Mental Floss

6 Super-Rare Medical Conditions

These rare conditions aren’t spotlighted as often as some widespread diseases.

ByBethel Afful|
The world of medicine is even stranger than you can imagine.
The world of medicine is even stranger than you can imagine. | tadamichi via Shutterstock

Imagine if you were allergic to water—or if eating bread could make you drunk. For some, this is part of their everyday life.

There are a handful of super-rare medical conditions that sound like they could come straight out of a storybook. Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome is the real-life version of Benjamin Button’s disease. In Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, when Alice eats a cake marked “Eat Me,” she quickly grows to be more than 9 feet tall—which is how some people with Alice in Wonderland Syndrome feel. They may also feel unusually small, or perceive other people and objects to be larger, smaller, farther, or closer than they really are.

In this episode of The List Show, host and Mental Floss editor-in-chief Erin McCarthy discusses some very rare medical conditions. Subscribe to Mental Floss on YouTube for new videos every week.

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