One of the benefits of living in the modern world is that we get the convenience of modern medicine. That is to say, no doctor is going to prescribe rubbing yourself with a live chicken to cure your disease. But in some cases, sanity has yet to catch up to a few unbelievable medical practices. Here are ten medical treatments you won’t believe they still use.

Known officially as apitherapy, the practice of using bee venom to treat medical conditions like rheumatism goes back for thousands of years, some believe as far as ancient Greece. So you would think that it’s something that would have been phased out at least a few hundred years ago, but that’s not the case.

Bee venom has recently been used by hospitals around the world as a treatment for arthritis, tendonitis, and herpes, among others. The treatment itself also varies: Some doctors will prescribe milked bee venom, while others will literally sting the patient with a live bee.

Interestingly enough, there has been a lot of research recently in the Western world for bee venom as a potential cure for cancer. So who knows, maybe it’s not as ridiculous as it might seem.

Maggot debridement, also known as maggot therapy, has been used off and on for most of human history, especially during times of war. “Debridement” is the removal of dead tissue, like you would get in an open wound. So as you can imagine, maggot debridement is a way of removing dead tissue – by putting live maggots into the wound.

While it would make sense for modern medicine to have moved past something as seemingly barbaric as dumping maggots into an open wound, it’s actually picking up steam again in the medical community—so much so that it’s now covered by some insurance plans. It’s usually used to treat post-surgical wounds that have difficulty healing.

Although it’s not a mainstream treatment just yet (or ever, hopefully), there are plenty of doctors who have taken up the age-old claim that hookworms, an intestinal parasite, are an effective treatment for allergies. Since the ’70s, researchers have noticed a strange connection: countries with high instances of hookworm infections have pretty much no allergies or autoimmune diseases.

Scientists are now studying why that happens, and they’re doing it in the only possible way that makes no sense: by infecting people with parasites. Other people are going after it themselves, like this man who traveled to Africa and walked around restrooms barefoot in the hope of somehow picking up the intestinal parasites. He was quoted as saying, “ . . . my feet were very itchy, so I felt very confident that I was infected.”

Most doctors warn their patients against setting their face on fire, but Chinese medical practitioners are reviving the cure more and more often, through burning moxa leaves. They apparently use the remedy to treat everything from facial paralysis to brain atrophy.

The treatment involves placing rolls of dried moxa leaves on the ears, mouth, or cheeks, lighting them on fire, and allowing the smoke to waft across the patient’s face. Sometimes walnuts will be placed in the patients’ eyes as well, which helps the process of restoring Qi, according to some medical specialists in the city of Jinan, China.

The practice of trepanation, in which a hole is drilled directly into the side of a person’s skull, is believed to have been used since the days of cave men. At least one 7,000 year old burial site has been discovered in which the skulls had circular holes cut away, and there are similar examples from every single period in human history.

The reasons for doing this have changed just as much as the techniques, and over time it’s been used to cure everything from migraines to mental disorders. The holes were first drilled with flint, then steel; sometimes a large hole was made by drilling several smaller holes and then connecting them; sometimes it was done by the agonizing process of scraping away layers of bone to make a hole.

And yep, we’re still doing it. These day’s doctors use trepanation to treat a condition called subdural hematoma, which is caused by blood pooling under the skull and around the brain. It just seems like we’d have figured out a better way to do it by now.

Meet the Bathini Gauds, an Indian family that has been administering live fish for over 160 years as a treatment for asthma – and they’re still doing it today. The treatment involves just what you might (hate to) think: The patient swallows a live fish along with a ball of secret medicine, then sticks to a strict diet for the next forty-five days.

According to the family, millions of people have been cured by the treatment, and over half a million come to see them every year. They claim that the fish must be alive, because it cleans out the throat as it squirms down into the stomach. But not everybody’s ready to swallow such a seemingly ridiculous remedy—the Indian Medical Association is threatening to open a lawsuit against the family unless they reveal the ingredients to the medicine.

Thalidomide, the devil’s sedative, has a history as infamous as Nazi Germany. It was heavily used during the 1950s as a cure for morning sickness in pregnant women—until they realized that it was responsible for more than 10,000 birth defects over just a few years. The FDA immediately stepped in to regulate the drug, which was being sold over-the-counter in nearly fifty countries, but the damage had already been done. Of the children who had been born with defects from thalidomide, about fifty percent died after only a few months. Pharmacists were actually instructed to destroy their thalidomide supplies.

Now, the FDA has once again approved thalidomide for medical use—this time as a treatment for bone marrow cancer. There are a lot of mixed feelings on this, but one thing is for sure: they’re double and triple checking patients for signs of pregnancy before even mentioning the word thalidomide.

First developed in 1938, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the practice of using an electrical shock of up to several hundred volts to induce a seizure. Eventually it fell out of use in the medical community due to minor side effects like confusion, muscle aches, bone fractures, and memory loss that can last for months.

In 2001, however, the American Psychiatric Association decided that electrocuting patients was cooler than not doing it, and ECT made a comeback. These days it’s mostly used to treat chronic depression and it’s legal in most countries, although only a few thousand treatments are reported every year.

Some old-fashioned medical procedures dip their toe in the shallow end of the barbaric, but lobotomies go straight for the swan dive. One of the most controversial practices in history, lobotomies were used in the 1930s to separate the frontal lobe from the rest of the brain, allegedly as a cure for schizophrenia and other mental disorders. One psychiatrist famously performed his with a hammer and an ice pick, ramming the pick through the back of the eye socket and wiggling it around to find the right part of the brain.

It wasn’t until the 50s that lobotomy was phased out in favor of drugs and medication, but it’s still managed to cling to the coattails of the medical fringe, popping up now and then when you’d least expect it. For example, they were performed in France up through 1986, and in 1995 a US psychiatrist was experimenting with burning dime-size holes into patients’ frontal lobes.

Surprisingly enough, lobotomies are still performed, they’re just called lobectomies now, and they’re used for extreme cases of epilepsy.

If there’s any one “medical” treatment we definitely should have done away with by now, it’s exorcism. And yet, many people still believe in demonic possession, to the point where they are willing to eschew more modern treatment in favor of old-fashioned hocus pocus.

But here’s the really, really weird part: sometimes, it works. There are countless anecdotes of exorcism working to cure diseases, especially mental diseases. But that’s the thing—psychiatry is still largely speculative, and any form of personal demon (like past trauma) can be seen as a real demon, depending on what the person believes. Believe in the cure strongly enough, and it just might work. Strong placebo or evil spirits: What do you believe?

In the United States and other Western nations, children are often taught about the Salem witch trials that saw 19 men and women executed by hanging for practicing witchcraft. These trials fell out of favor as society developed, but that’s not the case in other parts of the world.

Across much of sub-Saharan Africa and other places, the hunting and purging of witches and practitioners of the dark arts continues. Not only is it a pervasive problem, but the scale of these operations has only worsened with thousands of people falling victim to accusations of sorcery.

Here are 10 examples of modern witch hunts that you won’t believe happened so recently.

SEE ALSO: 10 Infamous Witch-Hunters From History

10 Ghana

Much like people in 17th-century Salem, Massachusetts, modern-day Ghanaians sometimes settle disputes by simply accusing someone of practicing witchcraft. An accusation can be all that is needed to remove a potential rival from a situation, and it happens far more often in Ghana than seems logical.

As witchcraft is such a perceived threat in the country, the nation has established eight sanctuaries for the victims/prisoners of witch hunts. Many of these sanctuaries are hundreds of years old; they’re also commonly known as witch camps.

In 2014, it was reported that over 1,100 people languished in these makeshift prisons/sanctuaries across Ghana. Hunts vary throughout the north and south of the country. But they often are instigated by supposed “penis-theft” hysteria, resulting in the accusation and rounding up of purported witches. Usually, these people are killed, though some make their way to the sanctuaries to live out their lives as outcasts.^[1]

9 The Gambia

Following an order by President Yahya Jammeh in March 2009, a group of government “witch hunters” went out into the nation of The Gambia and rounded up approximately 1,000 villagers. They were taken to secret government detention centers where they were forced to drink an unidentified hallucinogenic substance.

According to Amnesty International, “a lot of these people who were forced to drink these poisonous herbs developed instant diarrhea and vomiting while they lay helpless.” They were then beaten and forced to confess to being practitioners of witchcraft.

Those captured were rounded up over a five-day period and consisted of young men and women as well as the elderly. Fortunately, of the 1,000 captured and tortured, only two succumbed to the violence, but the violation of human rights is a serious problem throughout the country.

The incident was reported through Amnesty International, but this wasn’t the first time that Jammeh said or did something controversial. In 2007, he claimed to have found an herbal cure for HIV and ordered the execution of any homosexuals found in his country.^[2]

8 Kenya

The people of Kenya are no stranger to witch hunts, but they seem to come and go in spurts. The history of Kenyan witch hunts dates back centuries, but random acts of intense violence occur somewhat randomly.

In May 2008, it was reported that a mob rounded up and burned to death as many as 11 people accused of practicing witchcraft in the western region of Kisii. In total, eight women and three men between 80 to 96 years old were dragged from their houses into the street and individually burned.

The mob then burned down each of the victims’ houses with everything they owned still inside. That particular hunt began after someone found an exercise book at a local school containing the minutes of a so-called “witches’ meeting.” It had an accompanying list of people who were to be bewitched in the near future.^[3]

All of the victims’ families were forced into hiding. This attack was by no means an isolated incident. Kenyans have long suffered under the threat of witch hunts with no indication that it will end anytime soon.

7 India

You might not think India would fall on a list like this one, but certain regions of the country remain deeply enshrouded in a fear of mysticism. From 2001 to 2006, approximately 300 people were rounded up and killed in the northeast state of Assam.

The majority of those rounded up were women, which resulted in an increase in the number of homeless children in the region. The remaining children are often a major issue when it comes to the aftermath of a modern-day witch hunt, but the problem seems to be exacerbated in India.^[4]

Further killings took place throughout the country in various regions, usually resulting in as many as 5 to 35 deaths in each case. A report from 2010 estimated that 150 to 200 women are hunted down and killed each year throughout India. The estimate included accounts between 1995 and 2009. This puts the total number of women slaughtered in India due to a perceived practice of witchcraft during that period at over 2,500.

6 Nepal

A strong belief in witchcraft is common throughout Nepal, which is why hunting people suspected of practicing witchcraft isn’t as rare as it probably should be. The majority of people targeted in these hunts are low-caste women who are rounded up, beaten, tortured, humiliated in a public forum, and often murdered.

When these hunts occur, the families of the victims are often accused and dealt with in much the same way. In one instance in 2010, a woman was captured, beaten, and tortured for two days while she was forced to ingest human excrement until she “confessed” to being a witch.

She was targeted by a mob of around 35 people who showed up at her home and took her away. This kind of practice happens almost regularly to low-caste women throughout the country. But unlike other examples, the victim is often released after she confesses.^[5]

Murders do occur. But in many cases, the victim is released after being tortured for an extended period of time. That isn’t to say that the practice isn’t brutal and needs to be stopped, but the death toll in Nepal is significantly lower than some of the other examples on this list.

5 Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may be one of the richest nations on the planet, but its society still lives in fear of sorcery. The majority of Muslims believe in the practice of sorcery and witchcraft, which may be why the country defines its practice as a legitimate criminal offense.

Not only can someone accuse another person of practicing witchcraft in Saudi Arabia, they can then be tried by the government for committing said crime. If the person is found guilty, the punishment is death.

Reporting on the total number of these cases doesn’t get outside the country often. But several high-profile cases resulted in imprisonment and death at the hands of the Saudi government, which was accused by Human Rights Watch in 2009 of “sanctioning a literal witch hunt by the religious police.”

Numerous cases indicate that the punishment is beheading. In fact, that sentence was carried out as recently as June 19, 2012, on Muree bin Ali bin Issa al-Asiri, a man accused of practicing witchcraft and sorcery in the Najran province of southern Saudi Arabia.^[6]

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Bizarre Witch Burials

4 Indonesia

For 31 years, the people of Indonesia suffered under the rule of Suharto. But that all came to an end in 1998 when the militaristic dictator resigned.

On the surface, Suharto’s resignation was a positive move forward for the country. But his leaving office caused widespread unrest, a severe financial crisis, and for some reason, an intense witch hunt resulting in the deaths of some 400 people. These hunts consisted of a series of brutal killings throughout many parts of the island nation, though many were likely called witch hunts to cover up murders.

In September 2000, a mob in West Java rounded up a 70-year-old woman who was accused of casting spells that made local residents ill. She was decapitated, her eyes were gouged out, and her limbs were torn from her body and tossed into the street.^[7]

The anger and hatred toward purported witches in the country often led to the brutal death and dismemberment of anyone accused of witchcraft. This is why Indonesia’s post-Suharto witch purge is one of the more brutal examples on this list.

3 Papua New Guinea

Interestingly, Papua New Guinea allows a legal practice called “white” magic, which is used for faith healing and other benign practices. In the 1970s, the nation passed a law called the Sorcery Act, which imposed a two-year prison sentence on anyone found engaging in “black” magic. As the country outlawed the negative aspect of using magic, the nation saw a rise in violence and extrajudicial torture committed against alleged practitioners of “black” magic.

As recently as 2013, four women were accused of witchcraft because their familial home was made of wood. All four women were tortured, and one was beheaded. That incident occurred not because the women were practicing magic, but because they were economically better off than their accusers.^[8]

Similar crimes have been committed throughout the country, typically against young women who are tortured and often beaten to death. Fortunately, the country repealed the Sorcery Act in 2013 and defined the killing of accused witches as murder.

2 Cameroon

Fortunately, not all witch hunts end in the brutal deaths of purported practitioners. When it came time for the mob to launch a witch hunt in the city of Buea, Cameroon, in January 2014, the unleashed fury only resulted in property damage.

Residents of the southern Cameroonian town rioted and destroyed the homes and vehicles of several people identified as witches. The rioters claimed that the victims were members of a cult responsible for some recent deaths in the region. Blogger and reporter Mathias Mouende Ngamo said, “16 homes and 10 shops were destroyed. There were also the shells of burned-out cars on the streets.”^[9]

In another incident in the 1970s, a child witchcraft scare spread throughout part of the country which resulted in the rounding up of several children believed to be witches. Fortunately, the children were not terribly harmed. After they were forced to confess, they were “rewarded” with large amounts of meat meant to induce a purifying vomit and were released to their families.

1 Tanzania

Of every example on this list, Tanzania is by far the worst. In the 21st century alone, it’s believed that an estimated 20,000 people have been rounded up and slaughtered for practicing witchcraft.

But these witch hunts aren’t strictly limited to the practice of the dark arts. In addition to denouncing people for witchcraft, Tanzania has targeted and slaughtered homosexuals or people accused of being homosexual.

Between January and June 2017, the Legal and Human Rights Center reported 479 deaths from so-called “mob justice” throughout the country. These deaths included mainly elderly women accused of witchcraft as well as government-sanctioned murders of homosexuals.^[10]

Many murders have been carried out under the direction of local governors, while others were the result of a mob frenzy. Regardless of their reasoning, Tanzania is the deadliest place to live for anyone accused of practicing witchcraft in the 21st century.

If we asked you if something was natural or not, there’s a good chance that you would find it easy to answer. After all, we have well-defined ideas of what’s man-made and what’s not.

If you dug a bit deeper, though, you’d realize that many things we automatically assume to be natural aren’t natural at all. Instead, they are the direct results of man-made actions at various points in history.

10 The Amazon

Whenever we talk about the Amazon, we refer to it as an untouched tropical paradise that we’re all responsible for ruining. The latter part may even be true as we’re totally doing that. But it’s the “untouched” thing we almost always get wrong. The Amazon is the way it is precisely due to many historical civilizations having extensively transformed it with their ways of living.

The idea that the Amazon was undisturbed by civilization before the “discovery” of the Americas is increasingly being questioned. In the last few decades, plenty of studies have found that many diverse groups of people used to live there long before the rest of the world even knew it existed. These groups completely changed the landscape in their own ways.

It can be seen most clearly in the flora native to the Amazon. Many plant species found there are modifications of their original versions. Take peach palm, for example. The original fruit only weighed about 1 gram (0.4 oz). However, the type found in the market today can weigh as much as 200 grams (7.1 oz), even though we think of it as a naturally occurring variety of the fruit.^[1]

Crops like cocoa beans and Brazil nuts were essentially invented by the different tribes that once lived in the Amazon. For centuries, they domesticated local plants and crossbred them with other species. In fact, studies are ongoing as to how much impact humans have had on the forest, making us question if any of it is in a pristine, natural form at all.

9 Pearls

There was a time when pearls were one of the rarest and most expensive things we could get our hands on. Only a few could afford to own them. The high price was due partly to how good they look and partly to the perilous procedure of having to dive to the bottom of the ocean to retrieve them.

Although jewelry and other ornamental pieces made of pearls are still expensive, they’re now accessible to a lot of us even though they continue to be difficult to find. So, what changed? In a nutshell, we figured out how to make them in the lab by replicating the natural process.

Sure, a tiny minority of pearls are still found in the ocean and picked up as in old times. However, the majority in the market are cultured pearls. These aren’t fakes. They’re made by injecting gold and silver into mollusks and replicating the natural conditions in the lab—a process that was introduced and perfected by Japanese scientists in the early 19th century.^[2]

8 Morning Glory Pool

If you’ve ever visited Yellowstone National Park, you may have come across the multicolored body of water known as the Morning Glory Pool. Although the park is home to multiple hot water springs and pools spread throughout its vast landscape, this one stands out. Its unique pattern of concentric blue, red, and yellow circles is not found anywhere else in the park—perhaps even the world.

It’s a sight to behold, though the reason has almost nothing to do with nature.

The pool was first named Convolutus after a Latin word that translates to “morning glory” and describes a global family of blue flowers. The blue at the center comes from a type of bacteria that thrives in the heat of the pool.

However, the yellow on the periphery is entirely due to man-made reasons. Over the years, people have thrown a variety of things in the Morning Glory Pool, so a lot of the thermal vents have been blocked. This eventually allowed other types of bacteria to move in, producing the red and yellow tinges at the edges that give the pool its unique palette.^[3]

And yes, those bacteria will eventually engulf the whole pool. That’s bad news for people who like the blue color as well as for those who’d like to keep the pool in its natural form.

7 Lemons

If you don’t cook a lot, you probably won’t realize how important lemons are in our day-to-day lives. From marinating meat to adding a bit of flavor to most summer drinks, lemons are a versatile fruit that also happen to be loaded with vitamin C.

Though its most prevalent use is in the phrase “when life gives you lemons . . . ,” which doesn’t sound like a bad thing as lemons are awesome and life is always welcome to give us more of them. However, if we trace their origins, we’d realize that life never gave us lemons in the first place as they’re not a naturally occurring crop.

Lemons were first made by humans by interbreeding naturally occurring citrus varieties like sour oranges and citron to come up with the yellow fruit that we see today. It’s also one of the most mysterious crops as far as tracing its origins, though it’s generally agreed that lemons first showed up in the lower foothills of the Himalayas in Burma and Assam some 2,000 years ago.^[4]

6 Lake Mead

If you’ve ever taken a road trip to Las Vegas, chances are that you’ve come across Lake Mead—a large water body surrounded by beautiful peaks and spanning a huge area in Nevada. One of the largest lakes in the country, Lake Mead has a length of about 180 kilometers (112 mi) and a depth as much as 162 meters (532 ft).

It’s one of the main sources of water for many nearby states as well as quite a bit of Mexico. Lake Mead also happens to be one of the world’s largest man-made reservoirs.

Originally created as an outlet for all the excess water in the Colorado River—as the darn thing used to keep flooding before that—the lake was first formed by the construction of the Hoover Dam. Soon, Lake Mead was one of the most scenic picnic spots for people in the surrounding states. More recently, climate change and a severe water crisis in the area has caused it to shrink by quite a bit, so it’s no longer the largest man-made lake in the country.^[5]

5 Vanilla

The vanilla flavor might have become less popular over time due to better synthetic tastes we can now produce in the lab. But it was one of the rarest and most expensive flavors when it was first discovered in Mexico. Brought to Europe and the rest of the world by Spanish explorers, vanilla was first mixed with chocolate and instantly proved to be quite popular among Europe’s elites.

However, there was a problem because the vanilla plant was from Mexico. Vanilla beans wouldn’t grow anywhere else as bees would refuse to pollinate vanilla orchids unless they were in their native environment. When pollinated, these flowers produce vanilla beans, which are the source of vanilla flavor.

The problem was first solved by Edmond Albius, a 12-year-old slave in Reunion, an island in the Indian Ocean. Working under the supervision of a plantation owner, Albius figured out a way to hand-pollinate the plant, something no one else had been able to do.

The two men soon took this technique to other plantations. Within years, the island inhabitants started exporting tons of vanilla around the world as the demand for the coveted plant was high at that time. All the vanilla in the market today is made by that technique (as the bees are still quite stubborn about not doing it themselves). This keeps the price low and makes vanilla available to everyone instead of an elite few.^[6]

4 Killer Bees

If you live in the Americas and have ever been outside, chances are that you’ve heard of killer bees. They resemble other bee species, which are harmless unless their hives are disturbed. Even then, cases of normal bees attacking people rarely make the news.

On the other hand, killer bees have earned their reputation by having killed around 1,000 people since they were discovered. At first, you’d think all the deaths were due to individuals just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, if you’d read up on the origins of these dangerous stinging insects, you’d realize that nature has nothing to do with the creation of these killing machines. Instead, it was good old human error.

Killer bees were not originally found in the wild. Their very existence is a result of a biology experiment gone horribly wrong. You see, back when European honeybees were first brought to Brazil to amp up honey production, they weren’t doing much except chilling due to the difference in temperature. To remedy that, biologists took a few African honeybees to get them to breed with the existing populations in controlled conditions.

That didn’t turn out well. In 1957, some 26 queens from the African species along with other European honeybees escaped their confinement. In the years since, they have interbred on their own and become an aggressive and murderous species we now identify as killer bees.

They soon spread across South and Central America as well as most of the states in the US that have a border with Mexico—seemingly everywhere that it’s hot enough for them to survive as they die if it gets too cold.^[7]

3 Corn

In case you missed your high school history classes, corn has been the cornerstone of American civilization since organized tribes started showing up across the two continents. It won’t be a stretch to say that the history of the Americas is the history of corn cultivation. It has been an important part of the economies of almost all the most successful empires (including the United States) that ever existed here.

It’s even more surprising if you consider the fact that corn never existed in the form that it does now in the wild. Instead, corn was derived by native populations from a type of wild grass. Known as teosinte, this grass didn’t look anything like the maize crops we see today.

According to studies, native tribes started experimenting to increase the size of the cobs and kernels found on teosinte in Mexico about 6,300 years ago. After millennia of trial and error with farming and breeding methods, they stumbled upon what we now know as corn. It was then taken to places like North America by other tribes around 1,000 years ago. Even today, the crop cannot exist without human intervention and protection.^[8]

2 Dogs

No animal has a more intimate relationship with human beings than the trustworthy dog. Also known as “man’s best friend,” dogs are an indispensable part of human life around the world in a variety of ways—from helping to keep other farm animals in check to sniffing out drugs at border checkpoints.

If we asked you to guess where they came from, you’d likely say wild dogs. However, the only known species of wild dogs (African wild dogs) doesn’t belong to the same family of species as dogs (canines) at all. So, are dogs magic?

Not really. All the dogs we see today—from tiny Chihuahuas to the intimidating-yet-cuddly Tibetan mastiffs—descended from a single group of wolves at some point in human history.^[9]

Although the exact point at which dogs first appeared in our fossil records isn’t clear, scientists have estimated it to be 20,000–40,000 years ago. Whenever it happened, we can say for sure that dogs as we know them never existed before we decided that we needed a cool animal to be friends with.

1 Fly Geyser

The first time you take a look at the Fly Geyser—a unique, seemingly natural formation in Nevada—it comes across as an artist’s visualization of an alien world. Quite unlike any other formation found on Earth, the Fly Geyser is a tiny, multicolored hill that consistently spews boiling hot water throughout the year. It is surrounded by terraces filled with water.

It would be incredible if the Fly Geyser was a natural formation, but all the credit for this one goes to classic human error.

It all started when a geothermal energy company drilled a hole in the ground to find hot water and eventually turn it into energy. They abandoned the idea when the temperature of the water was discovered to be below the required level. Then they tried to cap the well. But they didn’t completely succeed, giving way to one of the best things that man has accidentally created from nature.^[10]

The colors are due to the algae growing on the calcium carbonate deposits, which also gave the geyser its unique conical shape over time. Interestingly, the formation is now a Burning Man property, which somehow sounds appropriate if you think about it.

You can check out Himanshu’s stuff at Cracked and Screen Rant, get in touch with him for writing gigs at [email protected], or just say hello to him on Twitter.

When we think of methods that governments and big corporations use to spy on us, we often think of computers, smartphones, and maybe surveillance cameras. As you are about to find out, these are hardly the only things that can be used to keep tabs on us.

Seemingly innocuous items like toothbrushes, headphones, and children’s toys can be turned into potent espionage devices. This really shouldn’t be a surprise, considering that every manufacturer wants to connect their products to the Internet these days. Big Brother (or at least big business) is watching . . .

10 Robot Vacuums

Robot vacuums can be quite convenient, but they can also spy on you. The Roomba iRobot i7+, for example, has been caught spying, and so has the Dongguan Diqee 360.

The iRobot i7+ is capable of making a map of your home when it cleans. Romba says the vacuum needs to create a map of your home so that it knows its way around. The map can also be useful if you want to order the vacuum to clean a specific room. However, Roomba revealed that the iRobot i7+ will also share the map of your home with other smart devices. Why does a vacuum need to share a map of your home?

Well, Roomba did not explain, but you can guess why, considering that the vacuum was jointly developed by Google, the king of spying. While Google insists the sharing is just to allow the robot to integrate with its digital Google Assistant, it’s hard not to imagine them making money off this somehow.^[1]

One robot vacuum that is clearly spying on us is the Chinese-made Dongguan Diqee 360. The vacuum has Wi-Fi and night vision-capable 360-degree cameras. Worse, hackers can hack the cameras of the Diqee 360 to spy on you, when Dongguan isn’t spying on you itself.

9 Cars

Our cars spy on us, and we’re not referring only to smart, self-driving models; we mean regular cars. They might not be smart, but they aren’t dumb, either.

Almost every vehicle produced today contains an event data recorder (EDR). The EDR records information about the vehicle, including its location, average speed, condition of the road, and the preferred route of its owner. This information is automatically sent back to the automaker.

Automakers say they use this data to study the behavior of their vehicles during accidents and offer improvement. This information is also shared with law enforcement to detect the cause of accidents. However, this does not mean automakers won’t use this information for other things.

For one, we don’t even know how much information carmakers gather from the cars. We don’t know who owns the information, either. Is it the car owner or the maker? Also, most car owners don’t even know they are being tracked. Automakers and salespeople aren’t very keen on revealing this information, either. So the spying continues.^[2]

8 Headphones

You might be wondering how headphones could spy on us. Well, they’re basically microphones. Headphones and microphones work the same way. It’s just that headphones convert electrical signals to sound, while microphones convert sound to electrical signals.

Interestingly, they can be easily converted to work the other way around. Headphones can be turned into microphones by just plugging them into the dedicated microphone jack of your computer or the the single jack shared by the headphone and microphone in phones and laptops. Talk into them, and they become microphones.

This technology can be exploited to turn headphones into spy microphones—if some corporation, law enforcement, or government spy agency isn’t doing so already. Security researchers at Ben Gurion University in Israel have even created malware that turns headphones into microphones to spy on people.

The malware, which they called Speake(a)r, works by converting the output jacks of the computer into input jacks. The headphones can be used to listen to a person’s conversation whenever they are plugged into the computer.^[3]

7 Toothbrushes

Toothbrushes are slowly moving from dumb plastic rods with soft bristles to gadgets. And as with every other gadget these days, they are being connected to the Internet to spy on us. In 2014, Oral B released a smart toothbrush that connects to specialized Android and iOS apps via Bluetooth.

The toothbrush records every brush stroke and presents it to the user at the end of every brushing session. The toothbrush offers suggestions about how the user could improve their brushing habits and can even send the information to their dentist. Speaking of dentists, they can also use the information to create brushing programs for their patients.

Kolibree also released a similar toothbrush around the same time. It claimed it helped users “outsmart their dentist.” It also added that users could share their brushing information with “dentists and family.” Why should we share our brushing information with our family? Also, there were concerns that the toothbrush could be used to send information to dental product advertisers.^[4]

6 Alexa

Amazon’s digital assistant, Alexa, spies on you. You may not know this, but Amazon presently employs thousands of people to review voice commands users say to Alexa. The reviewers work nine hours a day, during which they analyze over 1,000 audio commands each.

These reviewers have listened to voice commands the users never thought Alexa or even another human could hear. They have listened to bank details, to private conversations that clearly weren’t directed at Alexa, and, at least once, to a woman singing in the shower.

Two reviewers once listened to what they believed was a sexual assault and reported it to Amazon. Higher-ups mentioned that it was not their responsibility to interfere. Some of these recordings happened when Alexa was switched off, indicating that Alexa either switched on by itself or when it heard something that sounded like an order to switch on. All of this has created privacy and spying concerns about Alexa.

However, Amazon does not call it spying. It says it only reviews voice commands to improve Alexa. Amazon explained, “We use your requests to Alexa to train our speech recognition and natural language understanding systems.” However, the company never mentioned that humans—and not some sort of artificial intelligence—were involved in training Alexa.

While Amazon claims the commands are analyzed anonymously, we know this is not necessarily true. Reviewed recordings often contain the user’s first name, account number, and the product serial number, which could be enough to identify a person.^[5]

5 LED Lights

Believe it or not, 171 LED lights at Terminal B of Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey provide more than just illumination. They are rigged with sensors and connected to eight video cameras to surveil people in and around the terminal.

The terminal is maintained by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It says the cameras are only used to recognize long airport lines, vehicle license plates, and suspicious activity. However, we all know the system could be used for more. The Port Authority stores any information gathered by the lights and could hand it over to the police on request.^[6]

4 Home Security Cameras

Security cameras are supposed to catch people trying to burgle our homes. However, we have discovered that they can—and do—spy on us, too. The fears of being watched by surveillance cameras have caused privacy concerns among owners and prospective owners of such devices. Users have become so paranoid about being watched by their security cameras that a startup even created one that turns around and faces the wall whenever you are home.

Concerns about spying were raised because security cameras can secretly take videos, pictures, and audio, which are all uploaded to the cloud. The audio capability is the most notorious because these cameras could record conversations that are supposed to be private and confidential.

There is also a flaw with the way the uploaded data is handled because a spouse can use it to spy on their significant other whenever they were away from home. Law enforcement could also order the cloud service provider to hand over the recordings without your consent.^[7]

For now, we have caught Ring, a security and doorbell camera maker and subsidiary of Amazon, spying on people with their cameras. Ring says it does not spy on users but only uses recorded videos to improve object recognition—the sort of thing Amazon said with Alexa. However, its reviewers have seen private videos of people kissing, stealing, and shooting guns.

3 Toys

Children often talk to their toys as if they were human and could reveal private information in the process. This is slowly becoming a problem with the advent of smart toys rigged with cameras and microphones. These cameras and microphones sometimes send information to servers operated by the toymaker.

Genesis, a Hong Kong/Los Angeles toymaker, was caught spying on children with its doll called My Friend Cayla. The doll transcribed conversation to text and sent it to third parties. Curiously, when children asked the toy, “Can you keep a secret?” it always replied, “I promise not to tell anyone; it’s just between you and me.”

Hackers can also hack these toys to spy on children, steal pictures, videos, and audio recordings, or identify GPS coordinates that could reveal the location of the child. The Smart Toy Bear by Fisher-Price (a subsidiary of Mattel) has also been discovered to be vulnerable to hackers after researchers at Indiana University found a security flaw that allowed them to access the camera.^[8]

2 Computer Mice

Everybody knows their computer spies on them, but most people seem to have ignored the spy capabilities of peripherals like keyboards and mice. Yes, that innocuous-looking mouse could be used to keep tabs on you. It has happened in Singapore.

In 2012, it was reported that Singapore employers were spying on their workers with different gadgets, including calculators, alarm clocks, and their computer mice. The spy mice looked and worked like regular mice, except that they were rigged with microphones and a built-in SIM card. The employer makes a phone call to the mouse, and it starts recording any conversation within 10 meters (33 ft).^[9]

1 Smartwatches And Fitness Trackers

Smartwatches, fitness trackers, and similar smart wearables are another category of spy gadgets that are slowly emerging. These gadgets are so smart that they can use several sources of information to identify the wearer. They can also determine if the wearer is walking, running, or just taking a car, train, or bus.

This isn’t surprising at all when you realize that these wearables can also monitor the wearer’s hand movements to determine if they are entering sensitive information like pin numbers or passwords. Wearables can correctly determine the pin number or pattern used to unlock a cell phone 64 percent of the time, the ATM pin 87 percent of the time, and computer passwords up to 96 percent of the time.^[10]

There are a variety of ways that you can die depending on where you are and what you’re doing when it happens. Although some individuals peacefully pass in their sleep, others have to go through immensely uncomfortable and drawn-out deaths.

SEE ALSO: 10 Weird Causes Of Death Through History ?utm_source=seealso&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=direct

Death itself isn’t surprising. What’s astonishing is that you may die from the most mundane and unexpected parts of daily life. We all do these seemingly insignificant things without thinking twice about them. However, somewhere out there, someone has found a way to die because of them in one way or another.

10 Doing Nothing

We’ve already established that there’s no way to escape dying. Our bodies are inherently designed to do that when enough time passes—unless we manage to die earlier, which is always a possibility given how clumsy we are as a species.

One would think that unnatural deaths could be completely avoided by doing nothing at all. It stands to reason that if you’re doing nothing, you’re not doing anything that can kill you earlier than you’re supposed to die. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case as doing nothing has a kill count of its own.

Yup, it kills about 5.3 million people every year. Scientists say that it’s almost as bad as smoking or obesity, and we should make sure to keep moving around to lower our chances of being included in that statistic.

We’re not saying that it doesn’t make sense as physical inactivity is known to be an unhealthy habit. All we’re saying is that we didn’t know that sitting on your couch all day can actually kill you.^[1]

9 Sneezing

Depending on where you are in the world, people’s responses to sneezing could range from blessing you to telling you the correct way to do it so as not to offend them. However, it’s not a particularly noteworthy bodily function.

Even if we don’t fully understand the mechanics behind sneezing, we shrug and go about our daily lives without ever thinking about it. Of course, that’s until we find out that it’s also one of the few regular functions of the body that can kill you.

You see, sneezing triggers some powerful responses in the body, especially among all the organs involved in the process. Many people suggest blocking your mouth and nose to keep you from making sounds during sneezing. As one man found out, that is one way of absolutely destroying your pharynx and general throat area.

That’s not the only way it can kill you, either. People have died from it in a variety of ways—from brain hemorrhage to heart attacks caused directly by sneezing.^[2]

8 Taking The Stairs

Taking the stairs is a fairly normal part of our daily routine that we don’t really think about a lot as, let’s face it, they’re stairs. Thinking about whether they can kill us is the equivalent of worrying if walls can kill us. Even if the stairs do cause injuries due to the accidental fall here and there, it certainly doesn’t come across as something with a fatality rate.

However, multiple studies conducted around the world have shown that stairs are deadlier than we give them credit for. In the UK, around 1,000 people die from falling down stairs every year. This is ridiculously high if you think about it. The researchers assume that most of it is just the elderly doing elderly things.

Another study in India found out that most people who died on stairs were in the 31–40 age group, followed by 21–30. In contrast, US statistics show that only 27 people die due to elevators every year, even though viral accident videos tell us that elevators are supposed to be a whole lot scarier than the stairs.^[3]

7 Mowing Your Lawn

Having a lawn is out of reach for many people due to skyrocketing real estate prices across the country. However, for the select few who do, mowing it is one of the regular parts of their weekly routine.

Although it’s probably easy to find a way to die from a lawnmower if you really want to, it’s not more dangerous than any other machine you have in the house. (You can always accidentally stick your head in the mixer.) However, if you check out the stats on how many people manage to kill themselves mowing their lawns, you’d be surprised.

It was highlighted by Kim Kardashian in one of her tweets. She pointed out that 69 people died due to lawnmowers every year. That’s just the deaths. In addition, about 250,000 people injure themselves using the lawnmower every year.^[4]

6 Furniture

If you live in a house, chances are that it has furniture unless you’re going for the really minimal Instagram look that’s all the rage these days. Even if nearly all of us have stubbed our toe on a chair or some other mundane piece of furniture at some point, it doesn’t come across as something that could kill you in the way that leaving the gas on could.

Yet, furniture causes an unexpected number of deaths across the world every year. Many of them are due to accidental tipping.

Now we aren’t sure if furniture manufacturers are still not skilled enough at their jobs after all these years of practice. But we know that a bunch of consumer checks are in place before you can set up a furniture retail store. As for the numbers, a child dies due to a piece of furniture falling on top of him every two weeks in the US. About 2,800 injuries were reported in 2016 alone.^[5]

5 Balloons

Balloons are a common decoration at a wide variety of events—from Christmas to birthday parties to surprise interventions. Even though our fascination with balloons drops in direct proportion to how old we get, we don’t exactly think of them as deadly.

For the one-off ridiculously stupid person who may decide to swallow them for some unfathomable reason, health care has come far enough to stop it from being a fatal accident. Right? Not really.

Even in 2019, a surprisingly high number of people—primarily children—die of choking on balloons, and none of our futuristic health care can do anything to stop it.

Of course, there are other things in the house that kids can swallow and choke on, too. But balloons are particularly dangerous because they can obstruct the breathing pipes more effectively than most other things. That’s because balloons are all elastic and rubbery. It’s difficult to get them out even if you do make it to the ER in time.^[6]

4 Playing Golf

Depending on how rich and old you are, golf is either a leisurely activity you indulge in on weekends or a highly competitive sport you regularly play with a whole group of equally competitive friends. We won’t say it’s impossible to die on a golf course if you really try, but rogue golf balls hitting people in the wrong spot cause more fatalities than you’d think.^[7]

A ridiculously high number of people have died from flying golf balls. These individuals were just in the unfortunate path of the golf ball—like a 10-year-old boy in Alabama or a 69-year-old man in California or even a 27-year-old in Queensland, New Zealand.

3 Going To A Doctor

Of course, we’re not talking about serious diseases that will kill you nonetheless, only a bit faster if you don’t go to the doctor. We’re talking about the general phenomenon of visiting a doctor as a surprisingly high number of people die from faulty prescriptions and medical errors that could have been avoided.

The most surprising culprit? Bad handwriting from doctors.

Anyone who has ever thought “no way anyone can read this” was right after all, according to the numbers at least. Every year, about 7,000 people die due to bad handwriting with prescriptions per a study by the National Academies of Science’s Institute of Medicine.

In addition, general medical errors cause a whopping 250,000 deaths every year. That’s a conservative number depending on which study you’re reading. (The estimate can go as high as 440,000.)^[8]

2 Doing Your Laundry

We’re used to the idea of certain things in the household turning dangerous if not taken care of—like heavy-duty computers or exposed power sockets. However, none of those things have anything on doing your laundry.

If you thought there was no way that washing your clothes—especially the part where you dry them—can pose any sort of danger to you, let alone kill you, it’s time to rethink your approach to laundry. Regularly taking care of the dryer may someday prove to be the difference between staying alive and, well, not.

The US Fire Administration even has a special instructions manual for using the clothes dryer, which kills an average of 13 people and injures 444 every year in the US. The primary cause is the dryer catching fire due to reasons like not cleaning out the lint after every round or just generally not taking care of your electronic equipment like a responsible person.^[9]

1 Taking A Bath

Unless you’re not a part of civilized society or you’re not bathing on a dare or something, we assume that you take a bath every day (or at least regularly). It’s not exactly rocket science. You go in, splash yourself with water, wash with some soap, dry yourself, and come back out. It’s a mundane part of our everyday routine. If not for the irritating need to stay clean to be presentable to people, most of us wouldn’t even bother with it.

For a part of such a basic routine, though, taking a bath puts you at an unnaturally high risk of dying if statistics are to be believed. In the US alone, an average of 335 people die due to drowning in their own bathtubs every year. You’d think that most of them were kids or the elderly, but about half of those deaths were able-bodied adults.^[10]

Surprisingly, another common cause of dying inside the bathroom is hot water. Apparently, 20 people in the UK lose their lives every year due to burns from scalding water.

You can check out Himanshu’s stuff at Cracked and Screen Rant, get in touch with him for writing gigs here, or just say hello to him on Twitter.

The quarantine currently in force across much of the world is something we have not experienced before and watching a LOT of television and movies is the way many of us are coping with it.

There are some movies that are better picks than others when you are trapped in your house though and this list is made up of ones you should not be looking up on Netflix until the virus and quarantine are in the past.

Top 10 Disturbing Movies You’ve Never Heard Of

10 12 Angry Men

Watching a bunch of people scream at each other about social issues while stuck in a room will feel a bit too much like lockdown with the family for many of us. 12 Angry Men is set in the jury room after a criminal trial and stars Henry Fonda as Juror No. 8. He is the only member of the jury who is not totally sure of the guilt of the man on trial and during the course of the movie he gradually tries to get the others to see the holes in the prosecution case.

It is actually a brilliant movie, with direction from Sidney Lumet that really ramps up the feeling of claustrophobic frustration, even though he had never directed a feature film before. Despite that though, the endless scenes of men sweating in a stuffy room while having one argument after another about society and justice means it will not be the best choice when you are in lockdown with other people and you are all starting to drive each other crazy. Maybe you see yourself as Henry Fonda, showing everyone else how you are right about everything, but your remake might end with them killing you and burying you under the floorboards.^[1]

9 Cube

A sci-fi movie might seem like the ideal way to escape from the boring reality of the lockdown, but Cube is definitely not the sci-fi film you want for that. This 1997 Canadian movie is about a group of people who find themselves trapped inside a giant cube made up of different rooms, some of which have lethal traps in them. It was directed by Vincenzo Natali and in the years since it was originally released it has become a cult favorite thanks to its surreal storyline and the feeling of extreme confinement that it manages to capture.

While that would normally make it a pretty decent movie to watch, it is exactly the thing that means most of us will not fancy the thought of it when the only journeys we are able to make are between the different rooms in our homes. Of course, watching it might make us feel grateful that we can go to the bathroom without worrying that it might have some kind of trap in there that can kill us. Then again, that might actually liven up the lockdown at this point.^[2]

8 Phone Booth

Phone Booth is surely the least exciting movie title ever and spawned the less successful sequels Traffic Cone and Mailbox. However, despite sounding about as fun as filling out an IRS return, this 2002 movie is actually a thriller that will have you discovering butt muscles you never knew you had as you try to stay on the edge of your seat.

It stars Colin Farrell as obnoxious publicist Stuart Sheppard who answers a ringing public phone on a New York street one day, only for the voice on the other end of the line to tell him that he will be executed by a sniper if he hangs up. If you sat through Alexander that might sound like a fitting punishment for Farrell, and his character in the movie is one that most of us will enjoy seeing suffer too – at least to begin with. He has been cheating on his wife with another woman and the mystery man on the phone tells him he will be shot unless he confesses to both women. Directed by Joel Schumacher, Phone Booth is a nail-biting effort that stays focused almost entirely on Farrell trapped in that tiny booth negotiating for his life. It is not something you want to watch with your partner during lockdown though – especially if you are keeping a guilty secret from them.^[3]

7 127 Hours

This 2010 film tells the true story of Aron Ralston, who got trapped while climbing a canyon in Utah. Played in the movie by James Franco, he ends up caught in the narrow space between two canyon walls after a boulder falls on his arm. The title of the movie is the amount of time that Ralston was stuck in this hellish situation with no hope of rescue and the movie really makes you go through that trauma with him, although it is actually a tribute to the human capacity for survival against the odds. The way it shows endurance in the face of a seemingly lost cause is the reason why the film was such a hit at the time and why the performance by Franco earned so much praise from film critics and audiences. It still makes for a tough watch when you are stuck at home with no idea when that will end though.

The space that Ralston is confined within is so narrow that this movie would give you claustrophobia at any time, but in the current situation it could lead to nightmares. On the other hand, it shows Ralston cutting off parts of his own body and drinking his own urine to survive until he is rescued, which means we can use it as a guide for how to make it through the upcoming Great Depression 2 when we cannot afford to buy food or drink.^[4]

6 Morning Departure

The 1950 UK submarine movie Morning Departure is well worth checking out – at any time other than now. An unusual thing about it is that it is not a Second World War film, but is instead set after the war. It tells the story of an everyday submarine exercise that goes horribly wrong when the sub hits a magnetic mine that causes it to sink.

The majority of the movie shows the survivors coming to terms with the fact that they might run out of oxygen before being rescued. Things take a turn for the better when the rescue crew are able to start getting the men out, but eventually it becomes clear that not all of them will be saved. The director Roy Ward Baker wrings the tension and drama out of this, but that plus the downbeat ending makes it one of the worst films you could pick to watch in the current crisis. You will be made to feel totally inferior by the manly stoicism that most of the crew react to the situation with, while the meltdown that Richard Attenborough’s character goes through will remind you of every annoying celebrity posting videos of their breakdowns on Instagram.^[5]

10 Claustrophobic Tales Of People Trapped Underground That Will Leave You Breathless

5 The Descent

Imagine being trapped in a confined space that is also filled with weird creatures that want to violently kill you. Okay, that may just sound like lockdown with your family again, but actually it is the plot of the 2005 horror film The Descent. This film focuses on six women who find themselves stuck inside a cave that is home to strange and predatory creatures after a hiking trip goes wrong.

At first the movie concentrates on the arguments between the women about who is to blame for the situation and what they are going to do when they run out of supplies of food and water, before gradually revealing the full horror of their situation. This is made even more dramatic by the fact that much of the action takes place in almost total darkness – making it all the more shocking when the creatures suddenly and randomly lunge out of the black to attack their victims. The Descent was written and directed by Neil Marshall and is a really good horror movie to watch in normal circumstances, but in the current quarantine it will have you running out into the streets to take your chances with Covid-19.^[6]

4 Dog Day Afternoon

Dog Day Afternoon is one of the classics of 1970s Hollywood that showcases Al Pacino at his best – but wait until the lockdown is over to watch it for the first time. The plot of this 1975 film has nothing to with pooches, but the odd title comes from the phrase “dog days of summer” meaning ones that are so hot that they make you want to sleep like a dog. The movie is actually based on a true story and focuses on two hopeless bank robbers from Brooklyn called Sonny and Sal who end up locked inside the building with the bank staff as hostages after the robbery goes badly wrong. Most of the film is about the stand-off between them and the cops outside the building as nerves and temperatures get ever more frazzled in the summer heat.

The film is more than just a standard hostage movie though, as the reason Sonny wants the money is so that he can pay for his transgender partner to have a sex change operation. This and the bonds that develop between the robbers and their hostages make it a human interest drama as well as a thriller, but watching desperate people trapped together in a confined space in the middle of a boiling hot day makes for pretty uneasy viewing in the current situation.^[7]

3 Buried

What could be better to watch when we do not know if we will ever see the sunlight again than a movie about someone being buried alive? That is pretty much the entire plot of this 2010 movie that stars Ryan Reynolds in his pre-Deadpool days. Reynolds plays Paul Conroy, a civilian in Iraq, who wakes up at the start of the movie to find that he has been kidnapped and buried underground in a coffin. All he has been left are his mobile phone and lighter and the movie follows his frantic attempts to contact US authorities so that they can try to find him before he runs out of air.

Again, a lot of the action happens in near darkness as the flame from his lighter is the only escape that Conroy has from this, and director Rodrigo Cortes manages to make us viewers share his terror and panic. Some critics argue that Buried is meant to be a comment on the US and UK-led invasion of Iraq, but most people watching it are likely to see it as a gripping and painful psychological thriller. It might be the best performance that Reynolds has ever given, as he veers from frustration with the authorities to pleading with his tormentors and – finally – an emotionally devastating call to his family.^[8]

2 10 Cloverfield Lane

This 2016 movie about three people hiding together in an underground bunker is another film that might feel just a bit too close to the bone while we are all cowering in our homes for fear of the virus. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Michelle, who crashes her car and wakes up to find that she has been taken to a bunker by a man called Howard, played by John Goodman. He tells her that she cannot leave because there has been an alien chemical attack that has left the air outside the bunker contaminated.

From this point on, the movie takes place almost totally within that underground space as she encounters other people living in the bunker and gradually comes to suspect that Howard is not everything he appears to be. The movie was praised on its release for focusing on character and story rather than effects and it is a smart piece of horror, but unless you are lucky enough to be quarantined with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, watching it will not make you feel better at the moment.^[9]

1 Rear Window

Perhaps the ultimate in claustrophobic thrills, this Hitchcock masterpiece from 1954 stars James Stewart as LB Jefferies, a photographer confined to a wheelchair in his small flat thanks to a broken leg. His boredom leads him to start spying on the lives of his neighbors with a telescope and that is one good reason not to watch it right now, as it might give you ideas that end with you being arrested as a peeping tom. Jefferies becomes convinced that the salesman Lars Thorwald who lives in a flat across the yard from his has murdered his wife and he gets his fashion model girlfriend Lisa Fremont – played by Grace Kelly – to help him investigate.

One of the most famous scenes in the movie sees Lisa go to the murderer’s flat to look for evidence while Jefferies watches, only for him to spot Thorwald returning. He is unable to do anything to help Lisa escape and the movie makes us feel that total helplessness thanks to great direction and acting from Hitchcock and Stewart. Rear Window is a movie every film fan should see at least once, but the best time to do so is when you can get up and go out afterwards.^[10]

Top 10 Creepy Scenes In Movies

About The Author: I am a freelance writer from Dundee who also makes short films under the name Wardlaw Films.

Most people trust their doctors to provide the best possible care when it comes to medical treatments. However, there exists a world of unconventional and controversial therapies that, despite their bizarre nature, continue to attract attention and debate. These treatments often come with bold claims and a following of devoted practitioners, yet they remain outside the bounds of mainstream medicine for various reasons. Whether due to lack of scientific evidence, potential harm, or just plain absurdity, these treatments are ones your doctor is likely to frown upon.

Some of these methods have roots in traditional medicine, while others have emerged from the fringes of the health and wellness community. Regardless of their origins, they share a common thread: Mainstream medical professionals typically advise against them. This is not just because these treatments are unconventional but because many lack the rigorous testing and proven benefits that are hallmarks of effective medical care.

In this list, we explore ten medical treatments that your doctor probably won’t approve of. These are not just quirky health tips or harmless home remedies; they are practices that can be risky, controversial, and sometimes downright dangerous. Buckle up as we delve into the strange and sometimes shocking world of medical treatments you won’t find in your doctor’s office.

Related: 10 Medical Miracles Doctors Still Can’t Explain

10 Drinking Your Own Urine: The Ultimate DIY Health Hack

The practice of drinking one’s own urine, also known as urine therapy, has a long history and has been promoted by some as a natural remedy for a wide array of ailments, from infections to cancer. Advocates claim urine contains valuable nutrients and antibodies to boost the immune system and detoxify the body. Despite these bold claims, medical professionals warn that there is no scientific evidence to support the health benefits of drinking urine. In fact, consuming urine can lead to the ingestion of waste products and toxins that the body has already expelled, posing serious health risks.

While some cultures and alternative medicine enthusiasts continue to promote urine therapy as a cure-all, it remains a highly controversial and largely discredited practice in the medical community. The human body has an efficient system for filtering out waste products through the kidneys, and urine is essentially a vehicle for removing these wastes. Reintroducing them into the body by drinking urine can potentially lead to kidney damage, infections, and other health complications. It’s a health hack that your doctor is almost certain to advise against.^[1]

9 Leech Therapy: Bloodsucking Parasites for Modern Healing

Leech therapy, or hirudotherapy, may sound like a medieval relic, but it continues to find a place in modern alternative medicine. Proponents claim that leeches can be used to treat a variety of conditions, including arthritis, migraines, and even cardiovascular diseases. The therapy involves placing live leeches on the skin, where they attach and draw blood.

The leeches’ saliva contains anticoagulants and enzymes that are believed to enhance blood circulation and promote healing. Despite these claims, the practice remains controversial. It is often met with skepticism from the medical community due to the risks of infection and the availability of more effective treatments.

While leech therapy has historical roots dating back to ancient Egypt and Greece, its resurgence in the modern era is largely confined to niche circles and specific medical conditions. The FDA has approved leeches for limited use in reconstructive surgery to help restore blood flow to damaged tissues.

Still, healthcare professionals do not endorse their use outside of these contexts. The potential for allergic reactions and bacterial infections makes leech therapy a treatment that most doctors would advise against, especially given the advances in safer, more reliable medical practices.^[2]

8 Ear Candling: A Smoky Solution for Earwax Woes?

Ear candling, also known as thermal-auricular therapy, involves inserting a hollow candle made of fabric and beeswax into the ear canal and lighting it. The idea is that the heat and smoke created by the burning candle produce a vacuum that draws out earwax and impurities. Despite its popularity in some wellness circles, medical professionals caution against this practice.

Research has shown that ear candling is not only ineffective at removing earwax but can also pose significant risks, such as burns, ear canal blockages, and even eardrum perforation. Proponents of ear candling claim that it can also help with a variety of other health issues, such as sinus infections, headaches, and even improving overall hearing. However, these claims lack scientific backing.

Studies have demonstrated that any debris found after ear candling is typically candle wax, not earwax and that the supposed benefits are more likely a result of the placebo effect rather than any real therapeutic action. Given the potential for harm and the absence of proven benefits, mainstream medical advice strongly discourages the use of ear candling.

Safe and effective methods for earwax removal, such as using ear drops or visiting a healthcare professional, are recommended over this smoky and risky alternative. Your doctor is almost certain to disapprove of ear candling as a viable health treatment.^[3]

7 Cupping Therapy: Ancient Practice with Modern Celebrity Endorsement

Cupping therapy, a traditional practice rooted in ancient Chinese medicine, involves placing heated glass or silicone cups on the skin to create a vacuum. This suction is believed to enhance blood flow, relieve muscle tension, and promote overall healing. The practice has gained renewed popularity in recent years, thanks partly to endorsements from high-profile athletes and celebrities who showcase their telltale circular bruises. Despite its ancient origins and modern revival, scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of cupping therapy remains limited and inconclusive.

Proponents of cupping therapy argue that it can help treat a variety of conditions, including chronic pain, respiratory issues, and even cellulite. However, the mechanism by which cupping might produce these effects is not well understood, and many studies suggest that the benefits are comparable to those of a placebo. Critics also point out that the bruising and skin irritation caused by the cups can sometimes lead to discomfort and other complications.

Mainstream medical practitioners often view cupping with skepticism due to the lack of robust clinical evidence and the potential for side effects. While some individuals swear by the practice, it is generally considered an unproven alternative therapy. Doctors typically recommend evidence-based treatments that have been rigorously tested for safety and effectiveness over more anecdotal methods like cupping.^[4]

6 Apitherapy: Bee Venom as a Controversial Cure

Apitherapy, the use of bee products like venom, honey, and royal jelly for medicinal purposes, has a history dating back thousands of years. The most intriguing and controversial aspect of apitherapy is bee venom therapy, where live bee stings are applied to the skin in a controlled manner. Proponents claim that bee venom contains compounds that can alleviate pain, reduce inflammation, and even treat conditions such as arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Despite its ancient roots and passionate advocates, the practice remains highly controversial in the medical community.

Scientific research on the effectiveness of bee venom therapy is limited and often inconclusive. While some studies suggest potential benefits, they are often small and lack rigorous methodology. More importantly, bee venom can cause severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, which can be life-threatening. Because of these risks and the lack of robust evidence supporting its efficacy, most doctors advise against bee venom therapy. Safer, more proven treatments are preferred for managing pain and inflammation.^[5]

5 Chelation Therapy: Removing Heavy Metals at a High Risk

Chelation therapy involves administering a chemical solution, typically EDTA, to remove heavy metals like lead and mercury from the bloodstream. While this therapy is approved for treating heavy metal poisoning, some proponents claim it can also benefit those with heart disease by removing calcium deposits from arteries.

The idea is that chelation might help clear clogged arteries and improve blood flow. Still, this application remains highly controversial and unproven according to mainstream medical research. Studies on the efficacy of chelation therapy for heart disease have shown mixed results, with most reputable organizations, including the Mayo Clinic, advising caution.

Potential side effects of chelation therapy can be severe and include kidney damage, low blood calcium levels, and allergic reactions. The treatment is risky, especially when used for conditions other than heavy metal poisoning, and lacks substantial evidence to support its use for heart disease or other chronic ailments. Medical professionals generally recommend against using chelation therapy for heart conditions, advocating for more conventional and well-supported treatments instead.^[6]

4 Coffee Enemas: A Risky Brew for Detoxification

Coffee enemas, a method where coffee is introduced into the colon through the rectum, have gained popularity in alternative health circles as a means of detoxifying the body and improving liver function. Proponents claim that the caffeine in coffee stimulates the liver to expel toxins more effectively and can improve digestion and boost energy levels. However, these claims are largely anecdotal, with no substantial scientific evidence supporting the health benefits of coffee enemas.

Despite the popularity of this detox method, medical professionals strongly caution against its use due to significant health risks. Coffee enemas can lead to serious complications such as rectal burns, infections, electrolyte imbalances, and even colitis. The process of introducing a foreign substance into the colon can disrupt the natural bacterial flora and lead to potentially harmful side effects. Additionally, there is no credible scientific evidence that coffee enemas provide any detoxification benefits beyond what the body already accomplishes naturally through the liver and kidneys.

Mainstream medicine generally advises against using coffee enemas for detoxification, emphasizing that the body’s natural detox systems are sufficient for maintaining health. Instead, a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle are recommended for optimal liver and overall health. Given the risks and lack of proven benefits, doctors are unlikely to approve coffee enemas as a safe or effective health treatment.^[7]

3 Maggot Therapy: Unlikely Healers in Wound Care

Maggot therapy, also known as larval therapy, involves using live, disinfected maggots to treat non-healing wounds by consuming dead tissue. This practice, which dates back to ancient times, has experienced a resurgence in modern medicine for its effectiveness in cleaning chronic wounds, such as diabetic ulcers and pressure sores.

The maggots secrete enzymes that liquefy dead tissue, which they then ingest, effectively cleaning the wound and promoting the growth of healthy tissue. Despite the initial “ick factor,” maggot therapy has been shown to be an efficient and cost-effective treatment in certain medical contexts. However, maggot therapy is not without its downsides and is usually reserved for cases where conventional treatments have failed. The psychological discomfort for patients is significant, and there is always a risk of infection if the maggots are not properly sterilized.

While the FDA has approved the use of maggots for treating specific types of wounds, the practice is not widely endorsed for general use due to the availability of other, more accepted medical treatments. Most doctors will recommend alternative wound care options before resorting to maggot therapy.^[8]

2 Miracle Mineral Solution: A Dangerous “Cure-All”

Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) is marketed by some as a cure-all for a wide range of diseases, from malaria and cancer to autism and HIV. This solution is essentially a mixture of sodium chlorite and an acid, such as citric acid, which forms chlorine dioxide when combined. Chlorine dioxide is a potent industrial bleach, and ingesting it can cause severe side effects, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and dehydration. Despite these risks, MMS continues to be promoted in various alternative health circles, often with claims that are unsupported by scientific evidence.

Regulatory agencies like the FDA have issued warnings about the dangers of MMS, highlighting that it is not only ineffective for treating the conditions it claims to cure but also potentially life-threatening. The FDA has received numerous reports of severe adverse reactions and even deaths linked to the ingestion of MMS. The promotion of this product as a miracle cure is not only misleading but also dangerous, putting vulnerable individuals at risk of serious health complications.

Given the significant health risks and the lack of proven benefits, MMS is widely disapproved by the medical community. Most healthcare professionals strongly advise against using MMS for any purpose, emphasizing the importance of seeking evidence-based treatments for health conditions. The consensus is clear: Miracle Mineral Solution is not a safe or effective treatment, and its use should be avoided to prevent potentially devastating consequences.^[9]

1 The Baby Drop: A Shocking Ritual for Good Fortune

In parts of India, a startling ritual known as “baby dropping” has been practiced for over 700 years, with the belief that it brings good health and luck to infants. This ritual involves dropping babies from a height of approximately 30 to 50 feet off temple roofs into a cloth held by villagers below. It is primarily observed by certain Hindu and Muslim communities, who trust that the practice will ensure their children’s robust health and prosperous futures. The ritual is particularly common in the state of Karnataka, where it continues to attract significant attention and controversy.

Despite its cultural significance, the practice has been met with widespread condemnation from medical professionals and child welfare advocates who highlight the serious risks involved. Experts warn that dropping infants from such heights, even when caught in a cloth, can cause severe physical and psychological trauma. The potential for injury, including brain damage and developmental issues, is significant, prompting concerns over the well-being of these children. The practice has drawn criticism for being hazardous and anachronistic, given a modern understanding of child health and safety.

Efforts to end the baby drop ritual have increased, with local authorities and human rights organizations working to educate communities about the dangers and encourage safer alternatives. However, the ritual persists in some areas due to deep-seated cultural beliefs and resistance to change. Most health professionals and child advocates urge against continuing this practice, emphasizing that protecting children’s health and safety should take precedence over traditional customs.^[10]

No gimmick diet can substitute for a healthy lifestyle—quality food, plenty of water, and exercise go a long way to keeping you in shape. Yet it feels as if every day, some new diet is introduced to us, and many people hop on the bandwagon without a moment’s doubt. Some diets work, and others don’t work at all, while some diets are so crazy and bizarre that we couldn’t help but share them with you.

10The Urine Diet

The urine diet is a bizarre weight loss practice that involves restricting your diet to 500 calories a day and injecting yourself with the urine of pregnant women. The diet can supposedly help you lose up to 0.5 kilograms (1 lb) a day. Strangely enough, this miraculous weight loss is attributed to the injection of urine, as opposed to the limit on your calorie intake.

The urine of pregnant women has a special hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which is created by the placenta. If injected into the body of a non-pregnant person, this hormone can trick the brain into thinking that the body is pregnant, which, some say, makes the body metabolize much faster. Some of those who have tried the urine diet are extremely happy with the results and attribute their weight loss solely to the urine injections, firmly believing that it is thanks to these shots of urine that they did not feel hungry during the dieting period.

Skeptics, however, argue that the urine and the hCG hormone have nothing to do with weight loss. They accredit weight loss purely to the 500-calorie diet and warn that the urine diet poses obvious dangers. For a cheaper (the urine costs between $300 to $565 for a six-week supply) and more beneficial way to lose weight, limit your calorie intake (which you must do with this diet anyway), and take up exercise instead.

9The Dukan Diet

The Dukan diet was designed in 2000 by a French medical doctor and nutritionist, Pierre Dukan. It is based on the supposed diet of primitive man, who acquired his food solely through hunting and gathering. Followers of this diet can only eat certain foods, of which there are exactly 100. Twenty-eight of these foods come from plants, and 72 come from animals. By following this strict regimen, you can supposedly lose up to 5 kilograms (10 lb) a week, but this extremely restrictive diet also suggests exercising and drinking plenty of water, which is probably a good idea anyway.

The Dukan diet is made up of four stages. Stage one is known as the “attack phase,” during which you can only eat lean protein (such as beef, eggs, and fish), albeit in unlimited amounts. During this stage, you must also eat 1.5 tablespoons of oat bran, which is supposed to stifle hunger, as well as drink at least six cups of water a day. This stage lasts up to 10 days. The second stage is known as the “cruise phase” and can last up to several months. Non-starchy vegetables (such as spinach and lettuce) are added to the diet, as well as an extra half a tablespoon of oat bran.

The third stage, or the “consolidation stage,” sees the addition of several specific foods, such as one piece of fruit and one serving of hard cheese. A couple of starchy foods can be occasionally consumed, and you are allowed one or two “celebration” foods a week. And finally, during the fourth and last phase called the “stabilization phase,” you are allowed to eat whatever you want except for one time a week, when you should follow the rules from the “attack phase.” During this phase, it is also recommended that you eat three tablespoons of oat bran a day and walk for at least 20 minutes.

8The Prayer Diet

The prayer diet is supposed to help you lose weight through prayer and constant communication with God. As with everything, consistency is the key, and best results will be achieved through daily prayer sessions, preferably in the morning. This will help you keep focused and make the necessary daily changes in your diet and exercise regimen. If you are stuck for suitable prayers, look no further than the Internet. Here’s one great example: “Guide me Lord, as I strive to lose weight. You are my light and my anchor, and with You I know all things are possible.”

It is not just Christians who can use this diet. Members of other religions or traditions can also put this diet into use by praying to their Creator, while atheists and non-believers are told to pray to their Higher Power, Higher Self, or Nature.

Of course, praying is not enough to lose the unnecessary weight. No matter how much you pray, if you just lie on the sofa all day, the pounds will not magically disappear, barring true divine intervention. Even the creator of this diet admits that prayer is just the first step in the journey of weight loss. The other necessary steps include nutritional education, healthy eating (in smaller quantities), and plenty of exercise. So perhaps the daily prayer is not that necessary after all.

7The Cotton Ball Diet

The incredibly risky cotton ball diet involves dipping cotton balls into fruit juice, smoothies, or lemonade and then swallowing them whole. Eating the cotton balls apparently makes you feel full and satisfied and less likely to overeat normal food. The diet is mainly used by young teenagers, and videos showing exactly how to do it have been uploaded to YouTube.

It is believed that the diet was introduced to the general public by Eddie Murphy’s daughter, Bria Murphy, after she witnessed models desperate to stay skinny eating cotton balls dipped into juice.

The cotton ball diet has extremely dangerous consequences that come with it, including malnutrition and choking, as well as the creation of a specific mass called a “bezoar,” which obstructs the intestines. In addition, most cotton balls are not made from cotton wool at all but rather from bleached polyester fibers that contain various chemicals additives. The diet has earned rightful uproar from the media, as it has some real medical harm and should not be tried at home.

6The Tongue Patch Diet

The tongue patch diet, started by Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon Dr. Chugay, supposedly helps people lose up to 15 kilograms (30 lb) a month. It involves cosmetic surgery, during which a restrictive patch the size of a postage stamp is stitched to the tongue, making eating solid foods so painful that patients only consume liquids. The patch costs “only” $2,000.

According to Dr. Chugay’s own website, patients who opt for the “miracle patch” are put on a liquid diet that fulfills all of their nutritional needs and is easy to follow. Furthermore, the patients are under the direct supervision of either Dr. Chugay himself or his staff.

The side effects of this ridiculous diet include difficulty in speaking due to the swelling of the tongue, sudden waking from sleep, drooling, constant pain, and the possibility of an ulcer or an infection. It could also cause an airway obstruction, which could either partially or totally prevent air from getting to your lungs.

All this for just $2,000? Thanks, but we’ll pass.

5Ear Stapling

The practice, derived from Chinese acupuncture, involves fixing surgical staples to the inner cartilage of each ear, which supposedly stimulates a specific point that curbs your appetite. Practitioners suggest leaving them in for two to three months for best results.

This bizarre “diet” became popular in the 2000s, but it has been around ever since the 1970s, when it was called “staplepuncture.” The necessary components of the ear stapling diet include healthy eating and exercise, which makes the stapling seem rather useless, seeing as you will lose weight regardless of whether your ears will be stapled. As well as that, the unregulated activity can cause actual harm—ear infections or even disfigurement are a very likely consequence of this strange diet.

4Kangatarian Diet

A kangatarian diet involves eating only vegetables and kangaroo meat. These kangaroo eaters are better known as “kangatarians” and still describe themselves as being quasi-vegetarian while still eating red meat. According to this group, eating kangaroos is more ethical than eating other meat, as kangaroos are only fed wildly grown vegetation, are less destructive on land, and emit less methane (natural gas) than the cow—nature’s greatest methane generator. As well as that, most kangaroos spend their lives outdoors as opposed to cows and other animals, which are kept in horrific conditions most of their lives only to be slaughtered later.

Kangatarians claim that kangaroo meat is free-range, organic meat and is often the best choice for those who only want to eat healthy, organic food. It became legal to sell kangaroo meat in 1993, and ever since then, various misconceptions about the practice have arisen, such as a strong belief that kangaroos are farmed. However, seeing as it would be difficult to obtain kangaroo meat outside of Australia, it is unlikely that this diet will become a global movement.

3Cookie Diet

The cookie diet was created by weight loss expert and author Dr. Sanford Siegal and has supposedly helped thousands of people lose an average of 7 kilograms (15 lb) a month. According to Dr. Siegal, hunger is what stands in the way of a successful diet, and thus it is best to have nine small snacks and one generous meal a day. However, the small snack cannot just be anything; it must be a specially formulated cookie that contains only 60 calories within it. The cookies, which cost $50–$60 per box, are made in Dr. Siegal’s own bakery and are only offered to the patients of his clinics. Dinner must consist of only 500–700 calories and can include foods such as chicken, turkey, or seafood. Dieters are also allowed to consume a cup of vegetables with dinner and a total of eight glasses of liquid a day.

However, the cookie diet lacks vital nutritional staples that provide us with the necessary minerals and vitamins, as well as proper vegetables and fruit. Even Dr. Siegel himself admits that the cookie diet is not a diet people should stay on permanently. Besides, if you’re going to go on this bizarre cookie diet, why not use real cookies instead?

2Clay Cleanse Diet

A clay cleanse diet involves consuming bentonite clay, a type of volcanic ash, which supposedly detoxifies the body by absorbing toxins and carrying them out of you. Bentonite clay includes many minerals such as calcium and magnesium and has been dubbed “healing clay.” When taken with water, bentonite clay swells up in your body and makes the dieter feel full.

A study testing the safety of clay was conducted in 2005 at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, during which 50 volunteers consumed various amounts. While no evidence was found suggesting that bentonite clay is good for detoxification, products containing bentonite clay were declared somewhat safe. Nevertheless, it is not advised to take more than one teaspoon of bentonite clay a day, and plenty of water must be drunk with it as well as throughout.

There is no real scientific evidence that bentonite clay actually helps with weight loss, and the consequences of the “clay cleanse” diet include constipation, bowel obstruction, dehydration, low blood pressure, and nutritional deficiencies. Thus, the risks of this diet certainly seem to outweigh the merits.

1Baby Food Diet

The baby food diet was supposedly started by the fitness guru Tracy Anderson and involves replacing breakfast and lunch with 14 jars of baby food. A healthy dinner with plenty of vegetables and practically no fatty meats completes the day. The really interesting thing about the baby food diet, however, is that it is not actually a diet for weight loss but rather a maintenance diet. Thus, before you embark on a baby food spree, you should first lose all the unnecessary pounds since the baby food diet only helps you to stay thin—it doesn’t actually make you lose weight.

Since baby food is mostly made from fruits and vegetables, your intake of these nutritious plants will increase. Baby food also usually comes in small packages with limited serving sizes, which can help you control the amount you eat. As well as that, no cooking on your part will be required. However, no scientific research has been done—it is unclear how baby food might affect your body. In addition, this diet might cause fiber shortfall, and it is unclear whether this diet does actually help to maintain your body weight. And with no real scientific research, who would actually want to snack on gross baby food when there are plenty of other options available?

Laura is a student from Ireland in love with books, writing, coffee, and cats.

Among the many medical anomalies that humans may face, there exist diseases so strange that they defy logic and challenge our understanding of human biology. These rare conditions, often sounding like something out of a science fiction novel, are real and profoundly impact the lives of those afflicted. From the bizarre to the downright terrifying, these diseases puzzle medical professionals and evoke curiosity in the rest of us.

While incredibly rare, these conditions offer a glimpse into the complex and sometimes unfathomable nature of our bodies. Exploring these diseases reveals the incredible diversity of human pathology. Each condition presents unique symptoms and challenges, often requiring equally unique approaches to treatment and care. By delving into the world of these unusual diseases, we learn about the fragility and resilience of the human body and gain a deeper appreciation for medical advancements that strive to alleviate the suffering of those affected.

Related: Top 10 Horrible Diseases that Came From Animals

10 Maple Syrup Urine Disease

Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) is as peculiar as its name suggests. This rare metabolic disorder is characterized by the body’s inability to break down certain amino acids, leading to a distinctive sweet-smelling urine reminiscent of maple syrup. The condition primarily affects infants and, if left untreated, can result in severe neurological damage or even death. Early diagnosis and dietary management are crucial for those affected by this disorder.

The sweet odor is caused by the accumulation of branched-chain amino acids and their toxic by-products in the blood and urine. Symptoms often appear within the first few days of life and include poor feeding, vomiting, lethargy, and abnormal movements. The disease is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, meaning both parents must carry a copy of the defective gene to pass it on to their child.

Treatment for MSUD involves a strict diet low in the offending amino acids, supplemented with a special formula. Regular monitoring of blood levels is essential to prevent metabolic crises. Despite the challenges, with proper management, individuals with MSUD can lead relatively normal lives.

Advancements in genetic research and newborn screening have improved the prognosis for those born with MSUD. Early detection allows for prompt intervention, significantly reducing the risk of complications.^[1]

9 Alien Hand Syndrome

Alien hand syndrome (AHS) is a rare neurological disorder where a person’s hand moves involuntarily, almost as if it has its own will. This strange condition often results from brain surgery, strokes, or neurodegenerative diseases that affect the brain’s control over voluntary movement. People with AHS may find their hand performing actions they did not intend, such as grabbing objects or touching their face.

The primary cause of alien hand syndrome is damage to the brain, particularly the corpus callosum, which connects the two hemispheres. This can happen during surgeries intended to treat epilepsy or due to other forms of brain trauma. Patients often describe their hand as behaving independently, which can be both distressing and disruptive to daily life.

Managing AHS involves behavioral techniques to control the hand’s movements, such as keeping the hand occupied with an object. While there is no cure, ongoing research aims to better understand this condition and improve treatment options.^[2]

8 Fish Odor Syndrome

Fish odor syndrome (FOS), medically known as trimethylaminuria (TMAU), is a metabolic disorder that causes a person’s sweat, breath, and urine to emit a strong, fish-like odor. This rare condition occurs due to the body’s inability to break down trimethylamine, a compound produced in the gut. The excess trimethylamine is then released in bodily fluids, resulting in the characteristic odor.

The primary cause of fish odor syndrome is a genetic mutation affecting the enzyme responsible for processing trimethylamine. This mutation can be inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, meaning both parents must carry the defective gene to pass it on to their child. Symptoms can vary in intensity, with some individuals experiencing only mild odors while others may have more pronounced and persistent smells.

Living with FOS can be socially and emotionally challenging. The noticeable odor often leads to embarrassment, anxiety, and social isolation. Treatment typically involves dietary changes to reduce the intake of trimethylamine precursors found in certain foods like fish, eggs, and legumes. Some patients also benefit from supplements and medications that help reduce the production of trimethylamine in the gut. Despite its rarity, FOS significantly impacts those affected. Ongoing research aims to find more effective treatments and to better understand.^[3]

7 Stone Man Syndrome

Stone man syndrome, scientifically known as fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), is a rare and debilitating genetic disorder where soft tissues progressively turn into bone. This condition causes muscles, tendons, and ligaments to ossify, essentially creating a second skeleton that severely restricts movement and function. The process usually begins in childhood and advances throughout the person’s life.

FOP is caused by a mutation in the ACVR1 gene, which plays a crucial role in bone formation and growth. Even minor injuries can trigger episodes of rapid ossification, leading to painful and irreversible joints and muscle stiffening. As the disease progresses, individuals lose mobility, making everyday activities increasingly difficult and leading to severe disability.

There is currently no cure for stone man syndrome, and treatment focuses on managing symptoms and preventing flare-ups. Doctors often advise avoiding activities that could cause injuries and using medications to reduce inflammation and pain. Research is ongoing to find more effective treatments and understand the mechanisms behind this rare condition.

Living with FOP requires significant adjustments and support. The progressive nature of the disease means that those affected must continuously adapt to new limitations. Awareness and understanding of stone man syndrome are crucial for providing adequate care and improving the quality of life for those affected.^[4]

6 Laughing Death (Kuru)

Laughing death, known scientifically as kuru, is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder that was once prevalent among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea. This bizarre disease is characterized by uncontrollable laughter, tremors, and loss of coordination, eventually leading to death. Kuru is caused by infectious proteins called prions, which induce abnormal folding of normal brain proteins.

The transmission of kuru was linked to the practice of ritualistic cannibalism among the Fore tribe, where deceased relatives were consumed as part of their funeral rites. Ingesting infected brain tissue facilitated the spread of prions, leading to outbreaks of the disease. Symptoms typically began with headaches and joint pain, progressing to severe neurological impairment and emotional instability.

Efforts to eliminate kuru focused on ending the practice of cannibalism. Public health campaigns successfully educated the Fore people, leading to the cessation of these rituals and a dramatic decline in new cases. However, the historical impact of kuru remains a poignant reminder of the intersection between cultural practices and infectious diseases.^[5]

5 Water Allergy (Aquagenic Urticaria)

Water allergy, or aquagenic urticaria, is an exceptionally rare condition where contact with water causes hives and severe itching. This allergy can be triggered by water at any temperature, including sweat and tears, making it a highly debilitating condition. The exact cause of aquagenic urticaria is not well understood, but it is believed to involve a hypersensitivity reaction to an unknown substance in the water.

Symptoms typically appear within minutes of water exposure. Affected individuals experience red, itchy welts that can vary in severity. Even routine activities like bathing, swimming, or getting caught in the rain can trigger a painful reaction. The condition is not limited to any specific type of water, meaning both tap water and natural bodies of water can cause symptoms.

Living with aquagenic urticaria requires significant lifestyle adjustments. Protective measures, such as applying barrier creams or taking antihistamines, can help manage the symptoms. However, there is no cure, and the condition often persists throughout life. Due to its rarity, research is limited, and those affected often feel isolated and misunderstood.^[6]

4 Pica

Pica is a perplexing eating disorder characterized by the compulsive ingestion of non-food items. Individuals with pica may consume substances such as dirt, clay, chalk, paper, or even metal. This condition can occur in both children and adults and is often associated with other mental health disorders, nutritional deficiencies, or developmental issues.

The exact cause of pica remains unclear, but it is believed to stem from a combination of psychological, cultural, and nutritional factors. For example, some people with iron or zinc deficiencies may crave and consume non-nutritive substances. Pica can also be linked to stress, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and pregnancy, where unusual cravings are not uncommon.

Consuming non-food items can lead to serious health complications, including intestinal blockages, poisoning, and dental problems. Medical evaluation is crucial for individuals with pica to identify any underlying deficiencies or psychological conditions. Treatment typically involves addressing these root causes through nutritional supplements, behavioral therapy, and counseling.^[7]

3 Tree Man Syndrome (Epidermodysplasia Verruciformis)

Tree man syndrome, scientifically known as Epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV), is an extremely rare genetic disorder characterized by the growth of bark-like warts and lesions on the skin. These growths, caused by an abnormal susceptibility to human papillomavirus (HPV), can appear anywhere on the body but are most commonly found on the hands and feet. The condition often leads to severe disfigurement and significant physical discomfort.

Epidermodysplasia verruciformis is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, meaning both parents must carry the defective gene to pass it on to their offspring. The disease typically manifests in childhood or early adulthood, with the warts growing progressively over time. These lesions can become so extensive that they resemble tree bark, hence the name tree man syndrome.

The growths associated with EV are not only cosmetically distressing but can also increase the risk of skin cancer. Treatment options are limited and primarily focus on surgical removal of the lesions, although the warts often regrow. Other treatments, such as retinoids and immunotherapy, are being explored but have shown varying degrees of success.

Living with tree man syndrome requires ongoing medical care and support. The condition’s rarity means that research is limited, but increased awareness can help drive funding and interest in finding more effective treatments.^[8]

2 Werewolf Syndrome (Hypertrichosis)

Werewolf syndrome, medically known as hypertrichosis, is a rare condition characterized by excessive hair growth all over the body, including areas where hair typically does not grow. This abnormal hairiness can give individuals a werewolf-like appearance, hence the name. Hypertrichosis can be congenital, present at birth, or acquired later in life due to certain medications or medical conditions.

The underlying cause of congenital hypertrichosis is often genetic mutations that lead to the overproduction of hair. In some cases, it is linked to other genetic disorders. Acquired hypertrichosis, on the other hand, can be triggered by drugs such as minoxidil, certain cancers, or metabolic disorders. The excessive hair growth can range from fine, lanugo-like hair to thick, dark hair resembling a pelt.

Managing hypertrichosis primarily involves cosmetic procedures such as shaving, waxing, or laser hair removal to reduce hair growth. However, these treatments are often temporary and must be repeated regularly. For many, the psychological impact of hypertrichosis is significant, leading to social anxiety and self-esteem issues. Despite its rarity, werewolf syndrome has captivated public imagination and media attention.^[9]

1 Exploding Head Syndrome

Exploding head syndrome (EHS) is a sleep disorder that causes sufferers to experience sudden, loud noises or explosive sensations in their heads just as they are falling asleep or waking up. These sounds, often described as a bomb exploding, a gunshot, or a loud clash of cymbals, are not real but rather a figment of the person’s mind. Although EHS is harmless, it can be extremely frightening and disruptive to sleep.

The exact cause of exploding head syndrome is not well understood, but it is thought to be related to minor seizures in the brain, sudden shifts in the middle ear components, or issues with the brain’s auditory processing during the transition between wakefulness and sleep. Stress, anxiety, and fatigue are known to exacerbate the condition.

Symptoms of EHS include the sensation of a loud noise or an explosive sound, sometimes accompanied by a flash of light or muscle jerks. The episodes are usually painless but can cause significant distress and anxiety, leading to difficulties in falling back asleep. Many people experience EHS only occasionally, but it can occur frequently for some.

Management of exploding head syndrome focuses on reducing stress and improving sleep hygiene. Techniques such as relaxation exercises, maintaining a regular sleep schedule, and avoiding caffeine and heavy meals before bed can help mitigate the episodes. While EHS is not dangerous, understanding and managing it can greatly improve the quality of life for those affected.^[10]

The human body is a weird and wonderful thing. But when it comes to the brain, it’s mostly just weird. Go flicking through medical journals and you’ll discover that our minds are capable of deceiving us in the strangest possible ways. Sometimes, these horrific conditions can occur without warning.

10 Living Out The Plot Of Big

Remember that Tom Hanks film Big? It’s about a boy who wishes that he was a grown-up. Thanks to some vaguely explained magic, his wish is granted. He goes to sleep one evening and wakes up the next day in an adult body. Hilarity ensues.

If you’ve ever stopped to think about the plot, you’ve probably realized that Big is kind of terrifying. Being magically granted a mature body while still having a child’s brain would be the stuff of nightmares. We know this for a fact because it really happened to Naomi Jacobs in 2008.

At the time, Jacobs was 32 and dealing with the fallout from a decade of homelessness, bankruptcy, and drug abuse. One morning, she woke up to find that the previous 17 years had been wiped from her memory.

The last thing that she could recall happened when she was 15. She was climbing into the bunk bed that she shared with her sister and trying not to worry about her upcoming French exam.

From Naomi’s point of view, she’d fallen asleep as a teenager and awakened as an adult. To make matters worse, her adult mind had no recollection of 21st-century technology or even her 10-year-old child.

Interestingly, there was no physical reason for Jacobs to lose her memory. She was suffering from dissociative amnesia, meaning that the mind-wipe was caused by psychological factors. It’s believed that she was so stressed out and traumatized by her past (including sexual abuse as a child) that her brain just flipped a switch and wiped it all out.

9 Seeing An Extra Dimension

Stereoblindness is a condition that affects 5–10 percent of the global population. It affects your ability to see in 3-D, so the world appears to be completely flat.

Since the ability to see things in three dimensions is learned during a narrow window of brain development when we’re young, stereoblindness is usually a lifelong condition—unless you have an experience like Bruce Bridgeman did in 2012.

Bridgeman, 67, had never seen the world in three dimensions. One day, he went out to see Hugo, the Martin Scorsese family film. Unable to find a 2-D showing, he was forced to cough up the extra bucks for some 3-D glasses that he knew he wouldn’t be able to use. Nonetheless, he put them on, went into the cinema, and sat down. When the film started, Bridgeman could suddenly see in 3-D.

Imagine finding that your human eyes had magically been upgraded to those of a hawk or maybe a superhuman who can see heat or radio waves. That’s basically what happened to Bridgeman. After nearly seven decades of being stuck in a two-dimensional world, he could see in 3-D.

The effect continued after he left the movie. In the blink of an eye, his stereoblindness had vanished. Doctors now think that his brain had developed the synaptic pathways for doing so when he was young. For some reason, they hadn’t activated until he got a big jolt of 3-D cinema.

8 Being Forced To Make Continual Wisecracks

The term “continual wisecracks” brings to mind an image like Groucho Marx firing off witticisms like a caffeinated Oscar Wilde. But imagine if that was something over which you had no control. Imagine that you could no more stop dropping one-liners than you could stop breathing.

For sufferers of Witzelsucht, that’s not just a strange thought experiment. It’s their daily reality.

Perhaps the earliest case was recorded way back in 1929. German neurologist Otfrid Foerster was removing a brain tumor when the patient suddenly came to manic life on the operating table and began cracking pun after awful pun.

Since then, others who have suffered damage to their frontal lobes have been reported to display the same symptoms. The BBC recently reported on a man known only as Derek who had suffered two strokes five years apart.

Not long after the second stroke, Derek began cracking terrible jokes. He never stopped. Not only that, he couldn’t stop. Even while sleeping, he would laugh himself awake recounting awful puns. Needless to say, it drove his wife nuts.

Interestingly, people suffering from Witzelsucht are often incapable of understanding other people’s jokes. Although they may still laugh at slapstick, wordplay that isn’t their own leaves them utterly cold. It’s believed that this may have something to do with the way that damaged brains release dopamine, responding only to internal thoughts.

7 Having Your Head ‘Explode’

Have you ever been on the verge of dropping off when you suddenly heard someone say your name? According to Mind, a mental health charity, this is a common condition that affects many of us at one time or another. For some people, though, the experience goes beyond merely hearing a voice. They can feel like their heads are literally exploding.

Known aptly as “exploding head syndrome,” the condition can affect almost anyone and occur at any time. Some may only feel it once in their lives. Others can have their heads suddenly start “exploding” night after night—like their brains are the climax of a Fourth of July fireworks show.

It’s undoubtedly unpleasant. Some sufferers have described it as seeing a bright flash of light and then feeling like they were at the epicenter of an explosion. Others have said that it was like having a grenade detonate on their pillows.

The phenomenon is surprisingly common for those who are suffering from insomnia, jet lag, or all-nighters. One study estimated that 22 percent of students suffer from this condition.

Strangely, we’re not entirely sure what causes it. The best explanation is that there is a “bump” between our waking and sleeping states that causes a lot of neurons in the brain to misfire at once.

6 Having Someone Else’s Limb Appear On Your Body

Imagine that you wake up one morning to discover that a crazed surgeon has crept into your room during the night and performed a horrific operation on you. Instead of your left arm, you now have the left arm of the old woman living across the hall. Worse yet, she’s still in control of it.

No, this isn’t a pitch for a new horror film. It’s a rare condition known as somatoparaphrenia. It can occur at any time, usually following an injury to the right side of the brain. Those suffering from it become convinced that one of their limbs is not their own. They persist in this belief even when confronted with direct evidence to counter it.

While some with this condition just consider the limbs to be alien implants, others believe that they belong to specific people. One patient—whose somatoparaphrenia was caused by schizophrenia rather than injury—thought that his right arm belonged to a woman he knew named Maria.

For some, the experience of having an alien limb is so horrible that they go to great lengths to have it amputated.

5 Meeting Your Own Double

The idea of the doppelganger is so prevalent in storytelling that it has shown up in everything from the works of Dostoyevsky to The Simpsons. Usually, the story features a moment when other characters can’t tell who the “real” person is. But if you meet your doppelganger in real life, it could be much worse than that. Even you may no longer be able to tell which is the real you.

About 20 years ago, neuropsychologist Peter Brugger reported meeting a 21-year-old from Zurich who had met his own double. He had recently stopped taking anticonvulsant medication and had spent the morning drinking heavily. At some point, he felt dizzy and stood up—and that’s when things went insane.

The young man turned around and saw his own double lying on the bed. He started shouting at his new twin, only to suddenly find himself lying on his bed and looking up at the shouting face of his doppelganger.

Unable to figure out if the “real” him was the one lying on the bed or the one shouting, he had a breakdown and jumped from a fourth-story window. Miraculously, he survived the fall.

Such moments are extremely rare but not unheard of. The man from Zurich had a tumor in his left temporal lobe. Other reports of doppelgangers have come from other people suffering similar damage to that region.

4 Losing The Ability To Remember Anything

Are you one of those people who hates going to the dentist? Well, we’ve got a whole new reason for you to avoid the experience. At 1:40 PM on March 14, 2005, a soldier known only as William walked into his dentist’s office for root canal surgery. He never came out.

We don’t mean that the dentist killed him. Something much stranger happened. At the exact moment that the dentist gave him a local anesthetic, William completely lost the ability to form new memories. His mental clock stopped dead, frozen forever in the middle of his appointment.

Creepily, there’s absolutely no reason why this might have happened. When William was rushed to the hospital, it was assumed that he’d had a severe reaction to the anesthetic. But that wasn’t the case. There was nothing physically wrong with him. It was like his brain had just stopped functioning properly.

Fast-forward to today, and William has a memory of 90 minutes. Beyond that point, everything vanishes. As far as he’s aware, it’s always midafternoon on March 14, 2005, and he’s just awakened after a dental operation.

3 Losing The Ability To Understand Mirrors

As shown in the video above, one of cinema’s greatest gags came in the 1933 Marx Brothers movie Duck Soup. After Harpo breaks Groucho’s mirror, Harpo must pretend to be his brother’s reflection so that Groucho won’t realize what’s happened.

This being the Marx Brothers, there’s a surreal moment when Harpo—still pretending to be Groucho’s reflection—hands his brother a hat and Groucho takes it without thinking. It’s a hilarious scene in a hilarious movie. It’s also a perfect demonstration of mirror agnosia.

Mirror agnosia can occur due to right parietal lesions but is more commonly associated with dementia. Sufferers lose the ability to understand mirrors or reflections.

There are cases where doctors tested this with an apple. The patient would sit in front of a mirror. Then the doctor would stand behind the patient and hold up an apple so that the patient could only see the apple’s reflection in the mirror.

When told to get the apple, the patient would try to reach through the mirror. Even after being told what a mirror was, the patient continued to believe that the apple was in front of them rather than behind.

Freakily, it doesn’t seem that mirror agnosia can be cured. For example, if you lose your ability to understand reflections tomorrow from a brain injury, you’re unlikely to ever get it back.

2 Having Your Heart Go Crazy

Right now, your body is doing too many vital things to count. You’re breathing, you’re blinking, your heart is beating, your stomach is breaking down food, and you’re not thinking about any of it. It’s second nature to you, complete background noise.

So imagine what might happen if one of those little things suddenly changed. Imagine that your heart started beating in the wrong place. You’d suddenly start noticing it, right?

For a handful of people, that has actually happened. In 2014, the BBC reported on a man known as Carlos whose heart started beating in his stomach. It wasn’t his real heart. The man was old and had just been fitted with a pump in his abdomen to keep his heart ticking. But to Carlos, the pump felt like his real heart. And that had all sorts of weird implications.

The simplest was that Carlos began to lose all sense of his chest. With his heart seemingly migrating south, he started to feel like his chest was bigger than he remembered it and was taking up valuable body room.

Crazily, it also affected his mind. With his new mechanical heart, Carlos suddenly lost his ability to feel empathy toward people in pain. Other social skills disappeared, too, including his ability to read other people’s motives. Simply by tricking his body into thinking its heart had moved, it seemed like his whole mind had gone haywire.

1 Losing The Ability To Sleep

Some people like to boast about how little sleep they need. Sufferers of fatal familial insomnia (FFI) almost certainly hate them. An ultrarare condition that occurs when a specific genetic mutation activates, FFI causes the patient to completely lose the ability to sleep. In most cases, it never comes back.

The effects are horrifying. As the sleepless nights mount up, the patients start to slip into a permanent half-dream state. Although they’re awake, they start to act out the crazy half-dreams that form in their subconscious rather than engage with the world around them.

Patients have been known to walk around in a daze as they mime putting on clothes or combing their hair. As they slip further into that deadly twilight world, their ability to speak fades, followed by their ability to walk. After many months have passed, they simply close their eyes and drift off into that permanent state of sleep—death.

The good news is that only about 40 families worldwide have the genetic defect that triggers FFI. The better news is that even those with the defect often live long, happy lives and never suffer insomnia.

The bad news for those affected is that FFI can occur at any time without warning. One night, they’ll go to bed, close their eyes, and find that they can’t sleep. Drugs won’t help, hypnosis won’t help, and seeing the doctor won’t help. They’ll simply spend the next few months in mental anguish before dying a horrible death.

Good luck not thinking about that the next time you suffer a bout of insomnia.