Have you ever heard of the strangest diseases that scientists cannot explain?
When it comes to the strangest diseases, there are a lot of them in the world when we look past the ones that we are used to hearing about. There are a lot of horrible diseases out there that have dire consequences for the poor people who come into contact with them, but for most of them, we do know what caused them or what made them come into existence, be it something that the individual or animal did to get the disease or the virus that caused it.
When it comes to some of the strange diseases in the world, there are not some that have such clear lines, and the way in which they manifest or how they have appeared is so strange that not even researchers and medical professionals are aware of how they happen and what causes them. Some of the strangest diseases in the world are so specific to a region and even to a city that no one knows what causes them, or they are so general and happen in such peculiar ways that people do not know what caused them!
If we have piqued your interest in finding out what some of the strange diseases in the world are that not even scientists can explain, make sure you keep on reading!
Have you heard of other strange diseases? Or have you seen any of them manifest yourself? Let us know in the comments!
Stiff person syndrome
It does sound like something that would not be so bad, but this strange disease is unfortunately one that is plaguing people, and researchers have no idea what causes it. The stiff person syndrome is well characterized by its name; however, it does not stop at simple stiffness.
People who suffer from this disease end up getting stiffer and stiffer muscles as the disease installs itself in their system. The problem with this syndrome is that this progression cannot be stopped, and the person affected will end up being paralyzed as the muscles will stiffen so much they will refuse to move anymore.
Scientists have been analyzing this disease for years, and the cause is still unknown. There have been all types of hypotheses thrown around, everything from mutated genes to simple diabetes as the cause of this strange disease!
Encephalitis lethargica
This strange disease first made its first victims back in the early 1900s, and it terrified the community and medical scene at the time. People who were affected by Encephalitis lethargica, as it got its name soon after it appeared, ended up having hallucinations before their bodies locked up, effectively paralyzing them for a while.
Despite the fact that they would appear to be sleeping, in reality, they were fully conscious and unable to move. A lot of the people who have reached the locked-up stage ended up losing their lives, with the few that did not end up having extreme behavioral problems for the rest of their lives as a result of this attack. Encephalitis lethargica has not appeared again since it first appeared in the 1900s, and doctors still do not know what has caused it to occur in these patients.
Some of the theories that have been circulating in medical circles include viruses and immune responses to brain destruction; however, nothing is conclusive, and we cannot research this strange disease now as it has not manifested ever since.
Twentieth-Century Disease
Yes, there is such a thing as a twentieth-century disease; however, this is just the common nickname for this strange disease. Known in the medical field as multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), this disease ends up on our list of the strangest diseases because people who suffer from it end up having various negative reactions to numerous modern chemicals and even to products that include synthetic fibers and plastics!
However, as we will see with other strange diseases, patients only react to these when they can see the chemicals. If they are undergoing a blind test, when they do not know they are exposed to these chemicals, they will not react! This strange phenomenon has yet to be explained by scientists!
Aquagenic urticaria
This is one of the strangest diseases in the world that many fear. Also, most as much as the sun allergy. This one, however, is the opposite of it. People who have Aquagenic Urticaria end up having an allergic reaction to water! Indeed, it is actually a water allergy, and it causes the poor people who suffer from this disease to end up having painful and itchy skin reactions every time they come into contact with water.
Obviously. Scientists do not know how this water allergy came to be, and it is pretty hard to treat considering water is all around us! The good thing is that this type of allergy is one of the rarest, with only 50 documented cases in less than a century!
If you do have allergies and are looking to learn more about them as a medical condition, make sure you check out this book which you can easily get on Amazon on the topic!
Nodding disease
We know this one sounds pretty funny, but believe us, it is a disease that first emerged in East Africa in 2010! This strange disease caused the people infected to continuously nod their heads with no end in sight. While it may not sound that bad, if you were compelled by something to keep nodding your head forever, it would be horrible!
People who have nodding disease end up not being able to eat, which leads to them being malnourished, and in young individuals, it actually stunts growth! While researchers have been investigating this disease, most doctors believe a parasite to be the cause, despite the lack of evidence for this hypothesis!
Creutzfeldt (Jakob disease)
Do you remember the craze a few years ago when we had an epidemic of mad cow disease? That disease wreaked havoc on cattle, and it was extremely dangerous and horrible as it caused the brains of the animals to liquefy inside their bodies and die. The bad news here? It is not observed only in cows!
Unfortunately, it can also end up going to humans, and it has the same effect, despite the change in name: people who contract this disease end up having their brains liquified or damaged to the point that most people infected do not last more than one year after contracting the disease. Unfortunately, there is no known treatment that can stop the progression of this strange disease.
Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity
Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity is one of those strange diseases that does not have any physical repercussions and is actually more of a mental health condition than anything else. However, people who suffer from this disease end up believing that they can feel electromagnetic fields, and as a result, they end up having all sorts of medical symptoms, ranging from a banal headache all the way to more severe ones.
Despite people saying these things are real, doctors have not been able to find a cause for them, and research has shown that people who supposedly have them cannot actually distinguish between real and fake electromagnetic areas and that this disease is more of a hoax than anything. People who participated in the research have also experienced the nocebo effect when undergoing tests (feeling worse than they would because they were expecting a negative reaction).
Why do people still believe this is a really strange disease? Generally, it is linked to conspiracy theories and a lot of misinformation.
One of the strangest diseases in the world would be the one that leads to zombies. And while you may believe that these are just things that happen in movies, we would advise you to think twice! Read about all the zombie cases that have already happened here!
