10 Weird Medical Conditions You Might Not Have Heard Of
Did you know that every 6 in 10 American adults has a chronic health condition? Most of them include cancer, diabetes, or mental health problems. However, some strange medical cases sometimes pop up, too.
There’s a good chance that you’ve never heard of most of them, either. While these weird medical conditions are bizarre, they’re also not too common. Some of them only affect one or two hundred people in the entire world!
In this article, you’ll learn about 10 of these oddities found in the medical field.
- Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (CIPA)
Pain is one of the most frustrating sensations you can feel. After all, who wants to get hurt? Surprisingly, though, some people can’t sense it all.
They struggle with a condition known as congenital insensitivity to pain (CIPA). It’s caused by a genetic mutation and prevents them from feeling pain and drastic temperature changes. Those born with CIPA often die at an early age due to injuries they never knew were there, or they overheat without realizing.
- Aquagenic Urticaria
There’s nothing better than jumping in the shower or pool on a hot day — unless you have aquagenic urticaria. People with this strange medical illness have an allergy to water! Getting exposed to or drinking water can lead to hives, burning skin, and difficulty breathing.
When a person struggles with this condition, even their own sweat and tears can trigger a reaction. Because it’s such one of the rarest medical illnesses, effective treatments haven’t been studied enough.
- Foreign Accent Syndrome
Have you ever wished that you could have a different accent than your native one? For people with foreign accent syndrome, this wish sometimes becomes a reality. It gets caused by damage to the brain, such as during a stroke or from trauma.
This condition is considered a speech impediment. After suffering brain damage, a patient with this syndrome could suddenly speak in a different accent that can become permanent. It’s worth noting, though, that the accent they develop is often poor and easy to differentiate from a native speaker.
- Pica
Of all the strange medical cases, this one is among the weirdest. It even beats out most stuff on JustWeirdStuff.com! Pica is a condition that causes people to have a strong urge to eat items that aren’t food.
Popular cravings include dirt, chalk, and paint. Pica often gets triggered by pregnancy or a mineral deficiency in your body. If a person eats too many non-food or dangerous items, the condition can be fatal.
- Werewolf Syndrome
Werewolves aren’t only found in horror movies. When a person struggles with hypertrichosis, they can turn into something like a real-life werewolf. Some people are born with it, while others get it as a side effect of drugs or cancer.
Also called Werewolf Syndrome, it’s a genetic disorder that causes excessive body hair. The growth can occur all over the body, too, only leaving spots like the palms or bottoms of the feet uncovered. Both males and females can get affected by it.
- Trichotillomania
Weird medical conditions can affect the mind instead of the body sometimes. One of the most well-known in the medical field is trichotillomania. It’s a disorder that gives a person the urge to pull out their own body hair.
This condition often accompanies obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). A person might pluck hair from their eyelashes, scalp, or beard. The urge is typically hard to resist, and all that hair-pulling can lead to bald spots in affected areas.
- Fatal Familial Insomnia
You may have heard of insomnia, and it could be a problem for you now and then. When it becomes fatal familial insomnia, though, it gets serious. This genetic condition is a brain disorder that is eventually fatal.
People struggling with it get so exhausted that their body and mental health start to deteriorate. As their brain cells start to die, those issues grow even worse. Unfortunately, there is no cure or treatment for it.
- Proteus Syndrome
One of the strangest conditions in the medical field is Proteus syndrome. It starts as a genetic mutation in the womb and gradually grows worse as a person gets older. It causes parts of the body — from bones to skin to organs — to develop at different and disproportionate rates.
There aren’t any visible signs of this syndrome at birth, but it begins to show by 6 to 18 months of age. It cannot be inherited and occurs randomly. It can cause intellectual disabilities, benign tumors, and seizures as well.
- Alice in Wonderland Syndrome
Have you ever seen the movie or read the book Alice in Wonderland? In this classic, the main character experiences odd hallucinations and sees items and people around her grow and shrink. As it turns out, her experiences are similar to a condition brought on by migraines!
Alice in Wonderland syndrome causes a distorted perception of objects around a person. It can last up to an hour at a time, during which a person sees things change in size or seem far away. Hallucinations can also occur, and their perception of time may get distorted.
- Progeria
Most people don’t experience hair loss or wrinkles until they become seniors. For patients with progeria, though, these effects happen at a much younger age. This genetic condition starts in infancy and follows a person for their whole life.
There are common characteristics that accompany it, such as a small pointed nose and a larger-than-average head. It can cause poor eyesight and stiff joints, too. People with progeria don’t often survive past young adulthood.
Now You Know Some Weird Medical Conditions
While there are a seemingly endless amount of health problems in the world, they don’t all compare to these weird medical conditions. Because they’re often so rare, not much research has been done on them. Hopefully, there will one day be a cure for these illnesses!
Are you looking for more interesting health and medical articles? Find plenty of them on our website.
