at some point in our lives

be that a harmless cold

or a more serious condition.

Although the medical industry is constantly evolving

and advancing,

We still do not have answers

to a surprising amount of problems.

For example, there is still no cure for the common cold

we do not know what causes cancer

and do not even know how anaesthesia works.

But there are some interesting conditions

like the fact people who undergo organ transplants

change personalities

And the unknown reason

why people who are freezing to death

remove their clothing.

Here are five disorders, illnesses and conditions

that are still, and will most likely remain, unsolved.

Sit back and enjoy.

We have all heard of hypothermia, the nightmarish condition that occurs when the average person's body temperature drops below 35 degrees.

It all starts with uncontrollable shivering,

followed by difficulty walking, poor coordination, and the appearance of being drunk.

As breathing and heart rate slows to a dangerous rate,

the body stops shaking and eventually the person will fall unconscious

and die if not seen to immediately.

But right before death it has been known that the sufferer, in a semi comatose state,

will instinctively try to hide.

This is not a conscious decision to keep warm,

because by this stage the person is incoherent,

confused, and completely unable to make any kind of rational decison.

These actions are purely an effort of the body trying one final effort to keep going.

If this thought is quite unnerving, then wait until you hear about the bizarre phenomenon

of paradoxical undressing.

Paradoxical undressing is when just before losing consciousness

a sufferer of hypothermia will get the feeling of extreme warmth.

Prompting them to remove all of their clothes,

sometimes folding them into a neat pile before passing away.

But why would someone dying of cold want to remove the only thing keeping them warm?

Well the reason for this is not completely understood

although it is thought the dilation of blood vessels in the skin

as a result of the cold and of the deterioration of the brain

can cause this sensation of extreme heat.

Studies show around 30 percent of all people who have passed away from hypothermia

have had some or all of their clothes removed.

Now I don't know about you but the thought of someone undressing

from a feeling of warmth whilst their body temperature is continuing to drop

as they freeze to death is very unnerving.

And the fact that we do not know for sure why

this happens makes the bizarre phenomenon of paradoxical undressing

all the more strange.

Oakville Blobs.

Now this next one is strange.

There is some scepticism about whether it caused ilnesses, but

it is however a fascinating incident.

At around 3am on the 7th August 1994

rain began to fall over Oakville, Washington.

But this was no ordinary rain.

What was falling was a strange, jelly like substance.

Over the next 3 weeks the area experienced this strange jelly rain a total of 6 times.

Local resident Dottie Hearn described the substance as mushy rice sized blobs

with a gelatinous texture.

And local patrolman David Lacey

had to stop his car after the substance smeared over his windscreen making

it impossible to see.

After it had stopped failing, both Dottie and David along with other resident began to fal ill.

They suffered from various symptoms, ranging from difficulty breathing

to vertigo, blurred vision and nausea.

Several cats and dogs who had come into contact with the goo

were said to have died.

Dotty's symptoms were so severe that she was admitted to hospital,

and her daughter was convinced that there was a connection

to her mother's sudden illness and the blobs.

After examination, it was found that the blobs contained human white blood cells,

and were teeming with two types of bacteria, one of which

lives in the human digestive system.

This lead to the speculation that it was human waste released from an aeroplane,

although this was quickly dismissed as waste from planes has to be died blue

and is forbidden from being dumped mid flight.

However, Dotty was not happy with these findings

and over a year after the incident sent some samples she had stored in her freezer

to a microbiologist.

He discovered a cell

which are complex nucleus containing cells present in most living creatures,

meaning whatever it was had to be alive at some point in time.

This lead to the theory that a military bomb 50 miles away

accidentally blew up lots of jellyfish

scattering them miles into the sky

This theory did not hold up well since the rain came down six times.

There was no smell

and the distance it would have had to travel seems pretty impossible.

The airforce did however confirm that they were doing practice bombing runs

over the pacific in 1994.

But denied they had anything to do with the blobs.

Conspiracy theorists and locals are sceptical about this,

and believe that the military were carrying out an experiment

possibly a new biological weapon, to see what affects it would have.

But it is strange that samples of the substance no longer exist,

and the illnesses after remain unsolved.

Gulf War Syndrome.

Humans are not designed to go to war. At least not the types of war which have been fought in the last hundred years.

and this shows with the onset of war related illnesses and mental health problems.

Unexplained nerve pain, nausea, headaches,

loss of balance, stomach problems, and

chronic fatigue

These are just a few of the 53 reported symptoms

experienced by Gulf War veterans.

Who were suffering from an illness that still has not been properly explained or acknowledged.

The illness became so widespread that the government set up disease registers

but even after assessing over 100,000 soldiers

they failed to find a single cause for the condition.

Medical experts were stumped. They could see these very real symptoms

and sufferings, but could not determine why.

One theory is that soldiers returning from the Gulf War had unknowingly been exposed to

depleted uranium in tank shells.

Or fumes from burning oil wells.

Although it did not explain why soldiers who were not exposed to these were also suffering.

Other possible explanations are anthrax vaccines,

solvents, infectious diseases and chemical age resistant coatings.

There was never any evidence of this.

But how is this different to PTSD?

Well, it's the sheer extent that has manifested since the gulf war.

And the complete lack of research or reasoning for why

this war in particular caused this amount of post-war problems.

What was also added to this condition is that fact that it took

until 2008 before a report

was released by the US Advisory Comittee.

Stating that Gulf War Syndrome was a disorder tied to chemical exposure.

Yet even with all this evidence the government still declared that there was no syndrome.

Astonishingly, around 29 percent of soldiers deployed in the Gulf

are now considered disabled.

And many more are still plagued by a combination of unexplained illnesses,

that seem to have no origin apart from the fact that they all started after they were in the war.

The Dancing Plague.

The Dancing Plague is a condition that you may have heard about before.

The name alone draws you in.

But what exactly is it?

Well, in 1374, hundreds of people living in the medieval towns

scattered along the river Rine in central Europe,

were suddenly compelled to dance. Not for pleasure, but due to an uncontrollable complusion

Although the studies are scarce due to it happening so long ago,

and many reports seem to have been glorified,

it is said that those who danced literally did so until they died.

After the initial outbreak, there were no other outbreaks of compulsive dancing

until the summer of 1518.

A woman in France reportedly appeared to dance for 7 days.

She was joined by over 100 residents who were affected by the same uncontrollable urges.

The authorities of the day left them and hoped they would stop dancing

however they started to drop dead, mostly from heart attacks.

The dancing plague is always interesting to read about,

but due to it being exaggerated it is hard to tell what is true and what isn't.

So what do the records at the time say?

It seems that it was a real thing that did happen,

and the people of Strasbourg, where the 1518 case started,

were convinced that the epidemic was caused by St. Vitus,

who unleashed a dancing curse on them.

However, nowadays with more advanced medical science,

we are able to come up with some interesting theories.

The most popular being that the people had unwittingly ingested Ergot,

a psychotropic mould which can be found on rye stalks.

(A staple diet at the time.)

This seems unlikely, as Ergot can give delusions

would also cut off blood supply making it hard to move freely.

Another theory is mass hysteria, although dancing for days on end with very little food seems unlikely.

The most plausible explanation seems to be that those affected were

in a disassociate trance, AKA

a condition that meant they had lost control of their rational thinking.

Nowadays dissociative trance disorder is a recognised category of mental illness,

described by psychiatrists as a narrowing of one's attention

so that things like sight and movement are placed outside of one's reality.

So in effect, dancing plague could have been a form of mental illness,

possibly bought on by the condition of the time or another unknown reason.

But it is said that this unknown illness that caused people to move in a manner

that looked like they were dancing took the lives of hundreds of people

and it is still a mystery as to why

New Organ = New Person.

Although organ donation is controversial and divides opinions,

there is no denying that many people's lives have been saved by receiving another person's organ

to replace their failing one.

But, with the growing list of transplant patients,

it is becoming apparent that some recipients are inheriting the traits of their donors.

There are many examples of this.

Take Simon, a 29 year old who was born with Cystic Fibrosis,

and from a young age knew he would eventually need a new liver.

That happened when he received the liver of an 18 year old girl.

The operation was a success. However, upon waking, the once polite boy

was swearing, something he never did before the operation.

Simon believes the reason he started swearing was because of the transplant

that must have given him some of the transplantee's traits.

Then there's the story of Bill, a 52 year old Arizona businessman,

who suffered a heart attack and received a new heart from Hollywood stunt man Brady Michaels.

After recovering from the operation, Bill, the once overweight and unhealthy man,

was drawn towards sport and getting fit.

He even became a medal winning swimmer, cyclist, and runner.

Traits he linked to his new heart.

However it's not always the good parts of the donor's personalities which manifest,

and one story sticks out in particular.

Sonny from Georgia received a heart from a suicide victim,

and in the years after receiving his new heart had shown no signs of unhappiness or depression.

But in April 2008 he was found in his garage with a self-inflicted shotgun wound to his throat.

These were the identical circumstances in which his donor had killed himself 12 years earlier.

Incredibly, Sonny's widow Cheryl was previously married to his donor,

they had become friends and Sonny said he felt like he had known her for years.

These are just a few of the many bizarre changes in personality in people who have received organ transplants.

Scientists who have studied this condition have called it 'Cell Memory Phenomenon',

and believe that the changed behaviours and emotions experienced by the recepients

are due to the memories stored in the neurons of the organ donated.

There is now evidence to suggest that up to six percent of organ recipients

will experience some change of personality.

And in addition to this there was one patient who had a liver transplant acquired the immune system

and the blood type of the donor.

Due to stem cells transferring over to her bone marrow.

Pretty crazy, huh?

So that's five illnesses, conditions and diseases

that researchers are still scratching their heads about.

I hope you've enjoyed, and know that I will be talking about conditions

related to the brain in a future video.

Because after all, schizophrenia, split personalities and even depression