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45 Diseases We Didn’t Need to Know Existed

By:: Cracked Writers; Brian C. Miller

October 16, 2023

45 Diseases We Didn’t Need to Know Existed

Not all of the diseases listed below are obscure. For each one that we’d be shocked if you’ve ever heard of, there’s one that you might see drug advertisements for on primetime television. Still, we’re willing to bet there are wild facts about those diseases that you wouldn’t have guessed.

45 Frank's Sign

GRACKED.COM People with a diagonal earlobe crease -also known as Frank's sign-may be at higher risk for coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, and cerebrovascular disease. — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

44 Scurvy

Throughout history, the cure for scurvy (Vitamin C) was discovered, discredited, and discovered again. In the mid-19th century, citrus was found to be beneficial against scurvy, but when people began replacing the Mediterranean lemons with cheaper Indian limes (which contain less Vitamin C), the cure was discredited due to its ineffectiveness. It was later determined that the actual cure for scurvy is the Vitamin с contained within citrus fruits. GRACKED COM — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

43 Malaria

There is an upside to malaria. Scientists have discovered that people who were infected with the malaria virus were less likely to succumb to Ebola and other deadly diseases. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

42 Tuberculosis

GRAGKED.COM In the Victorian Era, people with tuberculosis were associated with feminine beauty. The disease made victims paler and skinnier, and gave them red cheeks and lips. — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

41 Syphillis

CRACKED.COM Throughout history, syphillis went by many names in different countries, and it was mostly named after those countries' enemies. For example, the French called it the 'Spanish disease', the Italians called it the 'French disease', and the Japanese called it the 'Chinese pox'. — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

40 Anemia

GRACKED.COM People suffering from iron-deficiency anemia may frequently experience fatigue and migraine. But this health condition also has its perks. Because of their bodies' lack of iron, it is harder for infections such as HIV, tuberculosis, and diarrhea to spread. — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

39 Rheumatoid Arthritis

Women with rheumatoid arthritis often find that their symptoms temporarily go away while they 're pregnant, and researchers still have no idea why. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

38 Measles

Measles can wipe out the immune system's information about past diseases making the infected more vulnerable to common viruses and bacteria. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

37 Leprosy

GRAGKED.COM You're unlikely to get Hansen's disease (more commonly known as leprosy), because 95% of people are naturally immune to it. However, according to the CDC, there is a small chance you could catch it from armadillos, who are known to carry it. — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

36 Gonorrhea

GRACKED COM 2nd-century Greek physician Galen invented the term gonorrhea, which means flow of seed, because he mistakenly thought that symptoms of penile discharge were unwanted excretions of semen. GALENVS — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

35 Parkinson's Disease

Most people with Parkinson's experience hypomimia, where CRACKED.COM the facial muscles stiffen, causing them to have trouble changing expression by smiling or raising their eyebrows. Along with the low voice caused by Parkinson's, one might think that they are always depressed, sad, or angry. — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

34 Legionnaire's Disease

GRACKED COM The Playboy Mansion hot tub was once responsible for a Legionnaire's disease outbreak affecting over 100 guests who attended a fundraising party at the mansion. — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

33 Anorexia

CRACKED.COM Anorexia Nervosa can actually make a person think slower. — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

32 Waterhouse-Friderichsen Syndrome

Waterhouse- Friderichsen Syndrome Neisseria Meningitidis floods your body with bacteria, causing every organ system to fail. Within a few hours, blood stops flowing to your Photo: Getty Creative limbs, turning them gangrenous. Dragging those dead limbs will definitely make you walk like a zombie. If the disease is comorbid with regular Meningitis, the bacteria will also fill your brain lining with pus, putting you in a hazy, You're going to need those zombielike state of braaaains. Meningitis confusion. permanently lowers your IQ. CRACKED.COM http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000609.htm — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

31 Werewolf Syndrome

Werewolf Syndrome In the past, people with Congenital Hypertrichosis Lanuginosa (CHL) were major sideshow attractions. Most famously, Fedor Jeftichew, aka Jojo the Dog-faced boy (pictured), was exhibited by PT Barnum in the U.S. in the 1800s. Today, people with CHL are being treated with laser hair removal. Photos: Wikimedia Commons Reuters before after CRACKED.COM http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1072987-overview http://widerimage.reuters.com/story/living-with-werewolf-syndrome — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

30 Elephantiasis

Elephantiasis Elephantiasis is a lymphatic obstruction that causes extreme swelling of skin and tissues, typically in the legs or testicles. Over 40 million people have been affected by the condition, which is usually caused by a mosquito-borne parasite. Photos: Getty Creative CDC It's actually preferable to have elephantiasis of the testicles rather than the limbs, because it can be fixed with surgery. GRAGKED.COM http://www.cde. gov/parasites/lymphaticfilarasis/ — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

29 Toothpick Fish

Toothpick Fish The Candiru is a tiny fish with a reputation for invading and parasitizing the human urethra. Reports of urethral, uh, invasion date back to the late 19th century, and the first documented case of a Candiru parasitizing a human was in 1997. In this instance, a Candiru swam into a man's urethra as he peed while thigh-deep in a river. It took a two-hour urological surgery to remove the little critter. Photo Getty Creative size: about 5 mm. Dr. D. Scott Smith, Chief of Infectious Diseases at Kaiser Permanente, described the Candiru as having spikes to help it — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

28 Jumping Frenchmen of Maine

Jumping Frenchmen of Maine In 1878, George Miller Beard noticed that a lot of the French Canadian lumberjacks in Maine were jumping and screaming at the slightest provocation. Не called them the Jumping Frenchmen of Maine. Sufferers aren't just easily spooked-they're incredibly prone to suggestion. They will enact any simple command, as long as you shout it at them suddenly, like throw that chair! It's apparently due to a heightened state of suggestibility and an overactive startle reflex. Researchers are still unsure as to the cause, although they theorize that it was some kind of inherited neurophysiological response. Photos: Getty — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

27 Allergic to Water

Water Allergy Despite the high water content in the human body, some people are allergic to water. Though it isn't a true allergy because it doesn't trigger a histamine response, there are some who develop itchy hives and welts even after mere minutes of water exposure. Photo Getty Creative CRACKED.COM http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3276800/ — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

26 Vampire Syndrome

Vampire Syndrome Approximately one in a million people have Xeroderma Pigmentosum, which makes them extremely sensitive to UV rays. These people must be completely shielded from sunlight, or they will experience extreme sunburns and their skin will break down. It takes about five minutes for them to get a sunburn, and they're ridiculously prone to skin cancer. Photo Getty Creative CRACKED.COM http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/xeroderma-pigmentosum — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

25 Wool Sorter's Disease

Wool Sorter's Disease People who work with sheep are vulnerable to a pulmonary form of anthrax that comes from inhaling spores found in wool. It starts out with flu-like symptoms, but within a day or two the lymph nodes start rotting and bleeding. Next comes meningitis, high fever, and severe abdominal pain, followed by a fatal respiratory collapse. Think about that the next time Photo: Getty Creative you're counting sheep. CRACKED.COM http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/wool-sorter'sdiseose — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

24 Tree Man Syndrome

Tree Man Syndrome What appears to be tree bark growing out of someone's skin may actually be Epidermodysplasia Verruciformis. Basically, they're a covering of brown, scaly warts that only get worse when exposed to sunlight. CRACKED.COM — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

23 Rose-Gardener's Disease

Rose-Gardener's Disease Roses are a source of Sporothrix Schenckii, a fungus that can kill you. If it enters through small cuts and abrasions, like the ones made by the rose's thorns, it Photo Getty Creative causes bumps and lesions-not just at the point of entry but along all the lymph nodes it crosses paths with. Left untreated, the lesions start to look like boils, and eventually become chronic, weeping ulcers. The spores can also be inhaled, which leads to symptoms like coughing, holes in the lungs and potentially tuberculosis. CRACKED.COM — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

22 Sweating Sickness

Sweating Sickness Sweating Sickness begins with a sense of apprehension, followed by violent cold shivers, headaches, severe neck, shoulder, and limb pain, and oddly, giddiness. After the cold stage, which can last anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours, comes the sweating stage, where the victim starts pouring out sweat. While the sweat stage isn't always immediately fatal, it typically leads to more sweating stages that will eventually kill you. It first appeared in 1485 in England, and killed thousands of people within a single year, and there have been six epidemics since. CRACKED.COM Photo Getty Creative http://www EBchecked/topic/576469/sweating-sickness — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

21 River Blindness

River Blindness Blindness is actually the less-diabolical result of Onchocerciasis. Onchocerca Volvulus (a blackfly found near rivers) injects you with microscopic larvae that reproduce and spread under your skin. When the worms die, your immune system goes haywire, producing an intense itching in every place they reached, which is everywhere-and you can't even scratch that itch, because it comes from under your skin. With treatment, this can last a few years; without it, you'll be scratching yourself everywhere and nowhere for the rest of your life. The disease itself is not lethal, Photos Getty Créative but the itching alone has — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

20 Stone Man Syndrome

Stone Man Syndrome Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP) is a disorder in which muscle tissue, tendons, and ligaments gradually turn to bone. It starts with the neck and shoulders and makes its way down the body and into the limbs. Once the mouth is affected, it becomes very difficult to speak and eat, and bones formed around the lungs make it hard to breathe. Photo: Getty Creative Surgery makes the condition worse, because trauma makes the body create more bone. CRACKED.COM http://ghr.rim.nih.gov/condition/fibrodysplasia-ossificans-progressiva — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

19 Sleeping Sickness

Sleepy Sickness An epidemic of Encephalitis Lethargica swept the world in 1915. The disease attacks the brain, leaving some victims in a perpetual state of sleep paralysis-unable to move, yet aware of his or her surroundings. Other symptoms include high fever, sore throat, headache, lethargy, double vision, muscular pains, tremors, neck rigidity, delayed physical and mental response, coma, and behavioral changes including psychosis. Photos: Getty Creative http://theconversation.com/a-viral-infection- GRAGKED.COM of-the-mind-the-curious-case-of-encephalitis-lethargica-660 — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

18 Guinea Worm Disease

Guinea Worm Disease Guinea Worms are parasitic roundworms that are spread through dirty water. People Photo Getty Creative drink water containing fleas, which die in the stomach and release larvae. Those larvae penetrate the stomach and intestinal wall and settle into body tissues to mature into adult worms. The worms can grow to a meter long before they migrate through the tissues to the surface of the skin. There is no available treatment or vaccine. Instead, the worm is removed slowly by winding it around a small stick after it emerges, which may take weeks. GRACKED.COM http://www.odc.gov/parasites/guineaworm — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

17 Cholera

Cholera can make you produce up to 5 gallons of diarrhea per day. 5 gallons would fill this bucket to the brim. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

16 Herpes

Herpes may be unpleasant, but it allows you to emerge from bubonic plague unscathed. The virus helps your body fight off Yersinia Pestis, the bacterium that cause bubonic plague. GRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

15 Huntington's Disease

Huntington's is a horrible hereditary disease that has no cure. It causes the progressive degradation of nerve cells in the brain, which deteriorates the physical and mental state of the patient until he eventually dies from complications. But not everything is bad news. Scientists have discovered that the defect that causes this disease is also highly toxic to tumor cells, which provides a new advantage to develop cancer treatments. This molecule is a super assassin against all tumor cells Marcus Peter, PhD. FIGHT CANCER CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

14 Breast Cancer

GRACKED.COM The left breast is 5% more likely to get cancer than the right. This is possibly because the left breast tends to be larger, and therefore has more tissue. — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

13 Porphyria

Porphyria Apprex.at 09 2200 001 2100 coz 2000 000 1900 007 1000 oos 1700 000 1600 700 1500 000 1400 006 1300 0001 1200 00% God noc 2019 عمد 200 It's speculated that porphyria is at least partially responsible for the vampire legend. Sufferers' gums recede to give the appearance of fangs, their skin bubbles and blisters when exposed to sunlight, and they can only be treated with injections of blood. In a bizarre twist, sufferers of this particular disease tend to poop purple. Episodes of acute porphyria can cause vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, seizures, fever, and Photos: Getty Creative hallucinations. — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

12 Horn Player's Palsy

Horn Player's Palsy Playing the horn can result in weakening and contraction of the facial muscles. Then the nerves become inflamed, leading to facial paralysis and drooping. The root cause is thought to be misfiring of neurons in the brain. In other words, playing brass instruments can cause brain damage. Photos Getty Creative GRAGKED.COM http:/trumpetdoctors.com/detail/bromocriptine-for-horn-players-palsy/ — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

11 Butcher's Warts

Butcher's Warts Butchers are subject to their own special malady, which are a variation of the Human Papillomavirus. Modern medicine is still not sure why, but something about constantly fondling raw meat makes human skin a haven for the viruses that cause warts. Not just common warts either, but bulging, cauliflower-like lesions. Photo Getty Creative CRACKED.COM men-meat-handlers-infected-with-human-papillomavirus-7/ — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

10 Mucocutaneous Leishmaniasis

Mucocutaneous Leishmaniasis Mucocutaneous Leishmaniasis makes your face cave in. It's spread when a sand fly bites you, then poops in the wound. The resulting parasite attacks mucus cavities, like your mouth and your nose. First it causes painful ulcers in the infected places. Then it causes your nose to MISS 220 DONTE WITH collapse into your mouth, deflating your face. GRACKED.COM Photo Getty Creative http:/web.stanford.edu/class/humbio103/ParaSites2006/Leishmaniasis/Mucocutaneous.htm — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

9 Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease impacts memory faster than emotions. A study has shown that people who suffer from Alzheimer's continue feeling sad or happy even after they have forgotten what caused the emotion. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

8 Heart Disease

CRACKED.COM It's mostly people in Western countries who get heart disease, right? Nope. About 60% of all people diagnosed with heart disease live in India, which has less than 20% of the world's population. The thinking is that this could be because of an Indian genetic vulnerability to heart disease, combined with India's rising junk food consumption and stress levels. — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

7 The Spanish Flu

THE SPANISH FLU WASN'T SPANISH. During World War I, not one country in the Allied or Central Powers affected by the pandemic wanted to admit they were losing soldiers to it. Spain, being neutral, was the first country to report the disease, causing people to assume it was the source. CRACKED COM — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

6 The Bubonic Plague

The Bubonic Plague was once used by Mongols as a biological weapon against the Italians. اولك فادس وكان ديمع ف ناصر الدين والتوناش أخليب وابو عبداء الطاى نعيم الحرب المردة وشرعول وقا منمف While besieging the fortress of Caffa, many of the Mongol soldiers became infected, and some had already died. So they gathered up all the plague-infected cadavers and catapulted them over the walls. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

5 Multiple Sclerosis

CRACKED.COM Multiple sclerosis changes your breath. Exhaled breath contains a mix of volatile organic compounds, and an MS patient's mix is very different from a healthy person's. This makes it possible to diagnose MS with, basically, a high-tech breathalyzer. — Source: 22 Diseases That Are Way Weirder Than You Realize

4 Dancing Plague

Dancing Plague In 1518, in Strasbourg, France, Frau Troffea started dancing in the street. After six days, others began to join in; after a week there were 34. By the end of the month there were 400, though at that Photo Getty Creative point most of the people started dropping dead of exhaustion, starvation and strokes. From dancing. CRACKED.COM — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

3 Cotard's Delusion

Cotard's Delusion Cotard's Delusion is a rare mental disorder in which a person sincerely believes he or she is missing body parts-such as the brain-or is actually dead. Sufferers tend not to eat or bathe, and they often Photo: Getty Creative spend time in cemeteries, wishing to be among their own kind. CRACKED.COM http://www.neurology.org/content/58/9/1400 — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

2 Alien Hand Syndrome

Alien Hand Syndrome People with Alien Hand Syndrome have a rogue hand that acts involuntarily, grasping objects or moving in a way contrary to what the individual wishes to do. It's a rare neurological disorder, and the victim will be completely unaware of what the alien hand is doing. Extreme cases have involved involuntarily stuffing food in Photo: Getty Creative the mouth, preventing the normal hand from completing simple tasks, and self-inflicted punching or choking. CRACKED.COM http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/alien-hand.htm — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

1 Bagpiper's Fungus

Bagpiper's Fungus People who play bagpipes are prone to fungal lung infections and distended stomachs. Bagpipe skins are traditionally cured with glycerine and honey products, which act as a breeding ground for spores and fungi that infect the lungs, causing infections and pneumonia. They are also likely to develop funny-shaped distended stomachs filled with the air from playing the instrument. CRACKED.COM http://news.bbc.co.uk2miuk news/scotland/900016.stm — Source: 23 Horrifying Diseases You Won't Believe Existed

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