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Amazing Oddities of the Human Body

By Heather Brown

There are more than 6 billion people on this planet and for the most part, everyone is pretty much average with a few special talents here and there. Some might be taller than others, while others may be shorter than normal but every so often, a person is born with some pretty amazing oddity. These people have conditions that make them stand out and while some conditions are more apparent than others, they are all indeed a wonder to behold. Below are some of the more bizarre and amazing human oddities recorded throughout the years.

1.  Wolfman – most men (and some women) have to deal with a little facial hair and it’s is no big deal for the most part. A shave or a wax deals with that beard and gets rid of that mustache. But if you are Julia Pastrana (1834) or just one of the 50 people ever recorded to have suffered from hypertrichosis, hair is a big problem. Hypertrichoses is a condition where hair grows everywhere- even on the face. In the case of Julia Pastrana she grew long luxurious black hair not just on her head, but her whole body and only her palms and the soles of her feet didn’t have hair.

2.  Tree man of Java – there have been stories and movies about the Elephant man but what most people do not know is that in the island of Java, they have Dede Koswara who is known as the Tree man. He developed bark-like growths all over his body which are actually warts. He has a very rare condition called Lewandowsky-lutz dysplasia which is an autosomal recessive skin disorder that also happens to be genetic. It is associated with a high risk of carcinoma. He had a procedure done back on 2008 to remove the bark-like growth on his arms and legs but has since suffered a setback when the old papules and warts started growing again.

3. “Man of the a golden arm” – this isn’t a story about some guy that turns objects into gold because it is about James Morrison a man from the land down under who has a rare antibody in his blood that helps babies with rhesus disease. He has donated about a hundred pints of blood and has saved about 2 million babies to date. His blood is so precious that his life was insured for a cool million dollars the day he started donating when he turned 18. He is now 74 and plans to donate even more blood.

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