Good morning, John.
Good news for self-employed people
with chronic pre-existing conditions, like myself.
Soon, insurance companies will not be able to be biased against you
for having even the bizzarest of pre-existing conditions.
Today I wanted to bring you
the top 10 weirdest diseases that I could find on the Internet!
In no particular order, the first bizarre disease
that I want to talk about today is
complications due to lightning strike.
Those who have been stuck often have problems with their memory,
with their equilibrium,
with motor control,
and, oddly enough, are much, much, more likely to commit suicide than the average person.
However, this is, by far, the most peculiar bit.
One of the complications of being struck by lightning
is that you are much more likely to be struck by lightning...
AGAIN.
So yeah, if, for example, the place
that lightning does not strike twice is Roy Sullivan,
that is inaccurate, because Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning 7 times.
Bizarre disease number two is PICA.
A disease common in children, but also, oddly enough, common in pregnant women,
in which people want to eat things
that are not food.
You got nails, dirt, coal, sand,
pounds and pounds of human hair stolen from beauty salons...
Bizarre disease number three: Nintendonitis.
Nintendonitis is exactly what it sounds like --
it's any repetitive stress injury caused by video gaming.
Relatedly, jogger's nipple --
it's a common disease in joggers, in which their tight shirts rub against their nipples
and then they create "nipple fishers".
Aaghhh!
Jogger's nipple!
Just one more reason why I love to sit.
Bizarre disease number four: odd skin coloration.
Some people are black, some people are white, some people are all the way in between,
but some people are blue, or red!
For example, if there's a lot of silver in your diet, say that you live in a place where there's tons of
silver in the water, or you have silver-related pica, your skin will turn blue!
Disease number five, toxoplasma is a parasite that lives in cat poop.
The really strange thing is, here, that women with toxoplasmosis
are statistically happier than women who do not have it,
while men have more negative side effects to toxoplasmosis.
And thus, it has been posited that toxoplasmosis is the reason why
there are so many crazy, old cat ladies, and not so many crazy, old cat men.
Next bizarre disease: insensitivity to pain might sound like a pretty good thing.
You're certainly not going to lose any fist fights.
But people who suffer from "congenital analgesia" generally have very short life spans,
because they don't know when they're being injured or when they're uncomfortable.
Children with this disease sometimes bite through their lips or tongue,
and often cause severe damage to their eyes without even knowing it.
Nutmeg psychosis is psychosis caused by nutmeg.
Nutmeg, taken in significant enough quantities,
can cause paranoia, hallucinations, feelings of impending doom!
Now, we've all got body odor, there's no need to deny it and tell me that your armpits smell like flowers,
but you probably don't have body odor like the people who suffer from trimethylaminuria.
Some people don't have the enzyme needed to break down trimethylamine.
And so, trimethylamine builds up in their bodies and you can smell it in their breath and their sweat and their pee.
Unfortunately for them, trimethylamine smells kind of like rotting fish,
so that's what they smell like. Which is pretty horrible.
And finally, number ten, we have possibly the coolest name in all of medical disorder history, Ondine's curse.
Ondine's curse, aside from being a really horrible curse, is fascinating!
Becuase people who suffer from it literally die if they fall asleep!
You're either born with it, or it sets in after a serious trauma,
and it's more officially called "primary alveolar hypoventilation".
But the name of the disease comes from the myth of Ondine, who, in Greek mythology, is
a man who cheated on a water nymph, which, let me tell you, is something you never want to do.
The water nymph was so enraged that she cursed him to forget to breathe if he ever fell asleep.
John, the theme for this week is top ten lists, that was mine. I wanna hear if you guys have any bizarre diseases in the comments.
Tell me about the diseases that you have, and tell me how you're feeling about the new healthcare legislation.
I'm looking forward to seeing all of you in the comments.
John, I will see you on Wednesday. Don't forget to be awesome.