When a 44-year-old American man turned up at an eye clinic in an attempt to set up with a new doctor after a recent move, the ophthalmologist observed a strange and extremely rare symptom - the man's eye seemed to emit a glow, with many subsequent people even pointing out that the man's eye looks a lot like the ominous Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings.
Cultural references aside, though, the man faced a serious rare disorder that caused the eye pigment in his eye to flake off as a result of ocular pressure abnormalities and a clogged eye drainage. The rare disease is called pigment dispersion syndrome, and it's very rare in adults past the age of 30. Long story short, a combination of laser therapy and eye pressure medication ultimately helped restore the eye pigment in the man's eyes.
Methemoglobinemia can be hereditary or a side effect of medication, and in this case, it was likely the numbing cream she applied liberally to treat a toothache that caused the condition. The condition was treated with methylene blue, a medication that can typically reverse the condition in a matter of hours.
When a 60-year-old woman in Israel was attending a wedding, she confused avocado with wasabi, and ended up eating a large quantity of the Japanese horseradish. Only a few minutes later, she suddenly felt pressure in her chest, which was radiating into her arms.
The following day, the woman was diagnosed with broken-heart syndrome, a condition that usually occurs after massive emotional or physical stress and manifests itself through the enlargement and weakening of the left ventricle, which greatly increases one's risk of heart events and stroke.
The condition is usually temporary, and the woman recovered in a month, although she did have to take heart medications during this time.
If anyone is still looking for proof that junk food is bad for you, here is a prime example. By the age of 17, a British teen was diagnosed legally blind, all because of his poor eating habits. A picky eater, the teen ate nothing but fries, chips, white bread, sliced ham, sausages and other kinds of junk food for years, and by the age of 14, he developed a vitamin B12 deficiency, which developed into hearing and eyesight problems by the age of 15.
The symptoms developed because the lack of the vitamin can result in nerve damage, with the ocular nerve being affected quite often. The condition is permanent, but the teen managed to stop any further ocular degeneration after he started taking nutritional supplements.
Urine color is not the hottest topic of party conversations unless you're attending a urology convention, that is. The only exception we can think of is when urine suddenly turns a bright purple, which it did for a French woman after 10 days of hospitalization. The condition only occurs for patients using catheter bags, and it's known as the purple urine bag syndrome. The unusual color is created as a result of a chemical reaction between certain drugs and dietary ingredients in catheter bags.
Surely, purple urine must look quite alarming, but it is usually benign, although it can be a sign of a urinary tract infection. The French woman from the case report did not have a UTI, and after drinking more water for a few days, the urine color returned to normal.
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