An American neuroscientist has developed a rare condition that leaves him paralysed when he feels the emotion of love. Matt Frerking, 39, from Portland, Oregon, is left immobile if he even has a romantic thought or sees others showing displays of affection.

The affliction has been diagnosed as a combination of the chronic sleeping disorder narcolepsy with cataplexy, a sudden weakening of the muscles which renders the person temporarily immobile but still aware of their surroundings and able to hear.

For Mr Frerking the feeling that sparks an attack is love and being around his family can send him into a state of physical paralysis.

I have to limit those things very carefully.” During an interview with ABC News, he described having to avoid “warm and fuzzy” feelings before passing out after looking at photos in his wedding album. Attacks are also triggered by trailers for romantic films and Mr Frerking said he tries to stave them off by thinking about scientific research. Carol Ash, a sleep specialist at the Sleep for Life Center in New Jersey, said: “In someone like Matt strong emotions are flipping a switch.”

Every day, Michelle Philpots wakes up next to a man who has to convince her they are married.

When she expresses doubt, he takes out a photo album and shows her pictures of their wedding 13 years ago.

Michelle and Ian on their wedding day in 1997. She lost her short-term memory in 1994 and every day since then he has to convince her they are married. Some days he has to get out the wedding pictures to prove they are husband and wife.

The 47-year-old’s condition was caused by brain injuries sustained in two road accidents. She can recall everything up to 1994 but since then everything that happens on one day is forgotten the next.

Her case echoes 50 First Dates, the 2004 movie in which Adam Sandler tries to woo Drew Barrymore, who has no day-to-day memory following a car crash.

And it is not just loved ones Mrs Philpots struggles with. She uses hundreds of Post-It notes and reminders on her mobile phone’s calendar to keep her informed of appointments and everyday duties.

Anything she has done or anyone she has met must be logged for future reference. And on the rare occasions she ventures out of her home in Spalding, Lincolnshire, she goes armed with sat-nav programmed with her address.

There are some benefits, however. There is no such thing as a repeat on TV and every joke is funny because it’s the first time she’s heard it.

‘It’s like I am living the same day, day after day,’ said Mrs Philpots, who does voluntary work at a charity for people with disabilities three days a week.

‘I love to watch EastEnders but I can’t remember the characters or any story lines.’ Her husband, a 46-year-old fencer, said the secret of the success of their marriage was patience.

‘It can be very frustrating for me but I have to be patient and understand. I have to keep calm because I love her,’ he said.

‘I’ve known her for 25 years so I am lucky we met before she had the accidents because she can remember me. Luckily we have lots of photos to remind her, otherwise she would forget it all.’

Mrs Philpots suffered brain injuries in a motorbike crash in 1985 and a car accident in 1990. The couple have no children.
Enlarge The aftermath of one of the car crashes which caused Mrs Philpots to lose her short term memory

Mrs Philpot’s case is similar to the storyline in the film 50 First Dates, starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. Her character, Lucy, suffers from short-term memory loss and forgets her love interest Henry, played by Sandler, every day

Dr Peter Nestor, a neuroscience specialist at Cambridge University, said Mrs Philpots was suffering from anterograde amnesia.

He added: ‘It is reasonably rare but it does exist. You are capable of carrying out day-to-day things and don’t forget how to do certain things like speaking.

‘But if someone was to ask you what you did yesterday, you wouldn’t have a clue.’

[Leggi Tutto]

A youngster dubbed turtle boy by cruel bullies is starting a new life after a miracle two hour operation to remove a giant shell of hard skin from his back.

Maimaiti Hali, eight – from Heping, northern China – was born with a hard, mutated growth covering most of his back.

Dad Maimaiti Musai said: “We were told surgery wasn’t possible when he was very young so we waited. But the growth got bigger and harder and became like a turtle shell.

“People bullied him and we were determined to end it. He is such a good and brave boy and he never complained. We are so glad that he is now on the mend.”

Medics at Urumqi Military General Hospital say they have cut away the growth and replaced it with skin grafts from Hali’s scalp and legs.

Chief surgeon Ye Xiangpo explained: “The skin we removed was as thick as a bull’s hide. We used scalp hair on the graft because it grows back very quickly. We expect him to make a full recovery.”

Hali added: “It was a bit painful, but I won’t worry about other kids laughing at me any more. I am looking forward to going out in the sun without my shirt on and to going swimming with my friends.”

Previously we talk about Tian Yunting, The Turtle Girl.

[Leggi Tutto]

Centenarian Zhang Ruifang, of Linlou Village in China’s Henan Province, first started developing the strange growth in 2009, when a patch of rough skin appeared on the left side of her forehead.

Her youngest son, 60-year-old Zhang Guozheng, said that when the growth first appeared they ‘didn’t pay too much attention to it’.

‘But as time went on a horn grew out of her head and it is now 6cm long,’ he said.

The growth is thought to be a ‘cutaneous horn’ – a tumour composed of keratin, the same substance that makes up fingernails, which most commonly occur in elderly people. Normally cutaneous horns are very small, several larger ones, which can stretch several inches, have been recorded in the past.

The condition has left her family worried – especially now it seems that she is developing a second horn on the right side of her forehead to match the first.

[Source]

A magician is in hospital suffering from severe frostbite after spending more than 64 hours as a human ice cube to break a world endurance record.

Latvian illusionist Gennady Palychevsky, 40, spent 64 hours and 32 minutes in the six foot square ice cube in the Russian capital Moscow before signaling for help.

The event tops American magician David Blaine’s 63 hours in ice in New York 10 years ago.

Palychevsky – known as Mr Fix – in magic circles – staggered from the ice after his frozen ordeal and was rushed away by paramedics.

His horrified wife Jelena said later: “The last night was the most difficult. Each hour we thought would be the last in the ice and at five in the morning we began panicking.”

“He wasn’t in good shape when he left the ice, he was very bad, but he’s much better now,” she added yesterday (sunday).

Medics say Palychevsky was on the verge of literally freezing to death before he called a halt to the stunt.

Palychevsky – who trained in ice baths for six months – didn’t eat or drink while he was sealed inside his ice tomb, broadcast live on Latvian radio throughout the entire stunt.

Timed videos of the event have been sent to Guinness World Records and will be made into a TV documentary later this year.

Palychevsky’s officials say he spent 32 minutes longer in the ice than the previous record holder, Israeli illusionist Hezi Dayan.

Dayan set the record only a month ago, after it was previously held by famous American magician David Blaine who spent 63 hours in Times Square encased in ice in 2000.