Unusual and Rare Medical Disorders

There are a lot of medical problems and conditions that even some doctors don’t know much about them or how to treat them. They are also trying to learn more about some that are rare and hard to diagnose. Here are some of the extremely rare and out of this world medical conditions that some people out there in the world have actually been diagnosed with.

Apotemnophilia is also known at the Body Integrity Identity Disorder or BIID. Some people even call it the Amputee Identity Disorder. This condition compels a person to cut off their perfectly fine limbs. This is a strange but true medical condition. It can start with people as young as 4 or 5 years old but usually doesn’t become a problem until they get into their teenage years.

The cause of Apotemnophila is unknown but there are theories on how people end up with this condition. The theory suggests that it appears in children that are unloved and mistreated by their parents. So by becoming an amputee they feel as if they will be loved and treated better. They also do it for a sense of relief and satisfaction by cutting off their own limbs. There are only an estimated 200 cases that are known in the world.

Alien Hand Syndrome is a very unusual neurological disorder. The person that has this disorder seems to have a hand that has a mind of its’ own. It sounds like it is something straight out of an episode of X-Files. This condition happens after someone has a major trauma to the brain or after they have a stroke.

The brain controls the functions of the limbs. So with this disorder, your brain is sending the messages to your hand but the hand does not understand the message. Your brain says shake that mans hand while the hand translates it as slap that guy in the face. The translation gets completely mixed up.

People who have this syndrome do things like take off their glasses and throw them on the ground or they will grab people by the arms that they do not know. They are unable to control what they do. It is said that 1 out of every 100 stroke victims are prone to get this condition.

Porphyria is a condition where it affects the nervous system. You will suffer from vomiting, abdominal pain, anxiety, depression, hallucinations and paranoia. Your urine will also start to look like red wine. Porphyria is a rare blood disorder. A blood chemical called porphyrin is increased when an enzyme deficiency occurs. This is what causes the urine to be a purplish red color.

During a Porphyria attack the person will usually experience vomiting, stomach cramps, and constipation. They may also experience numbness, weakness, sensory changes and some muscle pain. The pain they have in the abdominal area is said to be the most severe pain.

Porphyria occurs when a combination of genetic and environmental factors occur. For example like when one person has an adverse effect has an adverse drug reaction, or they may get exposed to toxic chemicals then Porphyria could occur. One out of every 50,000 only gets this condition. A more extreme version of this is called the “Vampire’s Disease.” With this level of the disease you are not even able to walk outside because your skin is very sensitive to light.

Capgras syndrome is a rare disorder and is also known as the Capgras delusion. This is where a person has a delusional belief that someone close to them, usually a spouse or another close family member to them, is an imposter. They believe that the person they love have been replaced by someone that looks exactly like that person did. They also have problems at times recognizing themselves in mirrors. It all kind of reminds me of the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Although the exact cause of this disorder is unknown, it is said to come from people that have had a major trauma to the brain or a traumatic experience. It is the most common in patients that have schizophrenia. Unfortunately right now there is no cure for this disorder. But it can be improved with help from medication and therapy.

Fatal Familial Insomnia is a very rare disease of the brain. It is a disease where you can’t sleep… for life! That would be crazy huh? As crazy as it sounds it is a true disease. It is an inherited disease. If one of the parents only has the gene, the child has a 50% chance of inheriting it and developing the disease.

Unfortunately as of now this disease is untreatable and eventually fatal. Sleeping pills have proven also to not even work. The age of the people who get this range anywhere from 30 to 50 years old. Usually anywhere between 7 to 36 months of this disease the person will pass away depending on how long each stage lasts for that particular person.

The disease has 4 different stages to it that take anywhere from 7 to 18 months to run its course. The four stages start off with insomnia. From that the person starts to have panic attacks and phobias. This stage is said to last from 4 to 6 months. They may be able to sleep a little here and there but not much at all. I can’t imagine not sleeping for a few days let alone a few months!

The second stage then kicks in and this lasts for at least 5 months. Along with the insomnia and panic attacks, now the person is also having hallucinations. Then they also start getting into not being able to sleep at all.

The third stage is complete insomnia. The person is no longer able to sleep even for a few minutes a day. They are still having all of their attacks and now they are also unable to eat very much. This leads into very rapid weight loss. Then it is followed by the fourth and final stage of dementia. This is the stage where the patients can no longer talk, and becomes a zombie. Over the next few weeks or months depending on how long they last, the person will eventually die. Their body will just shut down completely.

Even though this is a very rare disease, researchers are still trying to work on a cure. It is said that only one in 33 million people get this disease without having it run in your family. Then if it runs in your family you have a 50-50 chance of getting it.

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome or AIWS is a condition that causes a radical shift in the perceptions of a person. They see other people, animals and objects as substantially smaller than in reality and also distorted. It would be like looking in the mirror of a fun house at times. That is what you would see or a dog may look like the size of a hamster to a person with AIWS.

AIWS is usually caused by a person that has epilepsy or bad migraine headaches. It is a disturbance in the brain’s electrical charge. Less than 1% of epileptics and migraine sufferers will experience this syndrome. Even though most doctors have never even heard of this syndrome, it does exist. AIWS can be controlled with an anti epilepsy drug.

Not only are some of these syndromes and disorders hard to cure, but a lot of these people are being turned down by their heath insurance carriers. They are being denied because of low demand, unfamiliarity with standards of care for unusual diagnoses and the high cost of care for these people. It takes a lot of research, appointments and money to diagnose these patients correctly. So that is why they are being turned down by health care. Like I said before all of these syndromes and disorders are very rare but are real to some people throughout the world.