Weird ways of treating the dead

Every moment is precious when death is near and it is difficult and painful to see our near or dear one facing death.
Death is truth of life. Every culture has its own ways to treat the dead body. Most common are burial and cremation. But there are different cultures where dead are dealt in weird ways!
I came across this weird ways by random surfing and it inspired me to write a blog and share this information with you all....
So get ready and prepare yourself to experience something shocking!!!!!

• Space Burial.  

 Who doesn't want to go to space? Here is a chance, if not while you are alive, then you can go space after death...... Surprised! 

In the late years of the 20th Century, it became the vogue to be “buried in space,” that is, to have a small part of the cremated remains placed into a capsule (about the size of a tube of lipstick) and launched into space using a rocket. Since 2004, there have been about 150 space burials.

This is very expensive and not commonly chosen and only one company currently specializes in this service. In most cases, the remains are fired into Earth orbit, though some have been launched into other trajectories, including to the moon, Pluto, and deep space. Famous people who have been “buried” in space include James Doohan (“Scotty” of Star Trek fame), Gene Roddenberry (creator of the aforementioned Star Trek), Timothy Leary (American writer, psychologist, and drug campaigner), Clyde Tombaugh (American astronomer and discoverer of Pluto), Dr. Eugene Shoemaker (Astronomer and co-discoverer of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9), and Leroy Gordon “Gordo” Cooper, Jr. (American astronaut and one of the original Mercury Seven pilots).

•  Exposure.  

 This is not practiced in western world but was practiced when a person died in an isolated area and was noticed after few days. However, there are rituals where this is practiced on regular basis.

Tibetan sky burial (known as a jahtor ) is the ritual dissection of the body, which is then laid out for the animals or the elements to dispose of. Tibet is a mountainous land where the soil is too rocky to dig graves and there is a scarcity of fuel for cremation, so sky burial arose as a logical alternative.

After being sent on their way with ceremony, the remains of the deceased are toted up to a designated location, where the body is laid out (typically naked). Then the rogyapas strip the flesh from bones, limbs are hacked away and the whole is ground up and sometimes mixed with tsampa (a mixture of barley flour, tea, and yak butter or milk) and offered to the vultures (which have learned to keep watch on the traditional burial site). The rogyapas do not go about their task with somber ritual, but rather they laugh, joke and chat as in any other manual labor.

Mass burial

• Mass burial.   

Mass grave was once more common than today. When there is an epidemic outbreak or during wars its difficult to identify the body, mass burial is preferred. Locations known to harbor mass graves include The Killing Fields of Cambodia, the Soviet Union, Chechnya, Iraq and even the United States Hart Island is a potter’s field, a place intended for the burial of unknown or indigent people, for the city of New York. It is the largest tax-funded cemetery in the world and currently houses over 850,000 “residents,” dating as far back as the Civil War, and is still used even today.

•  Plastination.

As perhaps the ultimate bid for immortality, plastination is a technique used in anatomy to preserve bodies or body parts. The water and fat are replaced by certain plastics, yielding specimens that can be touched, do not smell or decay and even retain most properties of the original sample. The resultant plastinates can be manipulated and positioned as desired.

• Cryonics

Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals who can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future. Because, in the United States, cryonics can only be legally performed on humans after they have been pronounced legally dead, procedures ideally begin within minutes of cardiac arrest and use cryoprotectants to prevent ice formation during cryopreservation. However, the idea of cryonics also includes the preservation of people after longer post-mortem delays because of the possibility that brain structures encoding memory and personality may still persist or be inferable. Whether sufficient brain information still exists for cryonics to work under some preservation conditions may be intrinsically unprovable by present knowledge. Most proponents of cryonics, therefore, see it as a speculative intervention with prospects for success that vary widely depending on circumstances.

• Mummyfication 

The Egyptians are perhaps the best-known adherents of this process (although they are far from the only ones), in which a corpse has its skin and organs preserved, by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity or lack of air. The oldest mummy found to date was a decapitated head that dates back to 6000 BC. The earliest Egyptian mummy dates back to about 3300 BC. The process is wel known to science.

The internal organs are removed and dried out using natron, and are then placed either in canopic jars, or else made into four packages to be reinserted into the body cavity. The brain is scrambled by means of a hook run up through the nasal cavity, then pulled out through the nose and discarded. The heart was considered to be the organ associated with intelligence and life force. The body cavity would then be washed out with spiced palm wine and filled with dry natron gum resin and vegetable matter. It was then placed in a bath of natron and left for as long as 70 days. This would dehydrate the body and better preserve the skin. The body cavity was then excavated and refilled with permanent stuffing, and, often, the viscera packages. The abdominal incision was closed, the nostrils plugged with wax, and the body anointed with oils and gum resins. The remains would then be wrapped in layers of linen bandages, between which amulets were inserted to guard the deceased from danger and evil.

• Aquamation 

Aquamation is the most environment-friendly way of disposal of human bodies. The process involves the rapid disintegration of the human body into high quality fertilizers. In comparison with cremation, about 10% of the energy is used, and all of the associated pollution is avoided.With Aquamation, an individual body is gently placed in a clean, stainless steel vessel. A combination of water flow, temperature (~90C) and alkalinity are used to accelerate the natural course of tissue hydrolysis. Typically the process takes about four hours to complete.

There are other methods like cannibalism (which exists only in our history, is humans eating humans), burial at sea,cremation, ground burial etc.

Now even after-death experience is cool...! So which method do you prefer for the disposal of your dead body?

Want to be an amputee?

Have you ever heard of a person having a burning desire to be an amputee???
Yes, You heard it right be an amputee!!!

What inspired me to write about BIID is a program in NGC- Taboo. A person from Sydney,Australia was suffering from BIID and went to extreme levels to amputate his left leg below his knees.

When there is a mismatch between the mental body image and physical body of a person, this makes the person feel that their hand/leg should not be the part of their body, it is alien and thus has a burning desire to amputate it. This neurological disorder is called Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID).

 In a layman's language its, "When a person's idea of how they should look does not match their actual physical form, it can be caused by Body Integrity Identity Disorder". Strange!

This condition effects very small percentage of population and its cause is unknown it is rare, infrequently studied and highly secretive condition. The person suffering from BIID feels isolated, cannot express his feelings to anyone not even to their close or loved ones as people think they are crazy. This creates a feeling of loneliness and less social life. They generally are ashamed of their thoughts and try to hide them from others, including therapists and health care professionals.The urge can be so severe that they they may try to injure themselves that may require an amputation of that limb.

The very thought of amputation makes a normal person scare, doesn't it? But for BIID person its a pleasure of being complete.

People often confuse BIID with a similar mental illness called Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) in which sufferers become fixated on a perceived flaw in their appearance or some slight physical abnormality. In BIID there is no flaw with the limbs, its a desire to amputate their healthy, functional limb. 

Many psychologists and neurologists have ventured theories into what causes this type of thought.The most accepted theory states that it is a neuro-psychological condition on the right side of the brain and could be related to somatoparaphrenia. The common leading idea is that Body Integrity Identity Disorder, or BIID, occurs when the brain is not able to provide an accurate plan of the body.

The only treatment so far known is a surgery.

In 2000, Dr. Robert C. Smith, a surgeon from Scotland, made headlines when he amputated the healthy legs of two patients with BIID He said he was following the Hippocratic Oath by preventing his patients from resorting to more life-threatening options — but the medical community did not agree. Since then, it’s been virtually impossible for a person to find a surgeon willing to do the elective surgery, and many people with BIID have resorted to drastic and dangerous measures to induce amputation.

There are many such mental disorders which are rare, infrequently studied. The more science advances, the more nature creates challenges for it to solve.

To know more about  BIID log on to www.biid.org  and to know the story of John, BIID patient, log on to http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,520811,00.html

A Living Balloon that kills!

Guys, here is a fascinating marine   - The PUFFER FISH.

Puffer fish is also known as puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, bubblefish, globefish, swellfish, toadfish, toadies, honey toads. Puffer fish are generally believed to be the second–most poisonous vertebrates in the world, after the golden poison frog.  It belongs to the family of Tetraodontidae,  
which mean 4 teeth, which helps them to hold crustaceans and mollusks, having hard shells.

Biologists think puffer fish, also known as blowfish, developed their famous “inflatability” because their slow, somewhat clumsy swimming style makes them vulnerable to predators. In lieu of escape, puffer fish use their highly elastic stomachs and the ability to quickly ingest huge amounts of water (and even air when necessary) to turn themselves into a virtually inedible ball several times their normal size. Some species also have spines on their skin to make them even less palatable.
A predator that manages to snag a puffer before it inflates won’t feel lucky for long. Almost all puffer fish contain tetrodotoxin, a substance that makes them foul tasting and often lethal to fish. To humans, tetrodotoxin is deadly, up to 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide. There is enough toxin in one puffer fish to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote.


 FUGU- A rare delicacy

 

Amazingly, the meat of some puffer fish is considered a delicacy. Called fugu in Japan, it is extremely expensive and only prepared by trained, licensed chefs who know that one bad cut means almost certain death for a customer. In fact, many such deaths occur annually.

The restaurant preparation of fugu is strictly controlled by the law in Japan and several other countries, and only chefs who have qualified through rigorous training are allowed to deal with the fish. However, the domestic preparation occasionally leads to accidental death. Fugu is served as sashimi and chirinabe. Some consider the liver the tastiest part but it is also the most poisonous, and serving this organ in restaurants was banned in Japan in 1984.Fugu has become one of the most celebrated and notorious dishes in Japanese cuisine.  The most good-looking (and the largest) Japanese restaurant has (finally) opened in Mumbai. (More about the food, service and pricing later). It is also the only restaurant serving the deadly, poisonous, celebrated, expensive 'Fugu' (Barely 20 restaurants in the US serve it and the European Union has banned it). 

It takes two years of intensive training to cook fugu!!! If anyone had watched Glutton for punishment program on TLC, they would know Bob blumer had learnt and cooked fugu in just 5 days! WOW...

 There are more than 120 species of puffer fish worldwide. Most are found in tropical and subtropical ocean waters, but some species live in brackish and even fresh water. They have long, tapered bodies with bulbous heads. Some wear wild markings and colors to advertise their toxicity, while others have more muted or cryptic coloring to blend in with their environment.

Now tell me Fish lovers, will you dare to eat fish that kills???

APITHERAPY- The bee sting therapy

Ouch! honey bee sting pains a lot.
 And what if this stings are used as an therapy to treat few diseases?

APITHERAPY, or “bee therapy” (from the Latin apis which means bee) is the medicinal use of products made by honeybees.
Proudcts of the Honeybee include bee venom, honey, pollen, royal jelly, propolis, and beeswax.

                                    Charles Marz preparing dry venom



Some of the conditions treated (not in any special order) are: multiple sclerosis, arthritis, wounds, pain, gout, shingles, burns, tendonitis, and infections.

Therapies involving the honeybee have existed for thousands of years and some may be as old as human medicine itself. The ancient rock art of early hunter-gatherers depicts the honeybee as a source of natural medicine. Bee venom therapy was practiced in ancient Egypt, Greece, and China—three Great Civilizations known for their highly developed medical systems. Hippocrates, the Greek physician known as the “Father of Medicine”, recognized the healing virtues of bee venom for treating arthritis and other joint problems. Today, growing scientific evidence suggests that various bee products promote healing by improving circulation, decreasing inflammation, and stimulating a healthy immune response.
It is important to note that Apitherapy is not only the use of the venom for healing, often called Bee Sting Therapy, but the use of all the hive products, and usually a combination of them.  These products are also sometimes mixed with other ingredients, specifically different essential oils, dependent on the condition being treated.
The more modern study of apitherapy, specifically bee venom, was initiated through the efforts of Austrian physician Philip Terc in his published results “Report about a Peculiar Connection between the Bee Stings and Rheumatism” in 1888. Bodog Beck (Budapest, Hugary 1871 – NYC, 1942) followed Terc, and brought Apitherapy to the United States.  More recent popularity has been credited to Charles Mraz (1905 – 1999), a beekeeper from Vermont, who knew Beck.  Some of the Board Members of the American Apitherapy Society, as well as some general AAS members, have been trained by and/or treated and inspired by Mraz.  The Society’s annual educational and training event, CMACC, is named for him, the Charles Mraz Apitherapy Course and Conference.
For detailed information you may also read:
Introduction to Bee Venom Therapy, by Charles Mraz
The Buzz on Bee Therapy (a 2008 article in a health Journal)

50 THINGS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW

50 Completely Useless Facts!
One of these amazing, but useless facts is false. Do you know which one?
The word "queue" is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed. Beetles taste like apples, wasps like pine nuts, and worms  like fried bacon. Of all the words in the English language, the word 'set' has the most definitions! What is called a "French kiss" in the English speaking world is known as an "English kiss" in France. "Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order. "Rhythm" is the longest English word without a vowel. In 1386, a pig in France was executed by public hanging for the murder of a child A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off! Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath There is a city called Rome on every continent. It's against the law to have a pet dog in Iceland! Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day! Horatio Nelson, one of England's most illustrious admirals was throughout his life, never able to find a cure for his sea-sickness. The skeleton of Jeremy Bentham is present at all important meetings of the University of London Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people Your ribs move about 5 million times a year, everytime you breathe! The elephant is the only mammal  that can't jump! One quarter of the bones in your body, are in your feet! Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different! The first known transfusion of blood was performed as early as 1667, when Jean-Baptiste, transfused two pints of blood from a sheep to a young man Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails! Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin! The present population of 5 billion plus people of the world is predicted to become 15 billion by 2080. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian, and had only ONE testicle.		Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible. Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th." Coca-Cola would be green if colouring weren’t added to it. On average a hedgehog's  heart beats 300 times a minute. More people are killed each year from bees than from snakes. The average lead pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000 English words. More people are allergic to cow's milk than any other food. Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand. The placement of a donkey's eyes in its' heads enables it to see all four feet at all times! The six official languages of the United Nations are: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. Earth is the only planet not named after a god. It's against the law to burp, or sneeze in a church in Nebraska, USA. You're born with 300 bones, but by the time you become an adult, you only have 206. Some worms will eat themselves if they can't find any food! Dolphins sleep with one eye open! It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is 9000 years old! The longest recorded flight  of a chicken is 13 seconds Queen Elizabeth I regarded herself as a paragon of cleanliness. She declared that she bathed once every three months, whether she needed it or not Slugs have 4 noses. Owls are the only birds who can see the colour blue. A man named Charles Osborne had the hiccups for 69 years! A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue! The average person laughs 10 times a day! An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain --------------------------------------------------- The answer is....... It's against the law to have a pet dog in Iceland!

Buddhist Self Mummification.

Guys do read this.... 

It's really scary to know what a person does to become a mummy. Which is considered sacred!!!

What Is It?
Self-mummification was practiced until the late 1800s in Japan, by people who thought being a mummy looked so awesome they couldn't wait until actual death to be one. It's been outlawed since the early 1900s, and when we describe how it works, you'll see why. Just wrapping yourself up in bandages and waiting for the Grim Reaper doesn't seem to cut it.
No, to mummify yourself properly, you'll need over 2,000 days of preparation. Here's how to do it, the Buddhist priest way:
First we've got to get all of the fat off of your body. They did this by changing their diet to just nuts and seeds. The priest could eat nothing else for 1,000 days.
Next, we need to remove as much moisture from your body as possible. Since your body is mostly moisture, this may cause you some discomfort. The priests would eat only a small amount of bark and root from pine trees, for another 1,000 days. Then they'd drink a special tea (and by "special" we mean "incredibly poisonous") made from the sap of an urushi tree.
If the tea causes explosive diarrhea and vomiting, you'll know it's working. Again, this will reduce the amount of moisture inside you, but more importantly the sap will soak into your guts, lining them and thus protecting them against maggots.
Next you'll be sealed in a small, stone room--just big enough to sit in the lotus position. You're done! Now you just have to wait to die!

Dear God, Why?
This was all tied to the Buddhist idea that to achieve enlightenment, you must separate yourself from the physical world entirely so that at death, instead of being reborn, you become one with Buddha. That's why 1,000 days after they finally keeled over in the stone room, a crowd would gather to peer inside, seeing how the mummification went. Most of the time, it didn't work.

If the priest had successfully mummified himself, he would be revered as Buddha, and presumably everyone would have a massive party to celebrate, and they'd gorge themselves on shrimp and tiny cocktail sausages. Except for those who were already well on their way to self-mummification. They'd have the nut roast.

miracle for blinds.......Bionic Eye

bionic eye.

This is not new topic but certainly it is interesting one.
The description and concept of bionic eye was since long in the talks but how far has this been applied practically?
On March 22, 2012, two British men Chris James and Robin Millar had undergone 8 hours operation and got bionic eye implanted. Amazing right!!
Chris James, who had been totally blind for more than 20 years, is able to see a rough outline of simple shapes, and doctors believe that in time -- as his brain "learns" to see again -- he could recognize faces.
 Robin Millar, 60, from London, is one of the patients who has been fitted with the chip along with 1,500 electrodes, which are implanted below the retina.
Components of bionic eye...

• A digital camera that's built into a pair of glasses. It captures images in real time and sends images to a microchip.
• A video-processing microchip that's built into a handheld unit. It processes images into electrical pulses representing patterns of light and dark and sends the pulses to a radio transmitter in the glasses.
• A radio transmitter that wirelessly transmits pulses to a receiver implanted above the ear or under the eye
• A radio receiver that sends pulses to the retinal implant by a hair-thin implanted wire
• A retinal implant with an array of 60 electrodes on a chip measuring 1 mm by 1mm.    

         Lets see how the bionic eye works....                                                                                                                                                                                                                     The system works in the following pattern. Firstly, light from the object (flower) enters the video camera (fig 4). The video camera then sends the image of the flower to the wallet size computer for complex processing. The processor then wirelessly sends its image of the flower to an infrared LED-LCD screen mounted on the goggles. The transparent goggles reflect an infrared image into the eye and onto the retinal chip. Just as a person with normal vision cannot see the infrared signal coming out of a TV remote control, this infrared flower image is also invisible to normal photoreceptors. But for those sporting retinal implants, the infrared flower electrically stimulates the implant’s array of photodiodes. The electrodes stimulate the remaining retinal nerves; allow a signal to be passed along the optic nerve to the brain. What makes this unique is that all functions of the retina are integrated into the chip. It has 1,500 light-sensing diodes and small electrodes that stimulate the overlying nerves to create a pixilated image  I

n the brain, patterns of light and dark spots are perceived which give a basic level of vision to the patient, who is able to be more mobile and independent as a result.    

A wireless microprocessor and battery pack worn on the belt powers the entire device. Thus, image amplification and other processing occur in the hardware, outside the eye.

SEEING IS BELIEVING.......

 
For more information check the below site.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2138775/The-eye-borg-First-successful-implant-bionic-eye-restore-sight-blind.html

sea weed cultivation

For the first time in Orissa, seaweed cultivation has started on an experimental basis. Red algae, a seaweed and a potential source of the phycocolloid agar, has been cultivated in Langaleswar village near Khallikote, off Ganjam coast with the involvement of members of the women self help groups (SHG).

The cultivation of the red algae is on a pilot basis and is part of the research project on “Development and demonstration of appropriate strategies for marine algae cultivation and processing for livelihood generation in coastal area of Orissa”. The three-year project of the Science and Society Division, Department of Science and Technology, Central government, costs around Rs 20 lakh.

“As red algae is much in demand in agar-agar industries, we hope the lower income group (LIG) of the coastal villages in the state will get extra income with the cultivation of this seaweed,” said Sailabala Padhy, the principal investigator of the project. Around 60 womenfolk in the village have started to cultivate the seaweed after training. Now they have at least 500 kg of the dry red algae in stock. “We are purchasing these from them at the rate of Rs 10 a kg,” said Padhy.
“After we collect from them, we will supply these to the agar-agar industries. We have decided to purchase the seaweed worth Rs 3,000 a month from them,” she added.
The seaweed demand is increasing worldwide as its extracts are widely used in toothpaste, ice-cream, textile printing, teeth filling, cosmetics, tissue culture, plywood, packaging and several other industries.
Red algae can be cultivated in the Chilika coast, particularly the Ganjam district. The principal investigator of the project said seaweed cultivation was like any other aquaculture. “Investment in cultivation is less, but profit is more,” she said.
In Langaleswar village on the coast of the Chilika, the women groups cultivate the weeds in several rafts and within the cultivation of 15 days, the results were quite satisfactory, she said. Several experts including project coordinator Deenabandhu Sahu of New Delhi, who visited the site and interacted with the cultivators, expressed their satisfaction and suggested expansion of the area under cultivation. “Seaweed cultivation and utilisation is one of the alternatives, that can create a large number of employment, in the coastal area especially for women,” she said

20 rare syndromes which sound unreal...

Sometimes real life science can be just as strange as science fiction, especially when it comes to ailments of the human body, something medical and nursing school students learn quickly. With so many things that can go wrong as highly complex life forms, human illness can take an immeasurably wide range of forms. Here are some of the weirdest, most impossible sounding of these syndromes and illnesses that have been recorded, many of which sound much more like fiction than fact.

1. Exploding Head Syndrome: This syndrome doesn't mean that the sufferer's head literally explodes– it only seems like that to them. Sufferers report hearing an incredibly loud noise originating from within his or her own head, like that of an explosion or gunshot. Often, those with this condition will experience the noise while asleep, startling them awake, though it is possible for it to occur while awake as well. No one knows exactly why the syndrome occurs, but even more strangely, it can be a one time occurrence or happen many times throughout a lifetime.
2. Moebius Syndrome: The effects of this syndrome are noticeable from birth, resulting in facial paralysis and the inability to move the eyes from side to side. This means that sufferers cannot blink or make any sort of emotional facial expression. It is caused by the underdevelopment of cranial nerves and can often result in a wide range of other abnormalities. There is no treatment for the condition but specialized attention can help sufferers talk, eat and deal with eye dryness.
3. Ondine's Curse: This condition affects the respiratory system and can be deadly if left untreated. Those with Ondine's curse will suffer respiratory arrest while sleeping, resulting from an inborn defect or traumatic injury to the part of the brain that controls breathing. In the most severe cases, respiratory arrest can occur while awake as well. Treatment for the condition usually involves a tracheotomy and constantly attachment to a ventilator in order to survive.
4. Latah: Also called culture-specific syndrome due to the fact that it's only found in certain areas of the Middle East and Asia, this syndrome causes sufferers to go into a trance and repeat phrases and actions when they are startled. Those afflicted are generally adult women, and will sometimes mimic the words and actions of those around them or will obey any command given to them.
5. Pica: While most of us wouldn't find the the thought of eating mud, metal or paper appetizing, this syndrome causes sufferers to do just that, creating an appetite for substances that are generally considered inedible and even potentially dangerous to consume. There is a variation of this syndrome as well, where the appetite is directed towards certain food items like rice, ice cubes, and salt. Oddly enough, it can be found not only in humans but in animals as well, and some medical professionals think it results from mineral or nutritional deficiencies.
6. Capgras Syndrome: In this disorder, a person has the delusion that a friend, spouse, family member, coworker or other associate has been replaced by an identical-looking imposter. While it most commonly occurs in those who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, it can also occur in individuals who have symptoms of dementia or who have had some kind of traumatic brain injury. Studies of those with the syndrome have shown that sufferers do not lose their ability to recognize faces but lose the automatic emotional response that comes along with seeing a familiar face.
7. Foreign Accent Syndrome: It might sound pretty bizarre, but those with this medical condition begin pronouncing their words with a foreign accent. This condition is most commonly the result of a brain injury or stroke, though some cases have been found where it has been the side effect of intense migraines. New research has shown that this syndrome may not in fact make the speaker use a foreign accent, but simply distorts their speech in a non-specific way that to the listener, sounds as though they were using an accent.
8. Trichotillomania: Sufferers of this condition have the compulsive need to pull out their own hair, often resulting in large, bald patches on their scalp, facial hair, eyelashes or other body hair. Caused by the lack of impulse control in the sufferer, this condition is incredibly difficult to treat as those who do it are often unaware they are doing so. Additionally, sufferers often feel shame at their appearance and suffer serious self-esteem issues, going to great lengths to cover up their pulled hair.
9. Alice in Wonderland Syndrome: Named after the classic novel by Lewis Carroll, this neurological condition affects the perception of the sufferer, causing him or her to no longer correctly be able to gauge the size of objects in the visual field. Causes of the syndrome range from migraines to brain tumors, and its occurrence is not altogether uncommon in childhood, with most growing out of the syndrome as they age.
10. Genital Retraction Syndrome (Koro): This syndrome is culture-specific, having been recorded predominately in China and Southeast Asia, and very rarely in other parts of the world. Those afflicted by it believe that their genitals or nipples are retracting and will eventually disappear. The syndrome very often results in physical injury as those suffering from it attempt to prevent their organs from retracting through means of physical force.
11. Jerusalem Syndrome: Planning a trip to the city of Jerusalem? You might want to learn a little about this disease before you go. Numerous cases have been recorded of visitors to this holy city becoming obsessed with religious ideas, delusions of greatness or psychosis-like experiences. Even more strange, it hasn't been limited to those of any one faith. Those already suffering from mental illness, diagnosed or not, form the bulk of the sufferers of this condition. Treatment involves removing the sufferer from the city for two or more weeks.
12. Walking Corpse Syndrome (Cotard Delusion): In this rare neurological disorder, sufferers believe that they are dead, do not exist, are rotting or have lost their internal organs. At times, it progresses to include delusions that the person is, in fact, immortal. The severity of the condition varies and is most often seen in those who have mental illness or who have sustained a traumatic brain injury. Scientists believe it is related to Capgras Syndrome in that the person loses the emotional connection to their own reflection, feeling disassociated with it and not believing that it truly exists.
13. Alien Hand Syndrome: Ever thought a part of your body had a mind of it's own? Well in this condition, sufferers believe just that, and a person's hands or other limbs seem to take on a life and agenda of their own. It is most commonly seen in those who have had surgical separation of their brain hemispheres, but can also occur after strokes, other forms of brain surgery and brain infections. Those with this syndrome are often unaware that their hands are performing actions and while they maintain feeling in the hand no longer have a sense of control or ownership over it.
14. Fatal Familial Insomnia: This inherited disease is incredibly rare and is the result of a mutated protein that affects the brain. Those with it cannot get to or stay asleep, often losing so much sleep that the condition is fatal. Onset of the illness can be anywhere from 30 to 60 and sometimes occurs following childbirth. Sufferers will first be unable to sleep, then may experience hallucinations and rapid loss of weight, eventually succumbing to dementia and very often, death.
15. Stendhal Syndrome: In this illness, sufferers will have rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting and even hallucinations when they are exposed to artwork. Symptoms are exacerbated by especially beautiful pieces or in places like museums where a large amount is collected in one place. The syndrome has been most widely reported in Florence, Italy, where numerous cases have been reported of individuals fainting after having taken in Florentine art.
16. Jumping Frenchmen of Maine: This rare disorder was first described in 1878, found in related French-Canadian lumberjacks working in Maine. While it is not clear whether the disorder is physical or mental, it causes an exaggerated startle reflex whereby the sufferer will obey any command given when sudden, unexpected stimuli were introduced. Some studies of the condition believe that it was brought on by psychological conditions at the lumber camp, and is not of physical origin despite occurring in several members of the same family.
17. Spasmodic Dysphonia: Also called laryngeal dystonia, this disorder of the voice causes involuntary movements of one or more of the muscles in the voice box during speech, causing the sufferer to have one of several effects. Words either can be cut off or stuttered, or breathy and whispered, depending on the variation the sufferer has. Even stranger, these effects to the voice only occur when speaking, not when singing, laughing or speaking at a high pitch.
18. Fish Odor Syndrome (Trimethylaminuria): Sufferers with this condition have a metabolic disorder that causes the body to no longer be able to break down trimethylamine, causing them to have a strong body odor often resembling that of fish though not always so. There is no known treatment for the disorder and those with it often have life-disrupting effects in their social lives.
19. Sexsomnia: Similar to sleepwalking, this disorder occurs during REM sleep and causes sufferers to engage in sexual acts while they are asleep. There are often unpleasant consequences associated with this disorder as when the sexual actions are performed on an unwilling partner.
20. Werewolf Syndrome (Hypertrichosis): Those with this disorder have an abnormal growth of hair on the body, often in places where hair isn't normally found, such as the face. There are a wide range of variations in severity and types of hair involved with this syndrome, but the most famous sufferers of the condition have had their faces covered in hair, causing them to resemble werewolves in appearance.

http://molehr.oxfordjournals.org/content/2/3/203.long