26Erik Weihenmayer
Erik Weihenmayer is an American athlete who is blind and has special glasses that send signals to a device he places on his tongue, which then sends signals to his brain, allowing him to see. On May 25, 2001, he became the only blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
27. After an 8.0 magnitude earthquake hit Mexico City in 1985, nearly all newborn babies survived a collapsed hospital. They are called "miracle babies" because they made it through seven days without food, water, warmth, or human contact.
28. Gut fermentation syndrome (also called "auto-brewery syndrome) is a rare disorder in which the intestines produce ethanol from carbohydrates. If you have this disease, you're drunk all the time. At least one woman was charged with a DUI for eating too many carbs because she had "auto-brewery syndrome," and another man suffering from it will get drunk from eating just bread.
29. Because of a lucky genetic mutation that happened in the 18th century, today 38 people in a small town in northern Italy don't suffer from cholesterol-induced artery clogging, making them virtually immune to heart disease and strokes. They all smoke, they eat like hell, and they don't care.
30. When faced with a life-or-death situation, humans can harness more of their muscle strength than usual to overcome the obstacle they're facing. Known as "hysterical strength, examples include a woman who saved several children by fighting a polar bear and a woman who lifted a car high enough to save a person.
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31ADRB1 Gene
A mutation in the ADRB1 gene affects sleep, and people who inherit one copy of this mutant gene have a shortened sleep cycle, sometimes requiring only 4.5 hours of sleep per night.
32. The only known case of "Chromosome 6 Deletion," where a person does not feel pain, hunger, or the need to sleep (and subsequently no sense of fear), is a 7-year-old girl named Olivia Farnsworth. In 2016, she was hit by a car and dragged 30 meters, yet felt nothing and emerged with minor injuries.
33. After hitting his head in the shallow end of a swimming pool in 2006, a 39-year-old man named Derek Amato woke up with a condition known as "acquired musical savant syndrome." He had become a great pianist without ever learning to play.
34. A Miami man named Bill Haast was nicknamed the "Snake Man" after he started injecting himself with snake venom in an effort to build up immunity. He did it for years. He only died in 2011 at the age of 101, and throughout his life, he survived 172 snake bites and donated his blood to several snakebite victims.
35. After needing 13 liters of blood for a surgery at the age of 13, a man named James Harrison pledged to donate blood once he turned 18. It was discovered that his blood contained a rare antigen that cured Rhesus disease. He has since donated his blood more than 1,000 times and saved 2,000,000 lives.
