People who cry blood. People's bloody tears

There are many things in the world that modern science cannot explain. A striking example is the disease of hemolacria (Latin haemolacria) - the release of blood along with tears. For such people, crying tears of blood is a natural and real condition. Depending on how much the glands of patients with haemolacria are affected, their tears can take on shades from tinted red to completely bloody tears. The exact cause of this disease is not fully understood, and therefore cannot be treated. Medical specialists are still putting forward versions that hemolacria is one of the blood diseases or tumors. But this is all written with a pitchfork on the water, the exact mechanism of this disease, despite the fact that the 21st century is in the yard, has not yet been determined. People suffer, those around them are frightened, and the doctors only shrug their shoulders. Here are three of the most famous cases of haemolacria in the last few years:

Calvino Inman

15-year-old Calvino from Tennessee cries at least three times a day, his eyes watery for no apparent reason. All he says about it is: "Sometimes, I feel like coming up with tears. And I start to feel my eyes fill with tears." When this first happened, classmates began to say that he was possessed by demons. But now, Calvino says that he is used to it and does not pay any attention to their words.

When red tears first appeared in his eyes, his mother was so shocked and frightened that she called the experts. The worst thing, according to her, was when he looked at me and asked: "Mom, will I die?" This phrase broke her heart. Since then, Calvino has undergone many medical studies, including MRI, computed tomography, ultrasound, but no study has provided an answer. Mom and son starred in a TV show, in the last hope of finding a remedy or method of treatment, but alas, everything was to no avail.

Twinkle Dwivedi

She is also a teenager and, like Calvino, suffers from haemolacria. 13 year old girl from Uttar Pradesh, India. She not only bleeds from her eyes, but also from her nose, her hair, her neck, the soles of her feet. It feels like she is sweating blood, but oddly enough, it does not cause her the slightest pain. Twinkle's 42-year-old mother is desperate to help her.
Until a few years ago, Twinkle was a perfectly normal 12-year-old. All of a sudden she started to bleed, anywhere from 5 to 20 times a day. "At school, when I came out of bloody sweat and tears, my blouse was all red with blood, seeing this, no one approached me, did not sympathize and did not want to play with me. My friends considered it disgusting and avoided me with disgust." Soon the girl was "etched out" from her old school and no school wanted to accept her. As a result, she has become homeschooled and cannot be friends with many children. According to her mother, Twinkle was very pale and weak due to frequent blood loss.

Once again, doctors are puzzled by the condition of their patients and shrug their shoulders, unable to understand how they should treat patients with hemalocria. Local residents believe that the girl is cursed and she is cursed, when they see her, they shout at her after a curse, an insult, so that she quickly leaves their street and disappears from their field of vision. One of the British experts put forward a hypothesis explaining the loss of blood in Twinkle. He says that she may be suffering from a bleeding disorder, possibly hemophilia, which can only be treated with the supervision of a good doctor. However, the Twinkle family is too poor to be treated in an expensive hospital and all that remains for them is to hope for a miracle that will heal their daughter.

Rashida Khatun

Rashida, from Patna, is another young Indian woman suffering from her tears of blood. Blood drips from her eyes several times a day, but what is remarkable is that she was not persecuted, ridiculed, bullied, she did not become an outcast in the eyes of society. On the contrary, she is considered a saint and many believers come to her to contemplate this "divine miracle". She is idolized and bowed down in reverence and special honors are given to her family. Rashida herself says: "I do not feel any pain when this happens, but still, every time it is a shock for me to see blood instead of tears." Local medicine has suggested that the cause may be a brain tumor or a disease of the lacrimal glands, but no one is sure of this.

In the James Bond movie Casino Royale, the main villain Le Chiffre has the ability to cry blood. Fantasy screenwriter? Not at all. As medical practice shows, “bloody tears” are a sad reality…

The young American is crying... blood!

In September 2009, American teenager Calvinho Inman went on national television newscasts to seek diagnosis and treatment for a condition that causes daily bleeding from the tear ducts - the young American literally cries blood. The doctors who examined him could not figure out the nature of this phenomenon.

Tears of blood roll up to the eyes of a 15-year-old schoolboy from Rockwood, Tennessee three times a day and can stand out for an hour, causing horror in others, according to the Daily Mail.

“I can feel when they come to my eyes, but I can’t stop them. Sometimes they cause a burning sensation. I’m already used to it, although at first I was shy of friends, ”the teenager said.

According to physician Rex Hamilton, Calvinho may be suffering from a rare phenomenon known to science as hemolacria (Haemolacria), which is accompanied by the release of bloody tears. “This is a very rare occurrence. The term itself is only descriptive. Science does not yet know both the exact causes of this phenomenon and the methods of treating the disease, ”admits Hamilton.

It is possible that the disease can be caused by tumors of the lacrimal glands and ducts, injuries, infections and other diseases. In some cases, like Inman's, hemolacria occurs for no apparent reason.

The mother of a teenager, Tammy Mainatt, has repeatedly consulted doctors about her son's condition. He underwent magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, ultrasound and other studies, but it was not possible to identify the cause of the "bloody cry".

Inman and his mother decided to go on television in the hope that some of the doctor viewers would be interested in this case and offer their services in diagnosis and treatment. The call has already been answered by ophthalmologist James Fleming of the Hamilton Eye Institute in Memphis. The specialist said that in his practice he had to deal with several cases of hemolacria, and he hopes that he can help the teenager.

Because of the "bloody crying" that periodically occurs during school hours, most classmates consider Calvinho "possessed by the devil", which negatively affected his relationships with peers.

Rashida Khatun, who also suffers from haemolacria and lives in the city of Patna in northeastern India, is in a somewhat different position today. As The Sun reported in April 2009, crowds of pilgrims from all over the country flock to the house of a girl who sheds bloody tears several times a day.

Believers claim a miracle and a divine gift that Rashida possesses, and, watching in awe as the blood drips from the girl's eyelids, shower her and her family with rich gifts and money.

“I don’t feel pain when this happens, but it’s a real shock to see blood pouring out of my eyes instead of water,” says Rashida

Doctors, as in the case of Calvinho Inman, cannot give an accurate and unambiguous medical explanation for the reasons for the unusual anomaly. Some associate the bleeding with a possible brain tumor of the girl, others with a malfunction in tear ducts. However, there is no medical evidence to support this. And specialists can only observe the phenomenon.

What do scientists think

Bleeding from the eyes is definitely amazing, weird and scary! But even worse, when the blood for some unknown reason begins to appear throughout the body! For the second year now, compatriot Rashida Khatun, 14-year-old Twinkle Dwivedi from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, has been regularly bleeding through pores on her head, neck, soles of the feet, through her mouth, eyes and nose. And so intensively that Twinkle requires constant blood transfusions.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the leadership of the school in mild form asked the girl's parents to pick her up from the school where she studied, so now she has to study at home. In the village where Twinkle lives, the neighbors believe that she is cursed by the devil and do not want to communicate with her.

Parents visited dozens of doctors with their daughter, prayed for her recovery to numerous gods, turned to healers, but so far no one has been able to help her, neither in heaven nor on earth.

The only thing that Indian doctors found out is that the patient has a rare blood pathology, which is characterized by an extremely low and dangerous level of clotting. However, they cannot help in the treatment and find a way to thicken the blood.

British hematologists, who learned about the Twinkle Dwivedi phenomenon, suggest that the patient may have von Willibrand disease, characterized by delayed blood clotting, and she needs an appropriate specialist. But in India you will not find such people in the daytime with fire, and then, where to get money for expensive treatment?

Another assumption of European physicians is associated with endometriosis - a rather rare female disease, when the cells of the uterine mucosa sometimes end up in unusual places in the body. For example, they appear in the peritoneum, in the mouth, in the lacrimal sacs, on the skin of the palms. And they don't just "relocate", but begin to function in exactly the same way as "legitimate" cells.

In the case of endometriosis, this manifests itself in the form of monthly bleeding - menstruation. The woman begins to cry bloody tears, or bloody marks appear on the palms of her hands. It is these women, by the way, that are often used to demonstrate the divine miracle - stigma.

Science is not yet able to explain this phenomenon, although, perhaps, it is associated with defects in genes.

Not so long ago, scientists conducted a series of experiments involving 125 healthy men and women. Samples of tears were taken from the subjects and chemical experiments were carried out with them. As a result, blood was found in the tears of 18% of women. childbearing age, of which 39% were women who had "critical days" during the experiments.

Among men, blood in tears was found in 8% of the subjects.

Having made the appropriate conclusions, the experts came to the conclusion that hemolacria is most often provoked by local factors (bacterial conjunctivitis, poor environmental situation in the region, injuries).

In the spotlight

In addition to blood, the human body can sometimes secrete something cooler. For example, 15-year-old Englishwoman Michelle Jessett, who was described by Fortean Times magazine, tries her best not to cry, because tears cause her terrible pain, because real acid flows from her eyes!

It all started when a girl riding a school bus found herself in close proximity to a truck carrying 60,000 tons of ferric chloride that exploded on a freeway. The contents of the cistern mixed with the rain to form hydrochloric acid.

Schoolchildren were at the very epicenter of events. Many received burns, and Michelle Jessett, in addition, the ability to secrete acid. It manifests itself when a girl cries or gets caught in the rain. In the latter case, her skin begins to crack and become covered in painful, bloody sores.

Doctors believe that the causes of this phenomenon are purely psychological and surgical intervention in the body of a girl will not give anything, on the contrary, it can only harm. Only time will put everything in its place.

The Lebanese Hasna al-Muslimane from the village of Al-Faqiha has another no less difficult problem. Until recently, she was also an ordinary child. But one day her life changed dramatically: doctors, journalists, religious figures and just curious onlookers frequented the house where she lives with her parents and brothers. The girl was in the center of everyone's attention, because she began to cry ... with glass tears!

It all started four years ago, when Hasnu began to worry about his left eye. Her mother took her to an ophthalmologist, who removed a small glass with sharp edges from her eye. It seemed that all the troubles were over, but after a few hours Hasna took another piece of glass out of her eye, then another and another ...

“Since then, I have been seen by four or five doctors, and they all came to the conclusion that everything was in order with the eye,” says the young Lebanese. - And one of them said that I was lucky, because what happens to me is the will of Allah!

Today, up to 20 small grain-sized pieces of vitreous mass come out of Hasna's eye every week. A group of ophthalmologists was sent to Al-Faqiha from the capital, who discovered an unusual gland in the upper part of the girl's eye niche, which, possibly, secretes a vitreous substance. “It is amazing,” they note, “that these formations are in a kind of viscous shell that protects the eye from damage.”

Hasna's "sister" unfortunately is a 15-year-old resident of Nepal, Sarita Bista, whose real pieces of glass a few centimeters long two years ago began to regularly appear from ... her right temple. Recently, the girl is losing consciousness before the next piece of glass comes out.

Professors from the Nepalese Academy of Sciences performed a comprehensive scan of Sarita's head and vaguely stated that "some strange problem with the skin of the forehead", due to which glass is produced in the girl's body ...

Meanwhile, in India, in the state of Jharkhand, lives 19-year-old Savitri, whose mouth, nose, ears and even eyes are pouring ... tiny pebbles! The doctors who examined the girl, as always in such cases, say they cannot explain how everything happens. Stones seem to appear out of nowhere.

True, in the native village of Savitri, local residents have already come to certain conclusions that explain what is happening. According to one version, Savitri, as in the case of Calvino Inman and Twinkle Dwivedi mentioned above, is possessed by the devil. According to another, she became a living embodiment of a deity. In principle, the second option is preferable for Savitri.

Before the stones appear, the girl feels a severe headache and weakness throughout the body.

Savitri's parents complain that they cannot find doctors who can alleviate their daughter's suffering, despite the fact that she has become the focus of attention of journalists who have come from all over India.

No one offers financial assistance for treatment. So the Savitri family had to turn to the sorcerer as their last resort. He performed rituals and chanted healing tantras for 40 days, but without success. The girl became worse, and the stones fell even more. The sorcerer, seeing how she was suffering, admitted the impotence of magic.

Indian doctors say that in their practice there have already been cases when stones fell out of the nose or ears of patients who had too much high level calcium. But they have never left their eyes...

Rare diseases affect approximately 6% of the world's inhabitants, and this number continues to increase. All unique pathologies are of a different nature, although most of them are associated with a genetic disorder and various infections.

Hemolakria ("bloody tears") occurs in 1 in 1,000,000 people.

17 year old Calvino Inman Rockwood, Tennessee, USA, has been suffering from a mysterious illness for two years now and doctors are unable to stop the bleeding, which can last for hours.

The guy underwent medical tests to identify a tumor, pathologies of the lacrimal duct, a genetic defect, but it has not yet been possible to determine the cause of such bleeding.

He says, “People call me obsessed. Bleeding can start at school, at home, or just in the middle of the night. I usually don't know when the bleeding will start, but sometimes I feel a burning sensation and it starts again. Sometimes I don't even know it happened until people start looking at me."

“But then I feel like someone is hitting my head with a hammer from the left side. I can't sleep at night. I just lie there and wait for the morning to come.”

His mother, Tammy, and stepfather, Calvino Mainatt, are very worried: "We feel like the doctors have run out of ideas."
“We have already contacted 15 specialists from New York, Memphis and Atlanta. I can no longer see my son suffer. I just pray that the powers that be will help him,” said Tammy Mainatt

The boy crying tears of blood is not the only one of his kind.

Rashida Begum (Rashida Begum) from the city of Patna in northeast India became famous all over the world after June 17, 2009. On this day, many newspapers wrote that this girl was crying ... tears of blood, several times a day. "I don't feel any pain when this happens, but, you see, it's a shock when blood flows from my eyes instead of tears," says Rashida.
Doctors are very puzzled by this case, but they cannot find a suitable explanation for the phenomenon. And the local Hindu theologians decided that this girl was marked by the gods, so mere mortals should worship her. And pilgrims come from everywhere, just to see with their own eyes the bloody tears in Rashida's eyes and give her gifts in order to appease the gods through her...

A mother of three from Patna, India, also cries blood, making her very weak and in pain. Rashida Khatun, 27, began crying blood three years ago after suffering a severe bout of vomiting and a headache.

Her caring husband, 40, Mohammed Aslam, who married her against his family's wishes, cares for her and helps care for her three children, Mohammed Adil, 10, Tehsin, 8, and Asif, 5. When Miss Begum fell ill with a mysterious illness, her husband was forced to leave his £5 a day job to look after his wife.

He says, “I just want her to be okay, I want our kids to learn, I want all of this to go away and for us to live as a normal family again. We have already tried all the ways, we have been to every doctor in Patna. We even spent 40 days praying in the temple.”

But experts from the Indian Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi gave Miss Begum new hope for recovery. After much research, doctors believe they have finally solved the mystery that links Ms. Begum's strange bleeding to her stomach problems.

“I am so grateful to the doctors for trying to help me,” she says. “I can’t handle this terrible bleeding on my own.”

Rashida's compatriot was much less fortunate.

14 year old indian girl Twinkle Dwivedi also suffers from an unexplained illness. The girl spontaneously bleeds up to 50 times a day. Blood, without visible damage to the skin, oozes through the eyes, hair, nose, soles of the feet, and neck. At the same time, Twinkle does not feel pain, only weakness and headache after another attack. Doctors do not find an explanation for this amazing phenomenon. Doctors recently had to give the girl a blood transfusion in order to at least partially restore the supply of this life-giving fluid in the body. Otherwise the girl will die.

“I can bleed from almost any part of the body,” says Twinkie herself. “When this happens, it doesn’t hurt me. But due to the fact that I often lose a lot of blood, my strength leaves me. And sometimes it starts to get very sick head"

One of the most famous hematologists in the world, leading American pediatrician and specialist in pediatric blood diseases, Dr. George Buchanan (Bachanan?) (George Buchanan) recently visited an unusual patient in a hospital in Mumbai, who has been suffering from sudden bleeding for 3 years. “I have never seen cases of blood spontaneously bleeding from the head or palms and have not read about it in any of the medical history. I was interested to see this unusual case and, if I can, help the teenager.”

The specialist personally observed the bleeding and was shocked: “It is not physically possible for blood to seep through intact skin. But I saw no sign of contraction or hematoma anywhere on her body."
Dr. Buchanan and his team ran a series of tests, including Twinkle's blood clotting test. Tests showed that the girl's blood clotting is slightly different from the norm, which means that Twinkle's blood platelets do not stick together correctly. However, it is not possible to explain the daily heavy bleeding only by this. In order to understand what is happening to the unfortunate teenager, Twinkle will be placed in a ward under round-the-clock video surveillance.
Some of the doctors believe that the girl herself causes these bleedings. However, Twinkle absolutely disagrees with this opinion: “I did not cause bleeding. Why do I need it? I want to be like all children. I want to go to school and live a normal life." Twinkle has already missed 2 years of school, as she was banned from class and suspended from classes due to bleeding already at two local schools. But the worst thing is that her countrymen do not idolize her, but curse her.

Meeting her on the street, people throw stones at her and shout curses. Twinkle's mother, 42-year-old Nandani Divedi, is desperately trying to help her daughter, who until recently was a normal child - went to school, played with friends and loved to draw. But then suddenly her body began to bleed. Now this happens to her five to twenty times a day.
However, the girl's family also has its own explanation of what is happening to their child. After a conversation with local fortune-tellers, the girl's mother claims that Twinkle's stigmata opened after bathing in the sacred Indian river Ganges.

However, they did not talk about bloody tears yesterday and not today. Back in September 2002, it became known about Hind Mujahe - A 23-year-old student from the Algerian city of Mascara, who has tears of blood every day, regardless of external stimuli. This phenomenon first manifested itself in one of the local banks, where Hind was an apprenticeship as a notary. The girl was sitting at the computer when a cleaner who worked nearby noticed tears of blood in her eyes and screamed in horror. Since then, the solution of the "miracle" was taken up by doctors.
At first they thought that Hind was bleeding. The girl was examined, but no pathology was found. Subsequently, the press reported that, apparently, this was still some kind of unknown disease: Hind developed photophobia, periodically there were attacks of nausea and vomiting. The girl dreams of making a pilgrimage to Mecca: she believes that the holy places will give her healing.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, doctors are looking into other unexplained bleeding cases in the US. Dr. John Fleming, from the Hamilton Eye Institute in Memphis, said: “We usually found the cause of the bleeding, and it was either an infection of the tear duct or a tumor. There have been cases where people have suffered from bleeding for months or even years, and then all of a sudden it stopped.”

Interesting fact: In the James Bond movie Casino Royale, the main villain Le Chiffre also cries blood. As we now see, this is not a director's fiction, but a real medical fact!

Original entry and comments on

The first information about it began to appear in the 16th century. The Italian physician Antonio Brassavolla described this phenomenon in a nun, noting that she wept bloody tears on the days she was menstruating. Later, in 1581, a Flemish physician wrote of his 16-year-old patient, who he believed had menses coming out of her eyes like tears of blood, rather than through her vagina. Both in ancient times and at the present time, blood from the eyes causes the most terrible emotions in ordinary people. And scientists - at least henna: according to a 1991 study in which 125 healthy volunteers took part, it is menstruation that contributes to ophthalmic hemolacria, or traces of blood in tears. The study found that 18% of women of childbearing age have blood in their tears, but only 7% of pregnant women and 8% of men are able to excrete blood along with tears. And all why? In gynecology, there is such a hormone-dependent disease as endometriosis, in which the appearance of the endometrium is noted (it normally lines the uterine cavity, is rejected along with menstrual flow) in atypical (unnatural) places: in the lungs, on the skin, in abdominal cavity etc. Scientists have found it in conjunctival tissues. I don’t think that my aggressive patient suspected such a severe pathology in me))))

By the way, in the scientific literature there are descriptions of hemolacria in hysterical persons of both sexes (when all conceivable and inconceivable studies gave negative result and even suspected Munchausen syndrome), in patients with severe anemia, liver damage, vascular tumors, Osler-Weber syndrome (hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia), hemophilia and other coagulopathies (diseases of the blood coagulation system). In some patients, traces of negligent treatment of conjunctival diseases with silver nitrate were found, and in one - a manifestation of retrograde (reverse) blood flow of nosebleeds through tear ducts. There were a couple of cases of bleeding from varicose veins of the orbit, from craniohemangioma. And cases of damage to the conjunctiva in trachoma and giant papillary conjunctivitis. Difficult cases for diagnosis are always tumors (including melanoma. A case of crying black tears because of it has been registered. By the way, some medicinal and diagnostic dyes can change the color of tears (rifampicin and fluorescein)). I also never had this garbage))))

So what did my militant patient mean?

An unusual case of a snakebite has been recorded in Canada. Literally a few minutes after the attack of the animal, blood flowed from the eyes of a person. At the same time, he experienced severe pain. Later it turned out that snake venom became the cause of hemolacria, which provoked severe internal bleeding, including from the eyes. I don't go where Canadian snakes crawl, fact...

So where could I see this unusual phenomenon? Haven't you guessed yet?

In our country, in most cases, bloody tears are caused by ... traumatic brain injury.

Such patients in the Neurotrauma ICU always cause the most lively excitement in people who accidentally got there. Remember? " Both in ancient times and at the present time, blood from the eyes causes the most terrible emotions in ordinary people "...

Apparently my offender has already seen this ...

And yet, it seems to me that not all intensive care units should let people in ...

Almost everyone has heard of appendicitis. However, there are some diseases in the world that occur only in a few tens or hundreds of people around the world. These are usually hereditary diseases or congenital anomalies development, which greatly complicate the life of the patient himself, as well as a rare pathology of mental activity.

Bloody tears

This disease is scientifically called hemolacria, when during the day, for a reason unknown to the end of science, the eyes suddenly begin to “watery” with blood. This phenomenon can occur from 1 to 20 times a day.

Bloody tears are observed in some types of tumors, disorders. However, sometimes hemolacria is observed absolutely against the background of the patient's complete health, therefore, in such cases, they speak of true, idiopathic hemolacria.

It is noticed that this disease appears spontaneously mainly in adolescence or in young people, and then also disappears by itself. In women, hemolacria is observed more often, and in most cases during menstruation, and this helps to diagnose one of the causes of hemolacria - endometriosis.

Latent hemolacria. In 1991, 125 volunteers with no health problems were examined. Tears were taken from all of them and examined under a microscope. It turned out that blood cells in tears were found in 18% of women of childbearing age, as well as in 7% of pregnant women and 8% of men.

blue skin

Blue or blue skin syndrome (argyria, argyrosis) is another rare pathology that occurs mainly in those people who overdo it in the treatment of products containing silver, as well as those associated with the extraction or processing of silver.

In this case, silver granules are deposited in the dermis, hair follicles, sweat glands, skin capillaries. Silver particles in such people are also found in the thickness of the mucous membranes of the stomach, oral cavity, intestines, in parenchymal organs (liver, kidneys) and conjunctiva of the eyes.

As a rule, if there is no concomitant intoxication with silver, then, apart from the blue color, the patient does not care about anything else, however, this shade of the skin and mucous membranes persists for the rest of his life.

Even the blue color of the skin may not be associated with exposure to silver, but simply be inherited. For example, during the 60s of the last century, a whole family of “blue people” lived in Kentucky, whom the rumor dubbed the “Blue Fugates”.

Butterfly Syndrome

The scientific name for this disease is epidermolysis bullosa. This is a rare genetic disease associated with increased vulnerability of the mucous membranes and skin due to mechanical impact (in this way it resembles the fragility of butterfly wings from careless touch).

The main symptom of epidermolysis bullosa is blisters that appear in places that are subjected to pressure and friction.

Sometimes the disease is so severe that even solid food in the mouth or a simple handshake can cause new blisters to form, which, when opened, form numerous wounds where a secondary infection can join.

"Butterfly children" all childhood are forced to endure constant pain, numerous dressings and treatment open wounds. Unfortunately, currently effective therapy this disease has not yet been developed.

fast growing old children

Accelerated aging, or progeria, is another rare disease that results from a small gene anomaly. As a result, the natural course of all processes occurring in the body fails, and a person begins to age at a rapid pace (on average, within 1 year at once for 8 or more years): progresses, heart failure, cataract develops, or occurs.

Children with this pathology rarely live to their adulthood, usually dying at the age of 11-13 years, although there are isolated cases when life expectancy was 26 years or more.

When muscles turn into bones

Another rare disease is progressive fibrodysplasia ossificans (POF), or Münheimer's disease. This pathology appears due to a mutation of a gene that perverts in the body. As a result, for any inflammatory process(for example, after a blow, a strong compression of the muscle), foci of increased calcification begin to appear, which subsequently become the center of growth of new bone tissue.

Interestingly, in almost all cases, the disease is accompanied by the presence of another congenital pathology, for example, clinodactyly. thumb legs (the presence of such a finger in almost 95% of cases indicates that the child will develop ossifying fibrodysplasia).

Beginning almost at birth, POF progresses steadily, manifesting itself as calcification and subsequent ossification of muscles, tendons, fascia, and ligaments. Also, the disease is characterized by the appearance of subcutaneous seals 1–10 cm in size with localization anywhere (in children, mainly in the back, forearms and neck). In connection with the transformation into bones of the soft tissues of the body, POF is also called the disease of the formation of the second skeleton.

At the moment, about 800 cases of Münheimer's disease have been registered in the world. Means of prevention and effective treatment not yet developed.

fatal familial insomnia

Only 40 families are known to have this disease. This is a hereditary disease with varying degrees expressiveness. It occurs as a result of ongoing changes in the central part of the brain with the formation of amyloid plaques and damage to the thalamus, which provides a connection between the body and the cortex of both hemispheres.

Family insomnia is accompanied by a change on the part of other organs and systems of the body: the production of lacrimal fluid decreases, the pulse rate decreases, a rash may appear and develop.

As a rule, the disease proceeds in several stages:

• Stage 1 Insomnia gradually progresses, lasts about 4 months, is accompanied by the occurrence panic attacks and fears.
• Stage 2 Lasts 5 months, characterized by anxiety, sweating, hallucinations.
• Stage 3 Within 3 months there is complete insomnia, there is incontinence in actions.
• Stage 4 For 6 months - complete insomnia and dementia. A person can fall into a coma or die from exhaustion, as well as pneumonia of a congestive nature.

An analysis of the brains of those who died due to familial insomnia showed that this disease is caused by special proteins that can reproduce on their own - prions.

Vampire diseases

In fact, these are 2 rare genetic diseases: ectodermal dysplasia and erythropoietic porphyria. Both diseases are characterized by the fact that patients do not tolerate sunlight well, so their activity increases in the dark.

Ectodermal dysplasia. This is deadly pale skin, the absence of front teeth (there are only fangs), a large forehead, sparse hair on the head, increased dryness of the skin. Sunlight causes them to increase the formation of blisters on the skin.

Erythropoietic porphyria. It is characterized by a violation of pigment metabolism, as a result of which porphyrins accumulate in the blood, it develops, red urine, neuropsychiatric and gastrointestinal disorders are periodically observed, and photodermatosis occurs. Around the mouth, the skin gradually atrophies, forming special type a grin reminiscent of that of fairy-tale vampires, and teeth in ultraviolet rays take on a pink hue. Persons suffering from this disease also prefer to be nocturnal and hide from the sun's rays.

Jumping Lumberjack Syndrome

Different peoples call this psychological phenomenon differently: Arctic hysteria, dithering, Lat syndrome, jumping lumberjack syndrome, etc. This is a kind of reaction to fright, a sharp cry, a sudden movement, manifested in the form of certain actions and complete humility.