The Curious Case of...

No, that is not Brad Pitt's stunt double on the set of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  That is actually a real picture of a young boy with a rare disorder called progeria.

Only 1 in every 8,000,000 (that’s eight million) people are diagnosed with progeria (out of the entire world’s population).  Progeria is an illness which starts fairly early in childhood and causes accelerated aging.  The normal stages of aging that “standard” human beings experience over the course of their lives are all reached within a few years in a child with progeria.  The boy above, for example, is roughly around the age of ten (give or take a couple years), but he resembles a man well into his eighties.  Every one year lived by a child which progeria is equivalent to ten years of aging (progeriainfo.weebly.com).

Sadly, children with progeria rarely live past their teen years; however, there have been cases where patients have lived up to 30 years.  Progeria does not directly cause death, but because of the severe case of aging, there are many problems related to the heart, one of which is usually the fatality-causer. 

Scientists are still unaware of the cause of progeria, and because there is no known cause for it, there is no way to protect against or prevent it.

As one can imagine, living with progeria, and living with a loved one diagnosed with progeria, is tremendously difficult.  If you would like to learn more about this disease, you can follow this link to find out about current research going on and become more informed.

Laugh Until You Die

You know the over-exaggerated phrases we use to describe how funny something is.  Without a doubt, you’ve used at least one (or one along the same lines) thus far in your lifetime. 

                  “I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe.” 

“That’s so funny; I’m dying from laughing.”  

                                     “I laughed until I died.” 

Well, did you ever stop to think where those phrases ever came from?  I mean, how did someone ever come to find some sort of relationship between laughing – something evoked from humor and happiness – and death?

Turns out, there is actually such a relationship.  Kuru, known to many as the New Guinea laughing disease, is a neurological disorder which causes various symptoms, one being uncontrollable outbursts of laughter.  Doesn't sound so bad, right?  Wrong.  Kuru is incurable and ultimately leads to death.  Though the laughing itself is not what directly causes the ultimate demise, it is still a component of this sickness.

Now, no one is to say that these phrases were derived from Kuru; scientists did discover it more recently than I would have thought (mid 1900s).  However, it is interesting to see that in a phrase which no one takes literally actually has some merit.

So, next time you've laugh so hard you think you might be die, remember that some people actually have.  Spooky.

If you're interested in learning more about this disease, please follow the link.  What you read will intrigue you -- if not disturb you -- I'm sure.

http://www.bizarremedical.com/kuru-the-new-guinea-laughing-disease/

Welcome to My Blog

To my fellow students:

I'm pretty new to blogging, and when faced with the decision of what to blog about, I was kind of at a loss.  Then I realized that I'm a pretty big medical/ science nerd, and I often look up interesting and weird medical statistics, diseases, and facts, so I decided I'd share them with you. 

I know that blogging is a part of this class -- as I have never blogged before -- but I'm excited to share some of these stats and facts with you all, and hopefully evoke some sort of appreciation for the strange side of medicine from you all.

Happy reading :)