Cancer, heart disease, the common cold — these medical conditions are well-known by the public, in part, because they affect large numbers of people. But did you know there's a genetic condition that causes babies to suddenly lose all their fat after birth? Or an aggressive autoimmune disorder that can cause the bridge of the nose to collapse? Or a disease that causes the skin to blister under even the lightest pressure? Every week at Live Science, we call attention to a rare disorder that may not be widely known, describing its symptoms, treatments, causes and recent cases that caught our attention.
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'I had never seen a skull like this before': Medieval Spanish knight who died in battle had a rare genetic condition, study findsThe extremely long skull of a medieval knight points to an underlying genetic condition.
17 Commentsarchaeology -
The rare genetic disease that gives babies hard 'scales'The genetic disease harlequin ichthyosis affects the transport of fats within the skin, resulting in hard, scalelike plaques and an array of other symptoms.
genetics -
A rare inherited condition that causes dramatic, early agingSymptoms of Werner syndrome, which causes premature aging, can appear in a person's teens and progress quickly in their 20s and 30s.
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The rare condition that makes people unable to smileMoebius syndrome is a rare condition that affects several cranial nerves, impairing the muscles that control facial expressions and eye movements.
health -
A rare disease that causes insatiable hungerPrader-Willi syndrome is a rare genetic disease that causes poor feeding in infancy but later triggers insatiable hunger.
2 Commentsviruses-infections-disease -
The rare genetic disorder that forces people to avoid sunlightPeople with xeroderma pigmentosum can severely burn within minutes of being in the sun and are thousands of times more likely to develop skin cancer than others.
genetics -
The rare mosquito-borne illness that causes deadly brain inflammationMosquitoes that transmit La Crosse virus disease live in wooded areas in the U.S., mainly in the Upper Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast.
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This rare disease causes people to move uncontrollably and unintentionally self-harmLesch-Nyhan syndrome is an extremely rare disease that affects patients' behavior and cognitive skills.
genetics -
The exceptionally rare disease that causes holes to form in your brainCreutzfeldt-Jakob disease is an extremely rare and fatal brain-wasting disease that's like a human version of "mad cow."
viruses-infections-disease
