The Lazarus Drug – A Sleeping Pill That Can Temporarily Fix Severe Brain Damage

Zolpidem is a sedative from the imidazopyridine class of drugs that is most commonly used to help people fall asleep faster. But, in rare cases, this common drug can actually restore function to damaged brains.

There is a reason why zolpidem is sometimes referred to as the “Lazarus Drug”. If you give this pill to someone with brain damage, in 5% to 6% of cases something miraculous happens. In most cases, the changes are minor. People’s speech improves slightly, the frequency of muscle spasms is reduced, they have less difficulty moving, but in some rare cases, a pill can even bring people back from vegetative states, allowing them speak and move as they did before suffering brain damage. The problem is that these positive effects are gone as soon as the drug wears off, and scientists have yet to discover why some patients with brain damage react this way to zolpidem.

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University Students May Be Getting COVID-19 Intentionally, to Sell Antibody Plasma

The Brigham Young University in Idaho has launched an investigation into claims that some of its students are intentionally trying to get infected with SARS-CoV-2, to then sell their antibody plasma for cash.

Officials at Brigham Young University, which is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, strongly condemned the the alleged behavior of its students and announced its decision to suspend anyone caught attempting to contract the virus on purpose. The university is currently investigating incidents on campus, and has urged students not to put themselves and others at risk for financial risks, because the risk is not worth the reward.

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Woman Suffering From “Face Blindness” Can’t Even Recognize Her Own Face

Can you imagine looking in the mirror and not recognizing the person staring back at you. That’s what Lena, a 29-year-old Russian woman suffering from prosopagnosia, a rare condition that makes it impossible to recognize faces, including her own.

Lena Ash only learned that she was suffering from prosopagnosia last year. Before that, she had always tried to convince herself that she wasn’t simply slower than other people. Even as a child, Lena had problems recognizing faces, and talking to her parents about it didn’t really help. She doesn’t blame them for it, as they didn’t even know such a condition existed, and it’s not like they could simply google her symptoms back then. Not even the neurologists she went to for her headaches, migraines, low blood pressure and nausea could figure out the cause of her health problems, and this all made her feel ashamed of herself.

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Father Suffers Heart Attack Trying to Explain Math Problem to His Son

A 45-year-old Chinese man reportedly suffered a heart attack after getting extremely upset while helping his son with his math homework.

The man, surnamed Liu, had been helping his Year 3 son with homework since school started last month, but over the past two weeks he had started experiencing a mild pain in his chest whenever he got frustrated with the boy. Things got really bad on Sunday, when Liu became really upset after repeating the same math question to his son three times, who was struggling to find the answer. At one point he started experiencing sharp chest pain and shortness of breath, and eventually passed out. Liu later woke up and thought medical attention at the Shenzhen Third People’s Hospital, where he learned that he had suffered a heart attack.

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Members of Indigenous Indonesian Tribe Have Electric Blue Eyes Due to Rare Genetic Condition

Blue eyes are a rare sight in Indonesia, a country where the vast majority of the population has dark hair and dark eyes, but some members of an indigenous tribe have the most stunning blue eyes, because of a rare condition known as Waardenburg Syndrome.

Believed to affect about 1 in 42,000 people, Waardenburg Syndrome is characterized by some degree of hearing loss and pigmentation deficiencies, which can include bright blue eyes (or one blue eye and one black/brown eye). It is caused by mutations in any of several genes that affect the operation of neural crest cells in embryonic development. The visual effect of Waardenburg Syndrome is particularly impressive in ethnic groups where blue eyes are a rarity, as you can see in the photos of members of the Buton tribe taken by Indonesian geologist and amateur photographer Korchnoi Pasaribu.

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Teenage Girl Allegedly Cries Blood And Doctors Have No Idea Why

A 15-year-old Brazilian girl has baffled doctors after allegedly crying blood from her eyes for over a week, for reasons that doctors cannot understand.

The girl, identified only Doris, started feeling sick on September 12, and her mother took her to a hospital in her home city of Sao Paolo. She complained of pain in her abdomen and doctors diagnosed her with kidney stones. She was given medication for the pain and was sent home shortly after. However, on Sunday morning she was again rushed to the emergency room with blood coming out of one eye. Doctors examined Doris, but couldn’t determine the cause of the blood tears, and since she reported no pain or discomfort, she was once again sent home.

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Indonesian Ministry Claims Eucalyptus Necklace Can Prevent Coronavirus Infections

While the rest of the world struggles to find a cure or even a treatment for Covid-19, Indonesia’s Agriculture Ministry  claims to have found a solution – wearing a eucalyptus necklace developed by one of its agencies.

The so-called “antivirus necklace” was developed by Balitbangtan, the Agriculture Ministry’s Health Research and Development Agency, and will go into mass-production next month. According to minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo, the necklace was made using a species of eucalyptus that can kill the novel coronavirus. Simply wearing the accessory for 15 minutes allegedly kills 42 percent of coronavirus, while upping the time to 30 minutes doubles its effectiveness. The eucalyptus necklace is just one of a whole line of all-natural products designed to prevent or treat Covid-19.

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The Curious Case of a Man Who Cannot See Simple Digits From 2 to 9

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University recently reported the strange case of a man’s whose rare degenerative brain disease left him unable to distinguish basic numbers from 2 to 9.

After studying an engineering geologist diagnosed with a rare degenerative brain disease called corticobasal syndrome for eight years, researchers published a study which they claim suggests that a brain response to a picture or a word does not necessarily mean that person is aware of it. The protagonist of their research had suffered neurological damage to such an extent that he could not distinguish or reproduce numbers between 2 and 9, nor pictures or words with such digits embedded in them. And yet, electroencephalography (EEG) results showed that his brain was able to properly identify all pictures and words, even id he wasn’t aware of it.

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Man Ruptures Bladder After Holding Pee in for 18 Hours

A 40-year-old man in China reportedly suffered three bladder tears after drinking ten beers and then holding pee in for a shocking 18 hours.

Earlier this month, the man, referred to only as Mr. Hu, had reportedly consumed 10 beers during a night on the town, before coming home and crashing into an inebriated sleep. Somehow he never woke up to urinate after drinking that many beers. He just went to sleep and didn’t empty his bladder once for a total of 18 hours, which doctors later explained could be tied to alcohol’s capacity to suppress the nervous system. It is possible that Hu just didn’t feel the sensation of needing to empty his bladder while he slept. That all changed when he woke up, though.

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Hospitalized Man Dies After family Allegedly Unplugs Ventilator to Switch on Air Cooler

A 40-year-old Indian man tragically lost his life recently after his visiting family allegedly unplugged the ventilator keeping him alive in order to plug in an air cooler, after the hospital turned on air conditioning to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The unnamed man was suspected to be suffering from COVID-19 and admitted to the ICU at Maharao Bhim Singh (MBS) Hospital in Rajasthan, India, on June 13. Two days later, after another patient there tested positive for the virus, he was moved to an isolation ward as a safety precaution. That same day, the man’s family came to visit, and because it was extremely hot in the Kota district of Rajasthan (41 degrees Celsius), they brought an electrical air cooler. Under normal circumstances, the hospital’s air conditioning would have made the air cooler redundant, but because of the Covid-19 threat, the air conditioning system had been turned off to stop the spread of the virus.

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Woman Who Couldn’t Speaks For Two Months, Now Speaks With Four Foreign Accents

Emil Egan was born and raised in Essex, United Kingdom and speaks no foreign language, but hearing her speak you could swear she is a Russian immigrant or tourist, because of her Eastern European accent. But the funny thing is that she sometimes sounds French, Italian or even Polish, depending on how tire she is.

31-year-old Emily’s life changed dramatically in January, when a mysterious condition left her unable to speak for two months. She had complained about headaches for two weeks before one day developing a deeper voice out of the blue. Her colleagues at a children’s home she was managing in Bournemouth then noticed that her speech had become slow and slurred, both indicators of a stroke. By the time she was rushed to the hospital Emily had lost her ability to speak completely, but after running some tests, doctors ruled out the strike, instead blaming her voice loss on some sort of brain injury.

After spending three weeks in the hospital, Emily Egan was still unable to speak and relied solely on basic sign language she had picked up at work and a text-to-speech app on her phone to communicate. Emily was discharged to a neurologist who encouraged her to go on a vacation in Thailand she and her partner Bradleigh had already booked, and to try and relax as much as possible. She did just that and a few days into the vacation, she started to speak again.

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Chinese Man Gains 100Kg During Five-Month Lockdown

A 26-year-old Chinese man was recently labeled Wuhan’s fattest person after gaining a whopping 100 kilograms during the city’s five-month lockdown.

The man, referred to only as Zhou, to protect his privacy, wasn’t exactly fir before the coronavirus started wreaking havoc in Wuhan, prompting the authorities to impose a strict lockdown. But at least he kept his weight in check, worked at a local cafe and lead a relatively normal lifestyle. But that all changed when Zhou started spending most of his time indoor. Unable to burn off any calories, he started gaining weight, and in a few months’ time he had ballooned to 616 pounds (280 kilograms), over 200 pounds more than he weighed before the Covid-19 epidemic.

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Concerning Number of Americans Drinking and Gurgling Bleach to Prevent Covid-19

The results of a recently-published survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) suggest that 39 percent of Americans are using bleach and other high-risk cleaners in improper ways in order to prevent getting infected with the novel coronavirus.

After noticing an unusual spike in calls to poison control center about harmful exposures to household cleaning agents like bleach back in April, CDC researchers assumed the phenomenon was linked to the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection. But in order to get a clearer picture of the situation, the agency conducted an online survey regarding household cleaning knowledge and practices, and got some pretty unexpected results. It turns out some people intentionally gurgle bleach or inhale disinfectant fumes in order to prevent Covid-19.

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10-Year-Old Boy Allegedly Grows Mould in Ear Canal Due to Wearing Earbuds Too Much

Chinese media recently reported the bizarre case of a 10-yer-old boy who allegedly developed black mold in his ear canal because of wearing earbuds for long periods of time.

You would think that the human body had some way of preventing mould from developing, even in dark and secluded orifices like the ear canals, but it turns out that with the right conditions fungal infections can occur in our ears. Doctors at the Shunyi Women and Children’s Hospital in Beijing recently reported the case of a young boy who came in with his mother complaining of ear pain and stuffiness-like sensation. Upon examination, he was diagnosed with ear canal mycosis, or in simple terms – mold in the ear canal.

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South Korean Woman Has Drunk 150,000 Cans of Coke in the Last 40 Years

If you’re the kind of person who thinks drinking Coke every day is a sure way to an early grave, this 74-year-old woman who has been basically living on the popular soft drinks for four decades would like a word with you…

Back in February, South Korean YouTube channel X SBS featured the unusual story of a pensioner who has allegedly been drinking nothing but Coca Cola for the past 40 years. Interestingly, she isn’t one of those people who just can’t stand water, or who has been drinking Coke from a young age and could never be weaned off of it. Her Coke addiction is related to a traumatic event – the loss of her husband, the love of her life, at the age of 34. The woman said that she turned to Coke the way other people turn to alcohol to drown their sorrows, and only became more addicted to the drink even more after also losing her son in a traffic accident.

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