I'm 16-Year-Old, Not 60 - Teen With Rare Genetic Disorder

A British teenager, Zara Hartshorn, 16, with an inherited genetic disorder that has made her look middle-aged practically since she was a child made a facelift operation.
Zara, originally from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, was given a free facelift after a doctor heard of her condition, and she said the results have given her a new lease on life.

She inherited lipodystrophy - which makes her skin looked wrinkled and twisted - from her mother Tracey Gibson who also suffers from the illness.
But after hearing of her condition, a top surgeon in the US offered to perform cosmetic surgery for free. It has proved to be a complete success and Zara has felt able to start a relationship with new boyfriend Ricky Andrews and is even keen to go to college.

By the time she was 12, Zara was already being mistaken for a middle-aged woman - and was even mistaken for 17-year-old sister Chloe's mother.

She said: "Before I had surgery I was picked on for looking different, now I look the same as other girls my age.
"I don't feel like people are staring at me when I walk down the street anymore. I finally feel like a teenager.

"I've carried some hurtful comments with me all my life but now I feel ready to leave the past behind and forgive and forget."

Her newfound self-assurance has helped her start a relationship with apprentice painter and decorator Ricky, 22, three months ago, who she met through friends.
She said: "I've had boyfriends in the the past but I don't think any accepted my condition, really. But with Ricky it's never been an issue."

Meet the world’s fattest 4-year-old, he’s from China

Lu Zhi-hao, who is 110cms tall from Shunde, Guangdong, is being taken by his concerned parents to Hong Kong to try and tackle his obesity.

Dubbed by Chinese media as China’s “no. 1 fat kid” Lu Zhi-hao, known as Xiao Hoa, has been taken to several hospitals in Guangdong to find out why he’s so fat, but doctors can only say that it is down to bad eating habits, Apple Daily reports.

 

If something is not done to reduce his weight, doctors predict Lu Zhi-hao’s obesity will become life-threatening by the time he turns 20.

A Hong Kong weight-loss centre has offered to help Lu Zhi-hao lose weight for free. The centre, which has not given out its name, uses non-intrusive Japanese technology to help the body break down fat.
Xiao Hao’s parents are now applying for a permit to travel to Hong Kong and hope to be here with their obese child in a couple of weeks.

“We believe there must be specialists in Hong Kong who can help us,” says Lu Zhi-hao’s father, Lu Ye-ming.

The mother and father of the child are both of normal weight, and obesity has not been a part of the family’s health history. Lu Zhi-hao slowly ate his way to fatness.

He is now on a diet, which means cutting down from his regular three bowls of rice per meal to just one bowl.

Apple Daily’s video of Xiao Hao at school shows him finishing his bowl of rice at lightning speed and begging his friends for their lunches. When they don’t cooperate, he steals a meatball from his neighbour’s bowl.
He is rewarded with a punch to the face, but the swing hardly seems to have an impact on the child’s puffy cheeks

The WHO says more than 20 percent of the population in some Chinese cities are now obese.

Three Sisters With Werewolf Syndrome Fear They'll Never Get Married

This story first broke out last year as reported by Sun Newspaper (UK) but the gist is that these three sisters who are based in India say their dreams of getting married is a nightmare and fear they will never find husbands because of their uncontrollable hair growth! The sisters are suffering from Hypertrichosis Universalis simply referred to as Werewolf Syndrome; a condition affecting just one in a billion people means their bodies are covered in extra hair — giving them extremely bushy eyebrows and beards.

And Savita, 23, Monisha, 18, and 16-year-old Savitri fear the will leave as life-long spinsters.
Savita said: “Marriage is not an option for us. Who is going to marry us when hair keeps growing on our faces?” The sisters are now using hair removal cream but the hair returns too quickly to maintain.
Savita added: “When I used to go to school the boys and girls would shout ‘hairy face’, ‘horrible looking’,
and ‘don’t sit next to her’.”

The condition was passed down by the girls’ father with whom Anita was forced into an arranged marriage by her uncle and aunt when she was 12.

She said: “It was only on the day of my marriage that I discovered what my husband was, hairy on his face, ears and body. He scared the hell out of me when he arrived at the altar."

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