5 diseases you have never heard of
Funny Doctors
Rare diseases are defined as a disease that is not common. Depending on the prevalence of the disease in the public, a rare disease can be of any type, as long as it fits in the criteria set by the corresponding heath officials. These diseases are mostly genetic and, therefore, chronic.
Rare diseases are often a problem, with a lack of information, treatment, and resources due to their extremely low prevalence. Still, due to the thousands of different types of rare diseases, a relatively large percentage of the population suffer from a rare disease; since many rare diseases do not display symptoms until adulthood, many people do not even know that are infected.
While there are many diseases that grab media and public attention, rare diseases are hardly spoken of. Narcolepsy may be the exception, often displayed in movies as a joke (but really, who doesn’t think falling asleep in a piece of pie is funny?). There is a substantial amount of diseases that people just have not heard of.
The rest of this article will list 5 rare diseases that are both interesting and not very well known.
1. Alice in Wonderland syndrome
Named after Lewis Carroll’s legendary children’s story, Alice in Wonderland syndrome is defined by the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine as a disorder that causes individuals to perceive objects as being much smaller than they actually are. The condition is also known as micropsia, and can also affect the individual’s senses. The disease is often associated with migraine headaches, a condition that Lewis Carroll was known to suffer from. It is speculated that he may have suffered from the syndrome that was eventually named after a book that he wrote, something that most people can not claim.
2. Laughing Death
Also known as Kuru, Laughing Death was a disease that affect only the tribal Fore people of New Guinea. The disease was found to cause holes in the brain, similar to that caused by Mad-cow disease. It was characterized by sudden bursts of laughter, followed by shaking limbs, the inability to stand, the crossing of the eyes, a lack of coherency in speech, and eventual death. Cannibalism was found to be the cause of the disease, and once eliminated, the disease disappeared.
3. Foreign Accent Syndrome
Only 60 cases of foreign accent syndrome have ever been recorded. The disease causes the individual to speak in an unrecognizable dialect, caused by brain abnormalities leading to changes in the way one speaks. The new accent is not always a distinct foreign accent, but often times strongly resembles other world accents.
4. Pica Syndrome
Named after the magpie, sufferers of pica syndrome will eat almost anything. Most prevalent in pregnant women and children, sufferers of pica have the desire to eat substances such as paint, clay, or dirt. If the desire last for over a month, an individual is then diagnosed with pica. The cause of the disease is not yet found, however, as there are very few cases of it to study to begin with.
5. Moebius Syndrome
Moebius syndrome is characterized by complete facial paralysis. In this extremely rare disease, individuals are unable to move their eyes or form facial expressions. Apart from facial paralysis, Moebius syndrome has no other debilitating symptoms, leading sufferers to live long and healthy lives.