Beginning in 1951, Doctor Ralph Reye took note of an alarming, fatal condition that killed thousands of child patients. Mild colds and flus would become life-threatening neurological conditions that left patients dead or with severe brain damage. And the culprit was an ordinary product present in nearly every household in the developed world.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the late 1800s, Mollie Fancher was entangled with a city trolley car that dragged her violently through the streets of Brooklyn. This caused a series of inexplicable ailments that left her bedridden for the remainder of her life. But Mollie’s strangest symptom was her ability to go 14 years without eating a thing…

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At the time, doctors believed the 57-year-old’s symptoms could have been caused by a stroke, but there have been many other medical theories since then. Some people even believe that President Warren G. Harding was poisoned.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here’s one of our listeners’ most requested episodes of 2019: Once modern medicine recognized Fatal Familial Insomnia as a disease, it faced a greater challenge: finding a cure.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here’s one of our listeners’ most requested episodes of 2019: Don’t let the complicated name fool you—this mystery is no laughing matter: Inability to sleep. Loss of coordination. Slow, painful loss of mental faculties.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s a terrifying infection that liquefies skin and muscle. Though rare, doctors are still ill-equipped to fight flesh-eating bacteria, and it still continues to take lives to this day.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alexandra Allen’s nightmare first began in 2009 when she was 12 years old. After swimming in a hotel pool, she nearly went into anaphylactic shock. After a battery of tests, doctors were shocked by what caused her reaction. She was allergic to water.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After Lorenzo Odone was diagnosed with adrenoleukodystrophy in 1984, his parents developed a treatment that saved his life. But in 1993, they faced accusations of fraud when a Hollywood movie based on Lorezno's story gave false impressions to a number of other desperate patients.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In a matter of months, eight-year-old Lorenzo Odone lost his hearing and sight, as well as his ability to move, swallow, and speak. Doctors told him he had five years to live at most. But his parents refused to accept this and went on a frantic search for a cure.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices