Top 10 Weird and Rare Syndromes


Think you got it bad with all your health problems? There is always someone somewhere in the world that has it worse. You could have some rare illness that makes you howl at the moon or chase people around, begging them for cow manure to eat. It does happen. To make you feel better about all your aches and pains, check out what some people have to deal with in their lives.

10. Progeria Syndrome


In a society focused on retaining their youth by plastic surgery and anti-aging creams, you wouldn’t want to wish this on them. An extremely rare genetic affliction, progeria is a condition of premature aging. Occurring in about one in eight million, most do not live beyond the age of thirteen. Some of the signs and symptoms are small fragile bodies, wrinkled skin, and heart disease. If you have ever heard a teenager moan and groan about how they wish they were older, you might want to share this with them.


9. Werewolf Syndrome – hypertrichosis


No, this isn’t like Jacob on Twilight. At least he can control his transformation. Part of many circus sideshows, the wolfman has an overabundance of hair. Hair growth is accelerated all over the body in most cases. In others, it only shows up in certain areas. Julia Pastrana spent her life as the bearded lady in the circus. Her condition was so severe that she even grew hair on the palms of her hands. One family in Burma had this disease for four generations. On the bright side, you will be one of the best hair donators for wigmakers.


8. Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome



In 2009, an experimental screenplay was created by a local artist, a Professor of Theatre, and a group of undergrad students from Allegheny College called “Chewing your Fingers to the Bone”. It involved several storylines related to this illness. A primetime show, Nip Tuck, also had an episode where a patient needed plastic surgery after chewing off his own lips.


7. Cotard’s Syndrome


Coming in at number 7, you might not want to watch too many undead movies after this one. Cotard’s syndrome is the delusional belief that you are truly dead, no longer exist, are rotting away, and have lost all your internal organs. It can even include the idea that you are immortal, although cases like this are rare.

This syndrome is named after Jules Cotard. Jules describes a patient during a lecture who denied the existence of God, the Devil, several parts of her body, and even her need to eat. This patient later believed she was eternally damned (since she didn’t believe in the Devil, go figure) and could no longer die a natural death. What did she really die of? Starvation, naturally.


6. Foreign Accent Syndrome

