We’ve all seen it in movies or on TV – someone’s hand gets possessed and does all sorts of crazy things. There was a movie about it – Idle Hands – where the protagonist with the antagonistic hand ends up killing a whole lot of people. On an early episode of “Angel” Lindsey gets a new hand and it writes “kill, kill, kill” and all sorts of stuff. One of my favorites is the scene from Evil Dead where Ash’s hand gets possessed. Observe:
Fun, huh? Anyway. As it turns out, Alien Hand Syndrome is a real thing. It’s certainly (at least I don’t think so) as extreme as poor Ash up there, but it’s still a tough thing to deal with. It can be caused by a number of things – sometimes doctors will surgically separate the hemispheres of an epileptic’s brain – that can cause it. It can also happen because of a brain injury. Basically, the part of the brain that controls that appendage isn’t in cahoots with the rest of the brain that controls the rest of the body. Hence the name “alien.” It is simply not controlled by the conscious part of the mind. Really makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Here is a video interview with a woman who suffers from alien hand syndrome. The video isn’t as exciting as the one above, but it is still pretty interesting.
Posted on
February 08, 2010 by
Bizarre Medical News
Nobody really knows why they occur, but every now and then people get a weird little bump on their wrist or ankle that feels sort of like a swollen node, but it’s not. It’s a cyst, it’s a Ganglion Cyst, also called a “Bible Bump.”
Wikipedia says that it’s likely a valve problem with the joint – fluid can get out of the joint but it can’t get back in, forming the cyst. They say the fluid inside is like synovial fluid (like egg yolk), but it’s a little thicker.
The cysts mainly appear on the wrist; both the top side of the wrist and the underside. I actually have one right now, which is what led me to the research and this subsequent post. I want it to go away, but since it doesn’t hurt I don’t want to go to any extreme measures to remove it.
“Bible Bump.” Why is it called that? Legend has it that people used to used to use the largest book in their house (usually the family Bible) to bash the cyst to get rid of it. See?
The word “ganglion” means a mass of tissues. I guess a joint is a mass of tissues, so to have a cyst on it would make the name make sense.
Incidentally, there are lots of “home remedy” suggestions out there, mostly involving different plants and herbs (Hong Hua, Sutherlandia frutescens, Job’s tears, etc.) and hitting the cyst with different heavy instruments (books, coffee mugs, rubber mallets). I think I’ll just leave mine alone for now.
Because of our interest in all things bizarre in the medical world, we spend a lot of time scouring the internet for news of the weird. At the risk of being a bit controversial, we submit to you a condition we found via News of The World, a UK website. In a 2007 article they tell us about Sarah, a then-24-year-old girl with a very strange medical condition.
She can’t stop having orgasms.
She has 100 to 200 orgasms per day. She can’t use a hairdryer, ride in a car, or even be in a noisy room full of people because the vibrations send her into fits. She has a condition called Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome (PSAS), and before you start feeling jealous, imagine not being able to control when (or where) you reach your “happy place”. She’s a beautician, and she has to deal with having all these orgasms every day right in front of people. You can imagine, it’s pretty hard to get things done when your body is busy climaxing all the time.
PSAS is likely a nerve disorder, though not enough people have done studies on it to know for sure. The condition is pretty rare. It was only first documented in 2001. It seems that most triggers are certain types of drugs. For sure, Sarah’s symptoms didn’t start until she’d been on anti-depressants and then went off them. Ever since then, she’s been suffering with this disorder.
Because the condition is thought to be nerve-related, physical therapy is one possible treatment. Similarly, because the nerve disorder thought to cause PSAS is pundendal nerve entrapment, surgery is another option. Surely there must be something that can help people like poor Sarah. Too much of a good thing is still…too much.
Weird medical diseases, strange medical facts and bizarre human conditions, you will find your fill of the odd medical news here. Photo header credit: by brian cors
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