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Super Hearing, But Only For Yourself
Stephen Mabbutt is one of very few people to suffer from the hilarious last name "Mabbutt." Oh, and he suffers from superior canal dehiscence syndrome, which might be even worse. This incredible power manifested when Stephen was in his 50s. At first it was nothing but a dull pain in the side of his head, then slowly, his hearing started to fade ... until it came back with a vengeance. We don't mean to imply he could hear quiet sounds over vast distances. That might actually be useful. He could only hear himself -- just super, super loud.
The worst part about this syndrome, aside from everything, is being able to hear "all the interior sounds of the body very loudly," according to expert Dr. Martin Burton. At its worst, Mabbutt could hear the sounds of his own eyeballs moving around in his head, which is something that only happens to the rest of us when we are extremely high.
ilbusca/iStockAwesome if you want to know what your gallbladder is up to 24 hours a day, less great if you ever need a moment of quiet.
After depleting a small warehouse's worth of antibiotics and nasal sprays, Mabbutt finally found Dr. Burton, who recognized the affliction and cured his inner microphone with a surgery to seal off the defective bone. Now Stephen lives a boring life like anybody else, and the only time he can hear his spleen screaming is on Arby's Night, as God intended.
4
The Genetic Disorder That Erases Fingerprints
Adermatoglyphia is a rare condition that causes the ridges on your finger pads to be completely flat and free of identifiable patterns. It's genetic, and researchers have only discovered four families with it worldwide. Fortunately, having fingers as smooth as a Ken doll's party bits is the only downside of the disorder.
Well, that and you're not allowed to enter the United States.
The first known case of adermatoglyphia was a Swiss woman who tried to enter the U.S., but wasn't allowed because she couldn't be fingerprinted. Rather than turn into the supervillain she was clearly meant to be, she alerted medical professionals, who discovered that eight of her other family members were also suffering from the disorder. Because of the nature of its discovery, the application has been nicknamed the "immigration delay disease," and not the far more logical "Slippy McSmoothfingers."
3
Some People Lose The Need To Sleep
In 2016, French sleep experts stumbled onto something extraordinary: a 27-year-old man who claimed to be suffering from complete insomnia ... for the past nine months. He reported that he not only never slept, but also never felt tired. Nor did he experience the memory loss, mood disturbances, and anxiety that usually accompany sleep deprivation. This clearly wasn't regular insomnia, but a human being who no longer required sleep.
WikipediaIt sounds like a dream come true, except with one little caveat ...
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