5 rare health conditions that can be considered as superpowers

Hyperthymesia (highly superior autobiographical memory or HSAM) is a kind of memory impairment that enables a person to remember all events of his or her life in details. There are about 60 people in the world who suffer from hyperthymesia. Patients can recall any day of their lives, even their early childhood. Just imagine, they can reproduce a passage from a book they have read a long time ago! People with hyperthymesia can't bend the truth or unpleasant events they wish they could forget. There is a story about a woman from Australia who remembers everything about herself since she was 12 ...not years! 12 days from birth! She feels the past like the present and all her memories are emotionally intense.

At first sight it looks like a real super power, doesn't it? Congenital analgesia is a condition when a person doesn't feel any pain at all. What is more, this disease doesn't affect mental capacity or appearance. But there is a high risk that a person can miss an illness which causes pain. It is especially dangerous for small children: they can cut themselves or break the bones while playing without noticing that.

This super power is experienced by people with Savant syndrome. It is a rare condition that can be diagnosed among people with hard mental disabilities, for example, with autism or Asperger's syndrome. These people are extremely talented in music, drawing, maths and 3D modeling. Would you believe! Savants can multiply three-digit numbers in seconds and can tell what day of the week it will be in 150 years. You can call them geniuses and these people have really outstanding abilities in certain fields of knowledge, unfortunately, alongside with mental disorder.

Apart from people who don't feel pain there are people who don't care about cold at all. The most famous ice man is Wim Hof, a Dutchman. This man can spend more than an hour in ice or in extremely cold water, climb mountains wearing shirts only...Ugh! Scientists consider it a phenomenon, but Wim says it is the result of his breathing techniques. Other people are eager to repeat his awesome results but no one has succeeded so far.

Do you have fears? Of course you do! But there are people who don't. Urbach–Wiethe disease is a rare genetic condition which results in a complete lack of fear. As of today, scientists know about 300 cases of this disorder. Many of us have heard about a woman from the US who has no fear at all. Her fearlessness is the reason for some desperate, life-threatening actions she takes. For example, she can pat a poisonous snake or balance on a bridge railing! It's like a game for her, the woman considers all of her activities to be exciting rather than dangerous.