Strange, Weird & Bizarre Medical Cases & Facts

So, like I’ve said before, I’m totally obsessed with this show on The History Channel called Stan Lee’s Superhumans.  On the very first episode, they featured this guy named Gino Martino (actually his name is John Ferraro) who can break stuff over his head.  And not just boards and stuff like that.  Try steel beams.  Check this out:

How, oh how, is this possible?  The beams aren’t fake, that’s one thing.  And this guy’s amazing head-butt powers are further examined on the History Channel show.  He breaks a cinderblock by placing the cinderblock on his head and having someone drop a BOWLING BALL on it. He breaks another cinderblock by having someone hit it with a sledgehammer.  Most of these activities would kill someone, or at least seriously scramble their brains, but Gino/John is able to do this with little side effects.  No, it’s not super easy for him, but he can shake it off pretty quickly.

SPOILER ALERT!

So, after doing the tests and things on this guy, the show’s scientists or doctors or whatever discovered that this guy’s skull is, like, 14.5 mm thick.  The average man’s skull is about 6.5 mm thick, which means that Dudester here has a skull that is over twice as thick as an average skull.  How completely cool is that?

Unfortunately for Gino/John, his SKIN isn’t super thick, so when he does things like breaking metal over his head, or hammering a big nail into a board with his forehead, he still gets a little bloody.

But despite his tendency to get all gory, John Ferraro is actually sort of a superhuman.  He has a super thick skull, which makes this self-proclaimed “Head Butt King” exceptional.  Stan Lee named him “The Human Anvil,” and we’re all sort of hoping he gets his own book, right?

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So there is this new show on The History Channel called Stan Lee’s Superhumans.  They find people who are able to do things that “normal” people can’t, and they set out to find out why that person can do what they do.  Stan himself eschews the travel to do the introductions in his super cool studio and  leaves the travel and interviewing to Daniel Browning Smith – also known as the world’s most flexible man.  He holds a bunch of world records for his flexibility (including the Guinness World Record) and trained with Master Lu Yi to learn how to do Chinese acrobatics.  That talent, combined with his amazing flexibility, makes Browning Smith a Superhuman that finds other Superhumans.

Daniel Browning Smith as "Rubberboy"

How is he able to do that?  How do contortionists make their bodies do that?  Are they double-jointed?  What is “double-jointed,” anyway?  Lucky for you folks, I went ahead and looked all that up for you, along with a few other tidbits to keep you thrilled and entertained.

Huit Huit - named Makaya Dimbelelo - is a contortionist who suffered extreme poverty in Angola and the Congo before making his way to Europe to join the circus. He performed with the 2008 circus Afrika!Afrika!

If you search “double jointed” you’re likely to come up with the term “hypermobility.”  So no, being double-jointed doesn’t mean that you have two joints where you have one joint, making you able to bend the joint either way.  It means that your joints are hypermobile, they are able to stretch much farther and in different directions than normal joints.

What makes a joint hypermobile?  Sometimes the ends of the bones are shaped differently, making them behave in the joint differently.  Other times, there is a collagen or connective tissue issue that allows the bones to move in the joints differently.  Hypermobility might be genetic, as it tends to run in families.  Sometimes the condition is simply a hypermobility of joints with no other health concerns, but other times the condition is a symptom of a larger health condition.  There are a number of diseases that have hypermobility as a symptom, including Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis (strange, huh?) and Down syndrome, among many others.

Even if one of the diseases is absent, people with hypermobility are more susceptible to fibromyalgia and joint pain, as well as chronic fatigue syndrome.  Other people live healthy and happy lives, and go on to use their hypermobility to make a living and to amaze and astonish.

A contestant in 2003's Contortionist Convention

Somebody call the chiropractor!

performers at Cirque de Soleil

Not all contortionists are hypermobile, as the human muscles can be trained to be extremely flexible, but the most flexible contortionists are hypermobile.  They either have a connective tissue issue or interestingly shaped bones.  Some sources separate contortionists into frontbenders or backbenders, noting that most contortionists have greater ease bending one way or the other.

backbender

another backbender

The cool thing about Browning Smith is that he’s a both bender.  He can bend his body every which way and is super flexible in almost every direction.  He’s the most famous contortionist in the world, and a charming co-host on one of the coolest current TV programs.

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Google “two-headed” and you’ll likely come up with a barrage of internet articles that cover the same two-headed creatures.  There’s that turtle, the two-headed gecko, a two-headed fish caught in Lake Athabasca, and so on.  That two-headed calf will likely be included, and there will be a bunch of comments that run the gamut between “dear God KILL IT” and “all God’s creatures are beautiful.”  You tell me:

This little guy was born January 15, 2007, right before the beginning of The Year of the Pig.  Since he was born in China, and in China the pig is a sign of fertility (sort that one out, why don’t you?) he was considered to be a harbinger of  good things to come.  Since I can’t find any reports on whether he died or not, I imagine he’s been happily living a two-headed life these last almost 4 years.  Unlike this little guy:

Aw!  Double cuteness, right?  Gemini was born in Perth, Australia and only lived about a week before it died peacefully.  We know this because there were a slew of news reports:  “Two Headed Cat Born in Australia” and then “Two Headed Cat Dies.”  No such news on the piggy, so we’re hoping he’s still alive.

What causes something to be born with two heads?  Usually it’s a case of cojoined twins.  Each head has its own brain, and the brains work together to control the limbs and organs.  The survival rate isn’t good.  Humans, actually, have had a surprisingly successful survival rate.  For instance, Abigail and Brittany Hensel have 2 heads, 2 spinal cords, 2 arms, 2 hearts, 2 stomachs, 2 legs, 1 liver, and 3 kidneys.  Their parents looked into getting them separated, but it wasn’t likely that both sisters would survive the operation.  The girls ended up coping and developing just fine – learning to walk, run, ride a bike, and live like normal girls, just ones who share a body.

The girls graduated from high school in 2008 and started college soon after.  Abby and Britty, as they prefer to be called, have completely different taste in clothes, food, and boys.  They get along great (which is a blessing, right?) and expect to live great and full lives.  Which, with their brains and determination, we are sure they will do.

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