Have You Heard of Foreign Accent Syndrome? Here Are Some of the Rarest Diseases Around the World
Let’s look at some of the mysterious diseases that have stayed obscure.
Across the world, we have heard and seen diseases that are so rare that it is usually left undiagnosed. Some make the headlines and grab everyone’s attention. While there are some diseases that thousands of people are suffering worldwide, and are so rare that only a few people may have heard of. Recently a story of a woman in Arizona was shared. Michelle Myers, 45 years old, from Arizona, America has been diagnosed with a Foreign Accent Syndrome. She says that she has gone to bed with extreme headaches in the past and has woken up with a foreign accent. She has often spoken in different languages, but they have lasted for about two weeks and then disappeared. But a British accent has lingered for two years now.
This brings us to think about the rarest diseases around the world. Let’s look at some of the mysterious diseases that have stayed obscure.
Water Allergy
Can you imagine being allergic to water? It constitutes 70 per cent of the Earth and almost as much of our bodies. Aquagenic urticaria or water allergy may be the strangest one may have ever heard. Patients develop hives after contacting water. Only 30 to 40 people around the world have been diagnosed with this condition. It is not strictly an allergy but a hypersensitivity to the ions found in non-distilled water.
Foreign Accent Syndrome
Sufferers of foreign accent syndrome strangely find themselves talking in an unrecognisable dialect. The disorder typically occurs after strokes or traumatic brain injuries damage the language centre of a person’s brain. Initially, doctors dismissed it as a psychiatric problem. Later scientists observed that sufferers shared the same brain abnormalities which led to changes in speech pitch, lengthening of vowel sounds and other irregularities. Only 60 cases have been recorded, and Michell Myers is one of the patients in the world to be diagnosed with foreign accent syndrome.
Alice in Wonderland syndrome
Dr John Todd, a British psychiatrist, first described AIWS in 1955. Todd called this Alice in Wonderland syndrome, based on Lewis Carroll’s novel. Lewis Carroll suffered from severe migraines and Lilliputian hallucinations, during which objects and people appear smaller than they are. AIWS primarily targets children. The condition also known as micropsia or Lilliput sight, can also affect the sense of hearing, touch and perceptions of one’s own body image.
Pica
People with the disorder pica, compulsively eat items or develop an appetite that have no nutritional value. The disorder most often occurs in children or pregnant women. An affected person might eat relatively harmless items such as ice, raw rice, flour, salt or they might eat potentially dangerous items like flakes of dried paints, clay, plaster or pieces of metal. It can only be considered pica if the appetite persists for over a month. Researchers have linked pica with a mineral deficiency.
The above diseases have no definite cure but can only be prevented to a certain extent. We hope that researchers conduct extensive studies on the cases of people that suffer from these rarest diseases and bring relief to them.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 13, 2018 05:40 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).