained consciousness.

However, she could feel the doctor’s hands on her legs even though paralyzed people cannot feel sensations on the paralyzed body part. She was able to walk without the braces three weeks later and was wearing high heels two months later.^[3]

7 Man Regains Hearing After Earthquake

On August 23, 2011, a 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit Louisa County, Virginia, and was felt along the East Coast and nearby areas. Rail and air traffic were delayed, and two nuclear reactors were shut down. Several buildings—including the Pentagon, Capitol, State Department offices, and several hospitals—were hurriedly evacuated.

While the earthquake scared everyone, it was a blessing for Robert Valderzak of Washington, DC, after it cured him of his deafness. Valderzak had gone deaf after suffering a bad fall on Father’s Day two months earlier in June. He fractured his skull and lost his hearing. He learned lip-reading and required a special microphone when talking.

Valderzak was a patient in the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Washington, DC, when the earthquake struck. His daughter and three sons were visiting him at the time. Valderzak realized that he could hear his son talk after the earthquake was over.

Doctors think Valderzak regained his hearing because he suffered from “conductive hearing loss,” which is caused by fluids getting trapped in the ear. Doctors say the vibrations of the earthquake and the drugs they administered caused the fluid to drain and allowed Valderzak to hear once more. He believes the incident was a miracle.^[4]

6 Lightning Cured A Man’s Cancer

In 1855, Reuben Stephenson was plowing a field in Langtoft, England, when he was struck by lightning, which killed the two horses connected to the plow. Stephenson was so badly injured that people thought he was going to die. However, he survived after one Dr. Allison nursed him back to health.

While administering treatment, the doctor noticed that Stephenson had a cancerous tumor on his lip. Dr. Alison attempted to operate on the tumor after Stephenson recovered only to discover that the tumor had disappeared. Alison believed that Stephenson was cured of the cancer as he recovered from the lightning strike.^[5]

5 Teenager Stops Using Prescription Glasses After Getting Struck By Lightning

In July 2017, 16-year-old Faith Mobley was doing the dishes at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Haleyville, Alabama, when she was struck by lightning. It hit the restaurant and traveled through the pipes to wherever Mobley was doing the dishes.

The lightning went through the drive-thru headset that Mobley was wearing and exited through her left foot, creating a large hole in her shoe. Mobley lost consciousness but was saved by a coworker who called 911. Mobley later said that she felt her body tighten as she was struck, just before she went numb and lost consciousness.^[6]

Her only injury was a burn on her foot where the lightning had left her body. Miraculously, her eyesight seemed to have been restored. She had worn glasses before the incident but did not need them any longer. The color of her eyes also changed.

4 Man Cured Of Mental Illness After Shooting Himself In The Head

In February 1988, the Associated Press reported that a man only identified as “George” unwittingly cured himself of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) during a failed suicide attempt five years earlier. George was 19 years old at the time of the incident.

OCD is a frustrating personality disorder that makes sufferers develop weird perfectionist behaviors. For instance, George showered and washed his hands unusually often because he was afraid of germs. This would later cost him his job and education. He became depressed and decided to commit suicide.

George got a .22-caliber rifle and aimed at his brain through his mouth. He pulled the trigger but did not die. Instead, the bullet went through his skull and stopped in the left front part of his brain. Doctors extracted the bullet, which only damaged the area of the brain causing the OCD.

Afterward, George’s IQ returned to the level it was before the disorder had set in. He recovered, got a job, and went back to school where he became an A student. Physician’s Weekly called the whole incident a “successful radical surgery.”^[7]

3 Woman Recovers Sight After Falling And Hitting Her Head

In 1993, Mary Ann Franco was in an auto accident that left her with serious spinal injuries that caused blindness. However, she regained her sight after another accident in her Florida home in August 2015.

Franco was walking across her living room to the door when she tripped and fell, hitting her head on what she thought was the fireplace. Franco also broke her neck during the accident. She underwent surgery on the neck and recovered from anesthesia to discover that her sight had been restored.^[8]

2 Woman Cured Of Her Super Senses After Getting Struck By Lightning

In January 2017, some researchers at Trinity College Dublin published a research paper about a woman who was cured of synesthesia after getting struck by lightning. The researchers did not reveal the identity of the woman and only called her “AB.”

Synesthesia is a strange condition with many variations, including those in which people taste words, smell sound, hear colors, and feel the atmosphere around other people. However, sufferers sometimes hate the condition because of its undesirable side effects. Some even end up on medications.

AB was temporarily cured of the condition after she was struck by lightning. We say temporarily because the synesthesia later returned.^[9]

1 Blind Man Cured After Falling Down Stairs

In 2013, 68-year-old Pierre-Paul Thomas was partly cured of blindness that he had from birth. Thomas was not actually cured by the accident. It just happened to be the major reason that he underwent the surgery that led to his cure.

Since birth, Thomas had suffered from congenital nystagmus, a medical condition caused when the eyes are not properly fitted in the sockets. Sufferers are unable to control their eyes, which wander about the sockets, leading to blindness.

Thomas was cured after a fall in his home in Montreal. He broke several facial bones, including some bones in his eyes. He underwent surgery to fix the bones. After the surgery, a plastic surgeon asked if he wanted his eyes fixed. Thomas agreed.

The surgeons operated on Thomas’s eyes and removed the cataract that caused the blindness. Doctors suspect that Thomas still had his sight despite the congenital nystagmus but lost it after damage by the cataract. However, Thomas’s sight was not perfect as congenital nystagmus is incurable.^[10]

Medical dramas are spreading across US television networks like wildfire. From Chicago Med to The Good Doctor, it would seem that people yearn to understand the complex and fragile nature of the human body.

Through the power of television, we are given a glimpse of the mysterious world beneath our own skin. We learn about what happens when these processes start to unravel, feeding our fascination with sickness and mortality.

While the body remains a remarkable feat of evolution—having adapted to a range of climates, diets, and activities—it is not without its weaknesses. Sometimes, the immune system goes haywire, the pumping power of the heart dwindles, or genetic mutations corrupt some vital aspect of our metabolism.

But every once in a while, disease does something to the body so rare that it warrants special attention. Without further ado, we’ll take a look at 10 fascinating cases of bizarre medical ailments.

10 Drunk On Carbs

Every morning, Nick Hess would wake up and vomit. The 35-year-old experienced a number of unexplained symptoms, including stomach pains, nausea, and headaches. Hess frequently found himself intoxicated without a drop of alcohol passing his lips. “Sometimes, it would come on over the course of a few days; sometimes, it was just like ‘bam! I’m drunk,’ ” said Hess.^[1]

His wife initially suspected that he was an alcoholic in denial. Karen Daws searched their family home for a secret stash of booze but came up empty. Although Nick was subjected to a battery of medical tests, doctors remained baffled by their patient’s condition.

Through Karen’s own research, the Ohio couple eventually made contact with Dr. Anup Kanodia. After taking stool and blood samples, Kanodia discovered that Nick’s gut had around 400 percent more yeast than normal.

It turned out that Nick had a condition called auto-brewery syndrome. A particular type of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in Nick’s gut was responsible for excessive fermentation of carbohydrate-rich meals. The resultant alcohol was then absorbed across the intestine, thereby raising his blood alcohol levels.

While auto-brewery syndrome is an established condition, there remains much debate over whether the amount of alcohol produced in the gut can lead to any significant intoxication. Over the years, a number of individuals accused of drunk driving have used auto-brewery syndrome as part of their defense.

In 2015, charges of drunk driving against a New York woman were dropped after it emerged that she was suffering from auto-brewery syndrome. Anup Kanodia was asked to test the woman’s blood alcohol levels. The woman was monitored for an entire day to ensure that she could not consume any alcohol. By the end of the testing period, it was discovered that she had a blood alcohol content of 0.36—over four times the legal limit for driving.

As for Nick, he currently takes antifungal tablets to control the yeast levels in his gut. He also adheres to a low-carbohydrate, low-yeast diet.

9 Hyperekplexia

Also known as “exaggerated surprise,” hyperekplexia is an inherited disorder that causes an increase in muscle tone. The most obvious symptom of this rare disease is something called “excessive startle reflex.” Sufferers appear to overreact to simple surprises, leading to exaggerated movements. This is then followed by a brief moment of rigidity, where the patient cannot move at all.

It is estimated that 1 in 40,000 people in the United States have hyperekplexia. Researchers believe that genetic hyperekplexia is the result of mutations in certain receptors of the brain stem. These mutations prevent the normal “dampening” signals that would otherwise lessen the startle reflex.

The condition presents considerable danger to newborn babies as the startle reflex can cause breathing problems. This certainly remains the case for one British boy, Jacob Madgin. As a baby, Magdin’s condition was so severe that he needed to be fed through a tube. The mere touch of a teat against the boy’s nose was enough to trigger a spasm that interrupted his breathing.

From the sound of a dog barking to the splash of water, almost anything can set off an episode. “You never know what might trigger Jacob’s condition. When I was opening a box of blueberries, the noise of the plastic as I opened the lid set him off,” explained the boy’s mother.^[2]

8 Phantom Rectum Syndrome

Sometimes, surgeons are tasked with bypassing part of a patient’s diseased or injured intestine. To do this, the healthy part of the intestine is cut away from the diseased part and redirected through the abdomen. Waste matter passes through this opening, called a stoma, and is collected in a colostomy or ileostomy bag. As a result of stoma surgery, feces no longer reach the rectum.

Some stoma patients keep their rectums. In this case, the bowel continues to create a lubricant that is supposed to help with the movement of food. When there is no passage of food, however, this mucus can sometimes form a dry, painful ball that needs to be passed.

Patients who have had their rectums removed may also feel the urge to defecate—an experience known as phantom rectum syndrome. Many have reported feeling the need to pass gas (phantom flatus) and feces (phantom feces). Phantom pain of the region is associated with burning, stinging, and pins and needles.

In 2013, BBC presenter Sam Cleasby underwent an operation to have part of her colon removed after suffering for years with ulcerative colitis. She is now on a mission to spread awareness of stomas and break down the stigma surrounding the use of stoma bags.

Sam has previously spoken about what phantom rectum syndrome feels like: “People who have lost a limb still feel pain or itching, or they feel like their limb’s still there. [ . . . ] So that’s the same but in your rectum. It’s like your brain doesn’t know that it’s not attached anymore.”^[3]

7 Sweating Blood

In 2017, an Italian woman was admitted to the hospital with one horrifying symptom: spontaneous bleeding of the palms and face. The episodes would last up to five minutes and could strike at any moment. The 21-year-old struggled for three years before finally seeking medical attention. Understandably, the woman felt self-conscious about her ailment. She shut herself away from the rest of the world and started to develop the telltale signs of depression and panic disorder.

Doctors initially suspected their patient of having factitious disorder—a mental health issue in which a patient attempts to fake a medical condition, usually in a bid to receive attention or sympathy. Factitious disorder is not uncommon, costing the US around $40 million every year.

However, it quickly became apparent that the woman was not self-harming. Doctors witnessed firsthand the “discharge of bloodstained fluid” from the woman’s forehead and lower face.^[4]

The team eventually diagnosed the woman with hematohidrosis. Although the exact cause of the disease remains a mystery, the condition often occurs in patients who are under extreme emotional or physical stress. The tiny capillaries that supply blood to the sweat glands are said to rupture and leak. The blood then enters the sweat glands, mixes with sweat, and oozes its way to the skin’s surface.

Cases of hematohidrosis have been documented in people with acute fear. The phenomenon may even date back to the time of Jesus Christ. The day before his crucifixion, Christ prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. According to Luke’s Gospel, a rather anxious-looking Jesus produced “great drops of blood” that fell to the ground.

6 Hirschsprung’s Disease

In 2017, surgeons in China removed around 76 centimeters (30 in) of a patient’s colon. Prior to surgery, 22-year-old Zhou Hai’s abdomen had ballooned to such an extent that he looked heavily pregnant. Contained within the resected bowel was an astonishing 13 kilograms (29 lb) of feces.

Doctors soon discovered the source of the problem: a rare congenital disorder called Hirschsprung’s disease.

The patient had struggled with constipation since he was born, with laxatives doing little to alleviate the symptoms. It turned out that this constipation stemmed from an absence of nerves along parts of his large intestine.

Typically, the entire stretch of bowel receives signals from a large network of nerves. Nervous impulses trigger the rhythmic contraction and relaxation of the bowel’s muscle, thereby pushing the feces toward the rectum. In patients with Hirschsprung’s disease, the absence of some of these nerves disrupts this movement, causing feces to accumulate and form a blockage.

Zhou Hai’s blockage had been left for so long that the resultant backlog of feces was stopping him from breathing properly. He also complained of severe abdominal pain—which was understandable considering the weight he was lugging around.

Surgeons at the Tenth People’s Hospital in Shanghai removed the affected portion of Hai’s bowel. As part of the three-hour-long procedure, the healthy part of Hai’s bowel was reattached to his anus.^[5]

5 Gluten Psychosis

Most people have heard of celiac disease. It occurs when a person’s immune system is primed to a specific structure found in wheat. This ultimately causes the cells of the immune system to target the small intestine. If left untreated, the tissues of the gut become damaged, impairing the ability of the intestine to absorb vital nutrients.

The most common symptoms of celiac disease include gas, abdominal pain, weight loss, diarrhea, and constipation. However, in very rare instances, the condition has been known to play tricks on the mind.

In 2016, doctors were baffled when a 37-year-old student presented with a series of unusual symptoms. The woman thought that her friends and family were conspiring against her as part of an elaborate “game.” Then she mistakenly accused her mother and father of burglarizing her apartment. After issuing a series of threats to her loved ones, the woman was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

The patient’s iron levels had plummeted, and she was deficient in a number of vitamins. She also underwent extreme weight loss, despite having an increased appetite. The doctors initially diagnosed her with paranoid schizophrenia.^[6]

She was eventually discharged with antipsychotic medications along with multivitamins and minerals. But the treatment was unsuccessful. The woman’s psychosis persisted, and she continued to lose weight.

The doctors eventually discovered the reason for the patient’s psychotic breakdown: celiac disease. While most cases of celiac disease manifest in symptoms of the digestive tract, around a fifth of patients experience neurological and psychiatric problems.

The destructive immune cells are usually isolated within the gut. But if they migrate to the central nervous system, patients can experience a range of psychiatric issues, including memory loss, hallucinations, and seizures.

The woman refused to adhere to a wheat-free diet, thinking the doctors were working against her best interests. Her condition rapidly deteriorated. She lost her job, became homeless, and tried to commit suicide. She was eventually rehospitalized and placed on a wheat-free diet.

After mere months of treatment, the woman’s psychosis disappeared and her life started to return to normal. Unfortunately, in a moment of extreme carelessness, she accidentally started consuming wheat again. She suffered yet another psychotic episode and was put in jail for trying to murder her parents.

4 Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder

A&E nurse Kim Ramsey used to have up to 100 orgasms a day. This continuous state of arousal started in 2001 after the 46-year-old fell down a flight of stairs. Since that day, Ramsey has struggled with a condition known as persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD).^[7]

PGAD is an unwanted, uncontrollable feeling of genital arousal that can last for hours or days. The condition mostly affects women, but a few cases have been documented in men. While PGAD remains poorly understood, researchers think the disease is rooted in psychological, neurological, and vascular problems.

Many PGAD sufferers feel like they are constantly on the verge of orgasm, with symptoms often manifesting in public places. Arousal is sometimes accompanied by pelvic pain and discomfort. For Kim, avoiding certain triggers helps to lessen her symptoms. She also tries to keep herself distracted with work.

A South Carolina resident, Heather Dearmon, started experiencing similar symptoms during her pregnancy. The 34-year-old hoped the problem would go away after giving birth to her son. But the problem persisted for years, and her symptoms became more frequent.

Dearmon would masturbate to three consecutive orgasms to alleviate her symptoms. “To achieve three consecutive orgasms takes a long time. I felt my whole life being robbed,” she explained. Even trips in the car would trigger her arousal.

Due to the embarrassing nature of PGAD, many women report feeling suicidal and depressed. In 2012, Gretchen Molannen committed suicide after living with PGAD for 16 years. Before her death, Molannen described one of her worst experiences: “I had not had medical treatment yet or any kind of medication. I had 50 orgasms in a row. In a row. Nonstop. I thought I was gonna die.”

There is no known cure for PGAD. However, the condition is often treated using medications, cognitive behavioral therapy, and pelvic floor therapy.

3 The Blue People Of Kentucky

During the 1960s, a hematologist and a nurse embarked upon a rather bizarre adventure. They tasked themselves with finding the elusive “Blue People of Kentucky.” Ruth Pendergrass had first seen one of the blue people while she was working as a nurse at a clinic in Hazard, Kentucky.

“Her face and her fingernails were almost indigo blue. It like to scared me to death! [sic] She looked like she was having a heart attack,” Pendergrass said.^[8]

Intrigued, Pendergrass decided to team up with hematologist Madison Cawein to work out what was going on. The pair scoured Troublesome Creek and Ball Creek where the blue people were known to live. But Pendergrass and Cawein came up empty.

One day, two blue siblings walked into Cawein’s clinic. “They were bluer’n hell,” he remarked. The doctor set to work figuring out what was wrong. He took blood samples from his new patients, Patrick and Rachel Ritchie. Then Cawein drove out to take blood samples from the pair’s relatives.

Cawein discovered that the blue people’s blood was lacking a key enzyme. The missing enzyme is usually found in red blood cells and is needed for converting blue methemoglobin into red hemoglobin. The Blue People’s condition (hereditary methemoglobinemia) meant that their red blood cells were oxygen poor, hence their bluish skin color.

Cawein’s research turned up a simple treatment: methylene blue. Within minutes of administering the treatment, the Blue People’s skin turned a normal pink hue. The case was solved.

But why were there so many blue people roaming the creeks of Kentucky?

Well, the condition dates back to 1820 when a blue-skinned Frenchman, Martin Fugate, settled in Troublesome Creek. In an incredible twist of fate, Fugate married a woman who also carried the recessive gene for methemoglobinemia.

A person only gets the disease when they inherit two faulty genes, one from each parent. As a result of their parents’ genetic makeup, four of the seven Fugate children inherited blue skin. Inbreeding between members of the Fugate family caused the condition to spread throughout the region.

2 Parry-Romberg Syndrome

Parry-Romberg syndrome is a rare disorder that causes the skin, muscle, and connective tissue of the face to atrophy. The atrophy mostly affects just one side of the face (hemifacial), resulting in a slightly droopy appearance. Parry-Romberg syndrome usually kicks off in childhood or adolescence and worsens over a period of many years. The traumatizing disease affects just 1 in 250,000 people.

In 2011, a British girl called Maha Asghar was diagnosed with Parry-Romberg syndrome. She was just three years of age when the right side of her face started slowly wasting away.

Changes to the tissue around the youngster’s right eye and ear mean that she will likely encounter problems with vision and hearing. She also suffers with debilitating pain which can last for several hours.

There is currently no treatment available from Britain’s National Health Service, so Asghar’s family hopes to get crowdfunding for surgery abroad. Patients with Parry-Romberg syndrome often travel to the United States where only two vascular surgeons have the skill required to perform the facial reconstruction technique.^[9]

In 2011, a North Carolina girl’s face was saved by microvascular surgery. The pioneering surgeon, Dr. John Siebert, took tissue from underneath the girl’s arm and sculpted it into her face.

Very little is known about Parry-Romberg syndrome, but some researchers believe that it could be the result of autoimmunity, nerve problems, infection, or trauma.

1 Forever Young

Mario Bosco is a Hollywood actor in his forties. Despite his advancing years, the Brooklyn man is routinely mistaken for a 14-year-old boy. Bosco’s youthful looks and diminutive stature are caused by a condition known as panhypopituitarism.

Panhypopituitarism occurs when the pituitary gland fails to secrete the correct levels of hormones. The symptoms of the disease are dependent upon which hormones are deficient. As one might expect, decreased levels of growth hormone lead to delays in growth, whereas a decrease in gonadotropins causes stunted sexual development.^[10]

Bosco spent much of his youth in and out of the hospital. He had severe medical issues when he was first born, including convulsions, low blood sugar, and thyroid problems. Bosco’s abnormal hormone levels meant that his body did not mature correctly. Today, he stands at just 147 centimeters (4’10”) and has the face and body of a wiry teenager.

Despite these challenges, Bosco went on to find fame as an actor. He has met many Hollywood stars and appeared on numerous television shows, including NYPD Blue and Jimmy Kimmel Live. “I feel like none of this would have happened if I hadn’t have looked and sounded different,” he said.