10 Rare Diseases That Turn People Into Superheroes

People tend to associate an illness with something unpleasant and often dangerous, and they have their reasons to think so. But there are some diseases which, unlike a common cold, look like superpowers. At least at first sight.

In this video, you will get acquainted with some of them. These rare diseases not only leave scientists confused but also make their carriers similar to superheroes!

Have you caught a cold? Oh, how unlucky! All these nasty symptoms again: a runny nose, non-stop coughing, and also, it hurts to eat! But you know what? Quit nagging! Your illness will pass in (about) a week. But imagine the life of those who suffer from chronic diseases!

SUMMARY
- This condition is called hyperthymesia - a disruption of memory which causes a person to remember all the events of their life down to every last detail. There are just about 60 people in the world who have been diagnosed with such a unique disease.
- In-born analgesia - that's a scientific name of the condition when a person doesn't feel pain. Like, at all. There is a surprising fact to think about: despite the rareness of this disease, as many as 40 cases of it have been registered in one of the villages in Sweden.
- Savant syndrome is a rare condition which might be typical for people with developmental disorders, such as autism or Asperger's syndrome. Patients with such condition are extremely talented in music, drawing and painting, calculations, cartography, and constructing 3D models.
- Besides people who don't react to pain, there are those who are indifferent to cold. A vivid example is Wim Hof - a man from the Netherlands who brought doctors to their wit's end. The thing is Wim is able to stand very low temperatures. He managed to spend 120 minutes in a pipe with freezing water and ice, has climbed to the top of Mont Blanc wearing shorts (and his pen), and even swims under the ice of frozen lakes and rivers.
- Urbach-Wiethe disease is a rare genetic disorder which leads to the complete lack of fear. Only 300 cases are known, and a quarter of them have been registered in South Africa.
- Hypohidrotic Ectodermal Dysplasia. People suffering from this condition frequently have eerily pointed teeth, therefore, looking similar to the legendary blood-feeding creatures from horror films. People with more prominent symptoms of this illness are extremely thin and pale; their eyes are outlined with dark circles.
- Polymelia is a strange disorder. People suffering from it are born with an unusual number of limbs. In some cases, these limbs are pretty useful, in others they are non-functioning.
- This syndrome is genetic, what is more, it progresses throughout life. People with such a disease have the soft tissues of their bodies turning into bone. The mutation of the ACVR1 gene responsible for the development of different tissues of the human body leads to terrible consequences.
- The hair growth of such people is abnormal. All their bodies are covered with thick hair, it grows, long and lush, even on their faces. The reason for this condition which has gained the nickname "werewolf syndrome" is most likely to be the genetic mutation.
- Foreign accent syndrome. The most common reason for this condition is a head injury or a stroke. The person with this condition changes the way they place their tongue during speaking. The most effective treatment, in this case, is the speech therapy.

Which disease have you found the most shocking? Have you ever met anybody with the conditions described in the video?