The 5 Most Terrifying Diseases That Doctors Can't Explain. We tend to trust that doctors are on top of this whole "getting sick" phenomenon -- when we visit the hospital, we know that someone is going to be able to tell us what's wrong with us and how to fix it. But then there are some particularly unusual diseases out there that have medical professionals throwing up their arms and declaring "Shit, we guess it's witchcraft. " Things like ... #5.
The Sleeping Sickness Getty Imagine your spouse comes down with what you assume is a bad cold. Getty"I told you not to mix NyQuil and Ambien! " It's not the first act of a horror movie, but a real, baffling disease that had doctors puzzled at the beginning of the 20th century. It began with victims complaining of a sore throat, right before it escalated into a goddamned living nightmare, the victims afflicted with hallucinations and madness before their bodies ultimately locked up.
Getty"After discussing what a pain in the ass recovery will be, his father and I have decided to pull the plug. " #4. . #3. 5 Illegal Drugs With Surprisingly Wholesome Medical Uses. Whether you agree with outlawing certain drugs or not, most of them are illegal for a reason, right? Especially the really hard ones -- they're like muggers, waiting for you to stumble down some dark alley so they can take all your money and leave you bloody and covered in sores. However, much like Darth Vader, some of them aren't completely evil, or even as bad as they seem.
Sometimes, under bizarre circumstances, they actually help people, in ways you might not expect. #5. Cocaine Treats Wounds on Children Photos.com Let's say you're driving your son home from a nail-biting extra innings Little League victory. The errand complete, you're pulling in to the McDonald's parking lot when a hipster rear-ends you at 35 mph because he was too busy sending a self-congratulatory tweet about how he never stops at said McDonald's to notice your turn signal.
Photos.com"Use the pure stuff, not the bag you cut with drain cleaner! " Wait, What? Getty"I feel fine now, we should just hang out and talk. . #4. The 5 Most Humiliating Ways the Wilderness Can Kill You. Like any relationship between parents and their grown offspring, Mother Nature and humanity get along best when they don't have to see each other very often. Weekend visits and the occasional longer holiday trip seem to be enough for people to appreciate the majesty of nature while still avoiding the inherent guilt of not doing enough for their Mother in her old age.
On the other hand, the biggest difference between your real mother and Mother Nature is that if you overstay your welcome in the wilderness, it will murder you. Probably. I won't pretend to know what your family dynamic is like. Each year, due to ill-preparedness or accidents, scores of people get lost for days in the outdoors, and many of them end up dead, because nature is full of terrible things like sharp rocks, snow and indifference. . #5. The problem is a combination of dehydration and a refusal to poop in the woods.
"It sounds crazy, but I'm really going to miss it when this is all over. " #4. . #3. The 7 Most Terrifyingly Huge Things in the History of Nature. We may be the undisputed kings of the food chain, but when it comes to being pant-soilingly huge, we come up a bit short. We can hang out with tiny dogs and house cats until we feel like the T-Rex of our home -- but in the back of our mind, we know. Nature has produced terrifyingly huge and horrific organisms that could kill us without noticing, either by stepping on us, accidentally swallowing us the way we might swallow a fly or simply stopping our heart with sheer terror. A Crab as Big as Your Car They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Via Wikimedia CommonsIn this case, almost all of them are some variation of AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Japanese spider crabs, in what we can only assume is a cruel joke from God, possess all the most terrifying qualities of each of its namesakes.
Long spindly legs to help it creep through your nightmares.A terrifyingly disproportionate body just to freak you out.The ability to trigger the primal arachnophobe inside us all. Via NHM And from crabs it has: The 5 Most Insane Modern Medical Procedures That Work. Medicine is unique in that every radical advance is simultaneously exciting and terrifying. When they tell you that they may be able to repair your liver by implanting one grown in a sheep, you'll be half tempted to say, "Nah, I'm just gonna try to ride this one out. " Those same mixed emotions surely run through every patient who hears their doctor suggest ... #5.
Shoving Human Feces Up Your Nose Getty The Insanity: So, you've got some stomach problems. Getty"Eat shit and live. " The Science: How in the hell could that possibly be a real thing? But, if the bacteria go wrong, then digestion goes wrong. And then they went and had a party to celebrate, because scientists are different from us.
They call it "fecal bacteriotherapy" (also known as a fecal transplant or transfusion), and we know what you're thinking: "So does this mean the donor has to come to the hospital and poop into my butt? GettyThis is why a lot of porn stars have incredibly healthy intestines. #4. . #3. 11 Everyday Things That Are Terrifying Under a Microscope. As human beings, we go about our day-to-day lives, completely oblivious to the microscopic world around us. And that ignorance is great, because most of that microscopic world is scary as hell. Cracked has touched on some of these horrors before, but like the Leprechaun movies, the terror could not be confined to just one installment. #11. Your Pillow At Normal Size: Odds are there's at least one pillow lying on your bed right now, but here's a picture anyway: GettyEveryone on board so far?
You rest your head on one almost every night (excepting those instances where you wake up in a daze on bloodied tile/pavement with a racketeer's jawbone in your vest pocket). But Up Close ... You couldn't be more wrong. Unseen Companions via Apartment Therapy"We're just waiting for an ear to crawl into. " Those are common house dust mites. . #10. Hydrothermal vent worms are so tiny that you can't see them. Oh, they're in there. FEIRun, Kevin Bacon, run! #9. Getty Because they both look like this: #8. Telegraph. 6 Ridiculous Sex Myths (That Are Actually True)
The only thing more awesome than an urban legend turning out to be true is if that same legend involves some sort of nefarious sex or groin related hilarity. Luckily, all of these qualify. The Legend: "Dude, I can totally tell he's gay! Look at his fingers! " This sounds like one of those playground urban myths that adolescent males use as an excuse to punch each other. Supposedly, comparing the size of your index and ring fingers can tell whether a guy is destined to one day make out with Sulu and Andy Dick in a poorly lit alley in Hollywood. Yeah, right. The Truth: Incredibly, this is a real thing. Apparently if you have a longer ring finger, it means you got more testosterone as a fetus and are more likely to be hyperactive, aggressive and disgusted by anything featuring Hugh Grant.
A longer index finger, on the other hand, means more estrogen, making you more neurotic and sensitive. Actually, no. So... how far into this entry did you get before you stopped to look at your fingers? The 7 Most Terrifying Archaeological Discoveries. No professional position, aside from perhaps police officer and horny pizza delivery boy, is more frequently misrepresented in film than archaeologist. In movies, archaeologists are all dashing figures, risking life and limb in the pursuit of knowledge while arcane artifacts and ancient traps besiege their efforts. Or else they're perpetually opening sealed, cursed tombs and stumbling into the haunted caves of unspeakable evils in the name of science. But in reality, we all know archaeology is nothing like that. Obviously. It's way more terrifying. #7.
The Screaming Mummies Getty In 1886, Gaston Maspero, the head of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, was doing like he do -- just taking mummies out of their sarcophagi, unwrapping them, dictating all kinds of boring notes -- when he came across an unusually plain burial box. Anubis4_2000.tripod.com FlickrOr having the most horrific orgasms known to man.
National Geographic Yep. Darkdissolution"Not without my makeup! " #6. So what happened? #5. Huh. 6 Things That Shouldn't Explode (But Did Anyway) Michael Bay is right: Somewhere, right now, something is exploding. And we're not talking bombs and tankers either. As it turns out, there are objects all over the place that will suddenly explode the shit out of themselves for absolutely no reason at all, and often when you least expect it. Things like... Imagine this scene: You sleep through your alarm and have to skip a shower to make the bus on time, only the elevator to your apartment jams and you miss the bus anyway and have to take a cab. The cabbie helpfully ignores your directions and instead takes the long route to run the meter up.
Then you step into a puddle off of the curb and soak both socks through before finally making the mad dash upstairs to your cubicle only to find that you just missed the regional manager's visit because you were late. Basically you are Peter Parker. Utterly defeated, you sink into your ergonomically designed desk chair, which then blows the fuck up like Danny Glover's toilet in Lethal Weapon 2.