Chinese Woman Takes Weight Loss Pills for 7 Years, Doubles in Weight

A Chinese woman recently decided to have a stomach reduction operation after seven years of taking weight loss pills and actually putting on 100 pounds more than when she started taking them.

25-year-old Xiaoli (pseudonim) started taking weight loss pills seven years ago, after watching a convincing commercial on TV. She weighed around 100 pounds at the time, but felt like she needed to lose a bit of weight, and if some pills could help her do that, than why not? The young woman recalls that the results were encouraging at first, but as soon as she stopped taking the pills, she not only put on all the pounds she had lost but added a few extra as well. Little did she know that this was the beginning of a vicious cycle that would see her spend around 200,000 yuan ($30,000) on various weight loss pills and custom diet plans over the next 7 years, only to have her weight double during that time.

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Russian Woman Has Live Worm Crawling Underneath Her Face

Doctors in Russia recently reported the unusual case of a woman who noticed that a number blemishes appeared to move around her face every few days. Those blemishes turned out to be a live parasitic worm crawling under her skin.

The unnamed woman first noticed a small bump under her left eye, but didn’t pay too much attention to it until, five days later, when it disappeared only to be replaced by three larger blemishes above the eye. Then, 10 days later, those disappeared as well, but her upper lip became swollen. Disturbed by these symptoms, the Moscow-based woman sought medical help and ultimately learned that those strange bumps were actually a live parasitic worm called Dirofilaria repens slithering under her skin.

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The Strange Case of a Man Who Couldn’t Burp for 34 Years

A 34-year-old man who lost his ability to burp when he was only a baby, due to a condition so rare it doesn’t even have a name, has recently been cured by Botox injections in his throat, and claims his life has improved more than anyone could ever imagine.

Most of us take burping for granted, or even consider it to be offensive, without considering the fact that without it, we would have to put up with agonizing pain. At least that’s what Neil Ribbens, a man who couldn’t burp for most of his life, claims. The young record label talent from East London, UK, was unable to release gas from his stomach, which caused him to experience excruciating pain, severe hiccups and bloating, especially after consuming large meals or drinking beer and other fizzy drinks.

Neil’s bizarre problem was caused by his larynx, which apparently became so tensed that it would prevent gases from escaping through his throat. Left unable to burp since he was a baby, the man saw various doctors throughout the years, hoping to find a cure to his condition. However, most physicians had never even heard of such a problem, and some didn’t even take him seriously. Neil remembers one doctor laughing at his inability to burp, while most of the others only recommended inefficient medication.

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Rare Condition Makes 18-Year-Old Student Look Like an 80-Year-Old Grandpa

Looking at Xiao Cui for the first time, you could swear he is at least 80 years old, but in fact he is only an 18-year-old high-school student suffering from a very rare health condition that has caused his facial muscles and skin to droop, making him look a lifetime older than he really is.

18-year-old Xiao Cui is a senior at a top high-school in Harbin, China, but you couldn’t tell just by looking at him. He looks more like a pensioner than a young man in the prime of his life, but it’s all due to a mysterious condition that has been causing his facial muscles and skin to sag. In a Pear video that went viral in China at the end of last month, Cui says that he noticed the first symptoms during middle school, and that his face has been getting saggier ever since, to the point where he now looks many decades older than his classmates. Doctors have yet to understand his condition, let alone find a way to stop it or undo its effects, so Xiao has no option but to accept it and stay positive.

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The Curious Case of a Woman Who Laughs Uncontrollably When She Sees Other People Being Tickled

It’s perfectly normal for someone to laugh uncontrollably when tickled, although some of us are more ticklish than others, but researchers at the University of California, San Diego, recently reported the unusual case of a woman who would burst into laughter when seeing other people being tickled.

Referred to only as TC, the woman was apparently seeking help for her bizarre condition – whenever she saw someone getting tickled, she could feel the sensation on her own skin and would start to laugh uncontrollably as if she was the one getting tickled. Researchers conducted a series of experiments to explore the bizarre phenomenon further and concluded that the woman suffered from a rare condition known as mirror-touch synaesthesia. It is believed to be caused by mirror neurons, connectors in the brain that react the same way when an event is experienced or when it’s simply observed.

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Getting Blood Tests at Dinner Parties Could Be the Next Big Trend Among Health Freaks

Having your blood tested, getting a nutritional breakdown of every piece of food you out in your mouth and talking about high cholesterol and vitamin deficiencies sound more like a hospital visit than an enjoyable dinner party, but they are at the core of a new trend among health freaks – health optimization parties.

Keeping track of your calorie intake, drinking kale smoothies and eating quinoa salads are all fine and dandy, but if you’re really serious about your health, you’ll want to take things to the next level. That’s where health optimization parties come in. These social events allow health conscious friends and family to get an in-depth analysis of their actual health, while enjoying healthy foods and drinks and talking about the things that really matter, like cholesterol, vitamins and fitness routines.

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Woman Turns to Unlicensed Friend for Cheap Filler Injections, It doesn’t Go Well

Elizaveta Tkachenko, a 30-year-old woman from Russia, wound up in the emergency room earlier this month, after getting unknown substances injected into her face by an unlicensed aesthetician.

Tkachenko, a resident of Stavropol, had decided that she wanted to enhance certain facial features with the help of cosmetic filler injections, only instead of going to a trained aesthetician, she turned to her friend Irina, an accountant, who did the procedures at home, for cheaper. Tvacheno, who would live to regret her decision, claims that her friend assured her that she only used quality fillers and sterile instruments, and that she had plenty of experience in this field.

The woman had an unknown quantity of filler injected into her lips and near her eyes, and although some swelling is considered normal after such procedures, in Elizaveta’s case it was so extreme that she had trouble breathing, her head would ache terribly and her lips looked ready to burst. A day after the botched injections, she had to be taken to the hospital.

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Woman Requires Surgery After Napping with Her Head on Her Arm Every Day

Ever felt so tired at work that you needed to rest your head on your arm for a little while? We’ve all done it at some point, but doing it every day for long periods of time can apparently have negative consequences, as one woman in China recently learned.

Surnamed Zhang, 28-year-old  office worker from Harbin, China, used to nap at her desk during her hour-long lunch break, using her left arm as a pillow. Zhang’s fingers would often feel sore and numb when she woke up, but she didn’t pay much attention to that until three months ago, when, upon waking up from her daily nap, she couldn’t feel her left arm at all. She had experienced a similar sensation before, but it usually went away after a couple of minutes. This time the numbness wouldn’t go away, and she started having trouble with menial tasks like picking up objects, so she went to see a doctor about it.

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Canadian Naturopath Claims She Cured Aggressive Child with Remedy Made from Rabid Dog Saliva

A naturopath in Victoria, British Columbia, is facing massive criticism online, after boasting that she treated a four-year-old boy’s aggression and behavioral problems with a remedy made from rabid dog saliva.

Dr. Anke Zimmermann recently wrote about this “interesting” case on her website. Apparently, when she first 4-year-old Jonah, he had trouble sleeping, partly because he was afraid of werewolves, and would “hide under tables and growl at people” at school. After talking to his parents, Zimmermann also learned that he liked meat, particularly hamburgers, hot dogs and meatballs, and didn’t like to be cuddled, but instead would someone sniff, nuzzle and lick his mother, like a dog. Armed with this information, the naturopath asked Jonah’s mother a critical question:

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30-Year Vegetarian Diet Leaves Woman with Spinal Neuron Damage

A 50-year-old woman in Wuhan, China, was recently diagnosed with severe spinal neuron damage caused by a lack of vitamin B12. The woman had been on a strict vegetarian diet for over thirty years, and did not take any B12 supplements.

The woman, surnamed Chen, reportedly turned to a vegetarian diet in her 20s, in order to lose weight, and after seeing some truly amazing results, decided to stick with it for the rest of her life. Standing at 160-cm-tall, Chen told doctors that she used to weigh 55 kg when she was young, but managed to drop to 45 kg after becoming a vegetarian, a weight that she was proud of having maintained for over three decades. However, she never imagined that her seemingly healthy diet would put her at risk of becoming paralyzed.

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Man Left with Excruciating Headaches After Eating Carolina Reaper in Pepper-Eating Competition

Doctors in New York recently reported the case of a 34-year-old man who wound up in the hospital with severe headaches and neck pain after trying to eat a Carolina Reaper during a hot pepper eating competition.

The unnamed man reportedly started dry heaving immediately after sampling a Carolina Reaper pepper. It’s unclear whether he stopped after a few bites or finished the whole thing, but what we do know is that over the following days, he began experiencing intense headaches and neck pains that lasted only a few seconds. At one point, the pain became so hard to bare that he had to be taken to the emergency room.

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Woman Has Been Living in an Aseptic Glass Cage for 13 Years, Unable to Even Touch Her Loved Ones

53-year-old Juana Munoz, from Cadiz, Spain, has been living in a custom glass cage for the last 13 years. It is her prison, but also the very thing that keeps her protected from all the things that would otherwise kill her.

After being diagnosed with four life-threatening conditions – multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and electrosensitivity – Juana Munoz had no choice but to isolate herself inside a 25-meter glass cage. She cannot leave that space without following a very strict protocol, and anyone coming in must first shower with chemical-free cleaning products and wear only organic cotton clothes. The most painful thing is that her family cannot touch, let alone hug her without putting her life in danger. Juana’s two children, aged 26 and 29, are only allowed to hug her two times a year, and only after undergoing several days of preparation.

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Indian Girl Has Ants Pulled From Her Eyes Every Day And No One Knows How They Get There

An 11-year-old girl from Belthangady, India, recently made news headlines for having around 60 dead ants pulled from her eyes. As for how the insects got there, some doctors suggest they entered her body through the ears.

Last week, the girl, known only as Ashwini, started complaining of severe pain in her eyes. She told her parents that she felt there was something stuck in her eyes sockets, and when they checked, they did find a small ant in one of her eyes. They didn’t pay much importance to it, as they assumed the insect had gotten in there by accident, but it wasn’t long before the girl again started complaining about pain in her eyes. They discovered more dead ants, and this time, they took her to the hospital.

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Woman Suffers Liver Damage From Dyeing Her Hair Every Month for 10 Years

A middle-aged woman from Harbin, China, was recently diagnosed with chemical cirrhosis that seemed to have been caused by her long-time habit of dyeing her hair every month.

Referred to only as Mrs. Chen by Chinese media, the 50-something woman allegedly started spotting white hairs on her scalp when she was in her 30s. There were only a few of them back then, so she could easily pluck them out, but after she turned 40-year-old, the white strands really started to show, particularly around her temples. Like many other women do around that age, Chen started dyeing her hair to conceal the sign of ageing. However, she claims that her white hair grew really fast, so in order o keep it from showing, she had her hair dyed at a salon every month for the last decade. She recently learned that her habit has taken a heavy toll on her liver.

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Australian Teen Left Quadriplegic After Swallowing Garden Snail as a Dare

Sam Ballard, an aspiring rugby player from Sydney, Australia, never imagined that a silly thing like swallowing a garden snail at a party would end up ruining his life and leave him quadriplegic.

Sam’s life took a devastating turn in 2010. He was at a friend’s party drinking red wine, when someone brought out a seemingly harmless garden snail and dared him to eat it. “Eat it, I dare you,” his friend said, and never one to back off from a challenge, Sam just swallowed it whole and, after having a good laugh with his mates, went back to the party. The teen didn’t give this silly dare a second thought, but he soon fell ill and had to be taken to the hospital, where doctors discovered that he had become infected with rat lungworm.

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