Alice in Wonderland syndrome
First classified in 1952, this neurological disorder, also known as Todd’s syndrome, distorts perception, causing objects to appear larger or smaller than they are, leading to disorientation. There’s no cure, but it’s often linked to migraines and may improve with migraine treatment. Famous cases include author Lewis Carroll, who may have based Alice’s adventures on his own experiences.
Stendhal syndrome
First classified in 1989, Stendhal syndrome causes overwhelming emotional reactions to art and artistic sculptures, leading to dizziness, hallucinations, and even fainting. There’s no specific cure, but removing the person from the art usually alleviates symptoms. It was named after the author Stendhal, who experienced it while visiting the Basilica of Santa Croce located in Florence in 1817.
Treeman syndrome
First recorded in the 17th century, epidermodysplasia verruciformis, or ‘treeman syndrome,’ results in extensive warts resembling tree bark convering the body. While there’s no cure, surgery and treatments can alleviate symptoms. A famous case was Dede Koswara from Indonesia, whose condition garnered international attention in 2007. Koswara received extensive treatment, but later died of complications in 2016.
Jumping Frenchmen of Maine syndrome
This rare disorder causes extreme startled reactions, leading to involuntary movements or shouting when surprised. The subject will also obey any command given to them in a sudden, authoritative tone. It was first documented in 1878 in Maine among French Canadian lumberjacks. The condition is not well understood, but treatment focuses on reducing the person’s anxiety.
Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome
Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, discovered in 1886 by Dr Jonathan Hutchinson and Dr Hastings Gilford, is an exceedingly rare genetic disorder. Afflicting children, it results in rapid and premature aging, causing them to develop physical traits of elderly individuals, such as severe wrinkling of the skin and cardiovascular issues. The condition is caused by a mutation in the LMNA gene and there is no cure.
Fish odor syndrome
Trimethylaminuria, also known as ‘fish odor syndrome,’ has caused significant social and psychological challenges for those afflicted. Notable cases include Cassie Graves, a UK singer who struggled with the disease beginning in 2014. Despite the condition’s lifelong nature, individuals like Graves have found relief through dietary changes, reducing their intake of choline-rich foods, and maintaining rigorous hygiene practices to minimize the fishy smell.
Aquagenic urticaria
Aquagenic urticaria, an exceptionally rare ailment, leaves those affected with agonizing discomfort from contact with liquid, including tears and sweat. Prominent cases include Alexandra Allen of Mapleton, Utah, whose life was significantly impacted as simple activities like showering or crying triggered excruciating hives. While there’s no cure, antihistamines can provide some relief by mitigating the body’s response to water-induced itching and swelling.
Walking corpse syndrome
Cotard’s syndrome, or walking corpse syndrome, is a psychological disorder wherein individuals genuinely believe they are deceased or have lost body parts. This condition, typically associated with severe depression and psychosis, requires a multifaceted treatment approach involving therapy and medication. A well-documented case involved a woman called Mademoiselle X in the 1800s, who was so convinced she didn’t need to eat that she ultimately starved.
Elephant Man syndrome
Proteus syndrome, first described in 1979 by Dr Michael Cohen Jr, is a rare and debilitating genetic disorder. It causes disproportionate and irregular growth of skin, bones, and soft tissues, resulting in severe deformities. This condition is famously associated with Joseph Merrick, known as the Elephant Man, whose life and experiences have been depicted in literature and film.
Paris syndrome
Starting in the 1980s, Paris syndrome has struck certain tourists with severe disillusionment when their idealized image of Paris doesn’t align with reality. Usually, symptoms mainly affect Japanese visitors who, overwhelmed by the disparity between their expectations and Parisian life, experienced acute anxiety and delusions. Thankfully, most affected individuals recover after returning home or receiving counseling.
Phenylketonuria
Phenylketonuria (or PKU) is a disease that can cause all manner of severe disabilities in children, including seizures, mental disorders and developmental delays. It’s a genetic disorder that can only be treated by completely avoiding consumption of phenylalanine – a chemical found in artificial sweeteners. By avoiding phenylalanine, infants with PKU can grow up completely healthy.
Auto-brewery syndrome
Auto-brewery syndrome occurs when the carbohydrates that you’ve eaten start to ferment within your stomach. It is caused by the presence of certain yeasts and bacteria in the gut, which convert food to ethanol that then enters your blood. This creates the feeling of drunkenness, and you may find yourself burping, slurring your speech and staggering around.
Acanthamoeba keratitis
The very rare condition of Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) occurs when the very common amoeba Acanthamoeba, found in soil and natural water sources, gets into the cornea of the human eye. For US cases, it is usually a result of wearing contact lenses that have been in contaminated lens solution. This disease can lead to blindness, and may require surgery.
Dioctophymiasis (giant kidney worm)
The giant kidney worm is a type of parasitic roundworm, and its fully-grown form is found in the kidneys of living mammals. It’s likelier to be found in the kidneys of a dog or mink, but there have been 37 known cases in humans, including 22 in China. The worm destroys the kidney in which it lives, but does not affect the other one, meaning that most humans tend to survive this infection.
Dracunculus
Dracunculiasis is the outcome of parasitic infection by the Guinea worm, which causes a very painful blister from which the adult worm eventually emerges. With no chemical treatment available, the only solution is to wrap the emerging worm around a small stick to pull it out over the course of several days. Fortunately, Dracunculiasis has almost been eradicated worldwide, with very occasional cases recorded in Chad, Ethiopia, Mali and South Sudan.
Lyme disease
The tiny bite of a tick might not look too bad, but in rare cases, the tick may be the vector for a dangerous bacteria called Borrelia, which causes Lyme disease. After you’re bitten, you develop a classic bulls-eye rash, followed by tiredness, feverishness and headaches. If your Lyme disease is left unidentified and untreated, it can cause facial paralysis and heart palpitations. This is why it’s wise to check your body for ticks after spending time outdoors in grassy and wooded areas.
Kuru
The name ‘kuru’ comes from the Fore word for ‘shake’, because this disease often causes body tremors, along with fits of laughter and loss of coordination. It first spread in the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea due to rituals that involved eating the brains of deceased family members, as part of funeral traditions. Kuru is fatal, and it is a form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, a group that includes Mad Cow Disease.
Sealpox
This strange skin disease spreads from animals to humans when a common or grey seal bites a human, though this route of transmission wasn’t proven until 2005. Causing small red pustules, this unpleasant condition occurs among seal handlers in rehabilitation centres, where around 2% of seals may have the disease.
SCID
SCID, or severe combined immunodeficiency, is a genetic disorder that leaves sufferers with a severely compromised immune system, making them very vulnerable to the mildest diseases. Even a common cold can be fatal in a person with SCID, a fact that persuaded Carol and David Vetter to raise their new-born baby, diagnosed with the condition, in a sterile environment. Their baby, also named David, became famous and was dubbed ‘The Bubble Boy’.
Polio
Records of Polio symptoms go back thousands of years, but we’ve only identified it as a single condition since the 1700s. Caused by the poliovirus, the disease causes no symptoms in 75% of cases, and for most of the remaining quarter, sufferers experience no more than a headache and stiff neck for a week or two. But in a minority of cases, it can cause permanent paralysis or death, making it one of the most-feared diseases of the 20th century before polio vaccines were introduced.
Naegleriasis
Also known as the brain-eating amoeba, Naegleria fowleri is a microscopic organism that is found in fresh water sources like lakes, rivers and hot springs. It enters the human body through the nose, and soon causes headaches, fever, vomiting, hallucinations and seizures. After five days of suffering, patients almost always die.
Lymphatic filariasis
A neglected tropical disease that affects millions of people, Lymphatic filariasis often causes no symptoms at all, but in some cases it leads to elephantiasis – extreme swelling of the limbs. As a result of pain and immobility, sufferers may be left unable to work, and the stigma of the disease means that many visibly affected people can be shunned by their communities.
Rabies
Rabies, typically caused by a bite from a dog or bat, is a terrifying disease that starts with a fever. It soon leads to vomiting, paralysis, and strangest of all, an extreme phobia of water. It is almost always fatal, with most sufferers dying within a few months of receiving the bite.
Trachoma
Trachoma is a bacterial infection that makes the eyelids rough, sometimes leading to inward-turned eyelids and permanent blindness. This contagious disease spreads fast in crowded environments with poor sanitation, and it can even be carried by flies that have landed on the eyes or nose of an infected person. The above photo shows physicians examining newcomers at Ellis Island to check if they have trachoma.
Anthrax
Anthrax is the name for an infection of Bacillus anthracis, a rod-shaped bacteria that is very hardy and can survive for many years in spore form. If inhaled, eaten or injected, it multiplies fast and causes a wide range of symptoms, usually fatal. The bacteria has been used in biological warfare, affecting the Japanese Kwantung Army in 1930s Manchuria and the Imperial Russian Army in 1916.
Hypochondriasis
Do you worry a lot about your health? Hypochondriasis is a disorder where the fear of disease is taken to extremes. Hypochondriacs are deeply concerned that they are ill, even when they have no physical sickness – and cannot be reassured by doctors or nurses. It is classified as a mental and behavioural disorder, and it may affect as many as 3% of people who visit a primary healthcare centre.
Toxoplasma gondii
Much though we love our pet cats, they can actually cause an unpleasant common infection. Toxoplasmosis spreads via cat faeces, and occasionally through infected meat. Its symptoms are flu-like, including a headache and sore throat as well as nausea. In rare cases, it can cause miscarriage in pregnant women. This disease is good reason to take all hygiene precautions when emptying litter trays, and while gardening in an area where a cat does its business.
Neurosyphilis
Al Capone, the notorious American gangster, was imprisoned in the 1930s where it was discovered that he had neurosyphilis. This disease occurs when the STD syphilis attacks the nervous system, causing psychosis, delirium, depression and dementia. In his final years, Capone was said to have the mental capacity of a 12-year-old.
Leprosy
The notorious infection leprosy is bacterial in nature, and though it causes horrendous damage to the skin, eyes and limbs, it also damages the body’s nerve endings – meaning that this disease can often be painless. Sometimes remaining symptomless for up to two decades, leprosy is contagious, which led many historic civilisations to exile leprosy sufferers to distant colonies or islands.
Exploding head syndrome
Another typically painless condition, Exploding Head Syndrome is characterised by the sensation of sudden auditory hallucination. It can be terrifying to experience these sudden violent noises, which typically occur while you are falling asleep or waking up, and may be accompanied by a sudden flash of light. The cause of this strange symptom hasn’t yet been discovered.
Congenital insensitivity to pain
This extremely rare disorder is the total absence of pain, which might sound at first like a positive thing. However, people with congenital insensitivity to pain are prone to serious accidents, since they cannot always tell that their body is in danger. Burns and broken bones are common in children with this condition, and other illnesses can also be fatal because their symptoms go unfelt.
Black Urine Disease
Black urine disease, or alkaptonuria, is a hereditary genetic disease that causes the body to accumulate homogentisic acid. This dark chemical affects the colour of the blood and urine of affected people. Most cases are found in the Dominican Republic and Slovakia, and one potential treatment for the disease is the drug nitisinone, usually used to treat metabolic issues.
Congenital terminal hypertrichosis
Congenital terminal hypertrichosis is characterised by heavy hair growth all over the body, including the face. It can either be congenital or acquired later in life. Many historic circus performers had this condition, often branding themselves as ‘wolf people’. One such performer, Julia Pastrana, went by ‘The Baboon Lady’.
Aquagenic urticaria
Aquagenic urticaria is an allergy to one of Earth’s most abundant substances: water. Whether it’s fresh water, salt water, sweat or tears, H2O makes the skin break out in angry hives. A total of 50 cases have been recorded in human history, making this an extremely rare condition.
Solar urticaria
Though anyone can experience adverse effects from too much time in the sun, such as sunburn and heatstroke, solar urticaria is a full-blown allergy to sunlight. UV is the main culprit in this allergic reaction, although visible light can occasionally be the allergen too. Desensitization treatments and anti-histamines are used to manage this rare condition.
Cold urticaria
Most frequently found in young adults, cold uticaria is an allergy to the cold, leading to painful and itchy welts all over the skin. Cold water can be especially dangerous to people with this condition, as they may experience a sudden plummet in blood pressure, or they may faint. Antihistamines can help to fight these symptoms, but the main solution is to avoid cold air and water.
Morgellons disease
This controversial disease has baffled medical professionals since it first arose in 2002. Sufferers experience painful sores on their skin, and often claim that the wounds are filled with a mysterious fibrous material. However, under clinical examination, the wounds instead appear to be the result of compulsive scratching, leading most doctors to describe this as a delusional disorder.
Methemoglobinemia
Methemoglobinemia is an excess of methemoglobin in the blood, which can lead to the unusual symptom of blue-tinged skin. It can occur as a result of diet or medication, but it is also sometimes inherited. One couple from Kentucky who married in the 1820 were both carriers of the recessive methemoglobinemia gene, and so four of their seven children had the condition and the famous blue skin.
Alien hand syndrome
The deeply unpleasant Alien Hand Syndrome causes limbs to act as if they have a life of their own, with hands often grabbing and manipulating objects against the person’s will. This condition is most common in people who have had a particular brain surgery called corpus callosotomy. However, alien hand syndrome has also been documented in people who have had a stroke, Alzheimer’s or an aneurysm.
Plummer–Vinson syndrome
Plummer-Vinson syndrome causes a range of unpleasant symptoms, including difficulty swallowing and ‘spoon nails’ which are very thin. It’s unclear exactly what causes this rare syndrome, but it’s thought to be a consequence of poor nutrition and it most often crops up in perimenopausal women.
