Many works with a fantasy nature will create a "rubber man" with the ability to stretch arbitrarily, and carefully interpret what is called "big husband can flex and stretch".
In the author's setting, extremely flexible limbs can create unheard of moves. In Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four series, the protagonist Mr. Fantastic has an arbitrarily stretched body and is immune to most physical attacks.
Mr. Fantastic: I'll fork my waist for a while, and you continue
And the protagonist of the more well-known comic book Voyager King, Monchi D. Luffy, has taken the seemingly "unremarkable" rubber fruit ability to the extreme, creating a series of dozens of rubber moves.
In real life, no one should unrealistically fantasize about using these imaginary abilities, but for extraordinary flexibility, there should still be many people who are really envious, after all, who does not want to sit in front of the body and get full points.
Some people are born "tough" and some people are born "cartilage", but the limit of human softness must be beyond your imagination.
Born in England in 1971, Gary Turner noticed an abnormality as soon as he was born as a midwife — his skin was sagging. Although Turner knew he had something special, he didn't feel any difference between himself and normal people until the age of 13, when doctors discovered that his super elastic skin was caused by a genetic disorder.
As he grew older, Turner gradually discovered that he was different, but instead of giving up on himself, he became famous for this strange talent.
He joined a horror circus to perform "freak shows" to the audience, his colleagues were real freaks, and the audience also enjoyed this kind of hunting and thrilling performance.
In October 1999, Turner reached the pinnacle of his life when he pulled the skin on his stomach outward by 15.8 centimeters under the notarization of the Guinness World Records staff, setting a new world record.
Since then, articles about "rubber people" have appeared on the pages of major media. The so-called "rubber people" refer to those who have extraordinary skin elasticity, their skin is loose and thin, and the texture is like soft elastic silicone or rubber.
For example, Turner, he can wrap his mouth with the skin at the neck, this strange ability seems to be useless, in fact, it is not useful, but this does not mean that "rubber people" and ordinary people are only different from this one.
The surprising elasticity of the skin is actually one of the symptoms of Ehlers-Dangloh syndrome, a genetic disorder determined by multiple genes, and 19 genes have been found to be associated with it.
Variant genes associated with Ehlers-Danlo syndrome alter the structure of collagen or collagen-related proteins, which are almost the most important protein types in mammals.
Collagen has a special three-helix space structure, they are connected together by the hydroxylaldehyde condensation reaction to form collagen fibers, with a certain mechanical strength and elasticity, but also the most basic components of connective tissue in the human body.
The mutation of the gene causes a significant change in collagen, which causes the tensile strength of the connective tissue and the skin to decrease, and the impact of connective tissue abnormalities is very large.
Cats and dogs can also suffer from Ehlers-Dangloh syndrome
In addition to soft skin elasticity, patients with Ehlers-Danlo syndrome also show super physical flexibility, and in this special ability, Indian patients are the most creative and have the most say.
Indian boy Vijay Sharma, who has loved martial arts since childhood, aspires to become a juggling style action star like Jackie Chan, and discovered his own special ability during training, his hands can be crossed behind his back and then around the body to hold each other on the front.
After seeing that the Guinness Book of World Records had a record of wearing tennis racket stunts, Sharma quickly got on the head, and he immediately bought a tennis racket to remove the racket line to practice fast drilling.
Another Indian uncle Rameha Punya was amazed at the skeleton, his shoulders can meet front of the body, truly achieving the same width of the eyes and shoulders. To this end, he also developed a unique technique of crushing a disc by shoulder.
In 2011, he set his first Guinness World Record with 41 discs clipped over his shoulders in one minute, and four years later, he broke his record with 60 discs in one minute.
Not blowing or black, they are the real Luffy, a flexible hard to develop a variety of bizarre moves, of course, behind this is also indispensable to a world record institution that includes everything.
Legend has it that the "violin god" Paganini's playing skills are amazing, his finger joints can bend and manipulate the strings at impossible angles, and play repertoire that exceeds the limits of human physiology.
It was previously suspected that Paganini had Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder in which patients are usually thin and have long fingers and limbs, but Paganini did not show lesions of the cardiovascular system that are unique to Marfan syndrome, which has been basically denied in recent years.
Another plausible guess is Ellers-Dangloh syndrome, which can be confirmed by Paganini's astonished joint flexibility and repeated severe abdominal pain in the middle and late years.
If you look at the case of Paganini, Ellers-Danlo syndrome can also be called a superpower, but its cost is too great.
In fact, around us, there may not be many patients with Ehlers-Danglow syndrome, there are more than 19 genes associated with this genetic disease, different types of patients have different degrees of lesions, it is estimated that about one in 5000 people worldwide are affected by this disease. Of course, most patients are not serious and will not even affect normal life.
However, for severely ill patients, such genetic diseases only bring pain. According to the British Mirror, Kelly, a 19-year-old patient with Ehler-Danglow syndrome, suffers from dislocation almost every day.
According to her, at her worst, she dislocated more than 20 times in a day, and the most embarrassing experience was the dislocation of the hip joint when she and her boyfriend first tasted the forbidden fruit, and she had to go to the bathroom to manually reset.
Coincidentally, Melanie, also a patient from the United Kingdom, is worried about the dislocation of the neck joint, which looks like the head is retracted into the neck, and once the dislocation is dislocated, she cannot maintain normal standing and sitting, and can only lie in bed, and also need to wear heavy neck protectors.
Dislocation is something that almost every critically ill patient must experience, and the better situation will only occur during strenuous exercise, and the lower limbs of the poor flat walk will be dislocated, and it may even take 1 hour to get out of bed.
For these joint problems, there is no way to treat them, the only way is to replace the original loose joints with artificial joints, but it is only a symptom, not a cure, after all, the joints all over the body can not be replaced.
These are just some of the external symptoms related to skeletal muscles, and the crisis in their bodies is even more deadly. Due to abnormal collagen, it can lead to increased vascular fragility, and many normal movements can lead to subcutaneous blood vessel rupture and bleeding.
If unfortunately, the skin forms a wound, it will heal more slowly and leave an atrophic scar. At the same time, blood vessel problems can also cause rupture of arteries, varicose veins, and a series of diseases of the cardiovascular system.
The same problems can occur in the digestive tract and respiratory tract, including gastroesophageal reflux, exfoliation, bronchomalacia, lung collapse, and so on. It seems that the talent has repeatedly set world records, but in fact, it is a frequent illness and difficulty in life.
Even the world's most famous "rubber man", Gary Turner, joined the circus to tour, performed on various variety shows, but few people know behind the scenery, every time he performed, he had to use morphine stickers to relieve the pain caused by skin stretching.
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caroline zielinski. ‘we live in constant fear’: the reality of life with ehlers-danlos syndromes. the guardian, 2019/2/18.
simon tomlinson. he's a record breaker! indian with 'rubber' arms holds the title for smashing cds (but he's always looking over his shoulder!). daily mail, 26 may 2015.
rob george. garry turner – stretch – superhuman 65. sapien plus, 2016.
jay schadler. a rare disorder: stretchy skin. abc news, 8 february 2007.
the real-life flexible friend: india's "rubber man" by watching jackie chan movies. cctv.com, 2010-03-01.
High Wing. Celebrity Genetic Profiles – Paganini and Skin Hyperelastic Syndrome Genes. Nature & Technology, 2010-4.