It is pretty self-evident to all of us that whenever we come across a deeply unsettling situation or read a similar fact, we simply cannot get away with it easily. It lurks around our thoughts or imagination at least for a while, and the feeling is often uneasy. The list below carries the same feeling of discomfort, but it is very extreme, and that makes the 10 deeply unsettling facts very interesting to read.

1 Cadmium poisoning is a health condition in which one’s bones literally soften, and it also causes kidney or lung diseases, chills, muscle aches, hair loss, and fever at the same time. It is so horrible that its name in Japanese literally translates to “It hurts, it hurts!”

Cadmium poisoning happens when someone breaths in a substantial amount of cadmium from the air or consumes food or drinks water contaminated with high levels of cadmium.

Cadmium is a natural metal and is usually present in nature as a mineral combined with other elements like oxygen, chlorine, or sulfur.

Some of the symptoms observed in people with high levels of cadmium intake are vomiting, stomach cramps, diarrhea, kidney damage, fragile bones, or sometimes even death.

The cadmium has to have been exposed and is usually found as a by-product of the production of zinc, lead, and copper.

Common products in which cadmium is found are cigarettes, batteries, plastic, fertilizers, metal coatings, etc.

Once the amount of cadmium level increases substantially in the patient’s body, there is no treatment for it. The best that could be done is to reduce the severity of the symptoms. (source)

2 In 1815, the dentistry that we see today was in its developing phase, and the mouths of the rich were rotten. To counter this, teeth were taken away for dentures from the bodies of thousands of dead soldiers on the field of Waterloo.

It was the period when sugar consumption increased rapidly, and the technique of teeth-whitening using acidic solutions wore the enamel away. Because of this, the demand for false teeth saw rapid growth.

In the 18th century, teeth from the poorest in society were wrenched out. The teeth donations were used for wealthy dental patients. The supply of dentures still didn’t meet the demand. Even the grave robbers also couldn’t offer enough.

The battlefield of Waterloo, which was full of dead British, Russian, and Prussian soldiers was an alluring place for teeth looters.

The surviving troops, locals, and scavengers literally pulled the teeth from the piles of dead soldiers using pliers.

The teeth were first sorted out into upper and lower front teeth. Then the dental technicians would boil them, chop their ends off, and then shape them into ivory dentures for use. (source)

3 The US Military has lost six nuclear weapons. The longest missing weapon from the six has not been seen in 71 years, and it also said that the possibility of finding it is close to zero.

The years from 1950 to 1980 witnessed 32 documented nuclear weapon accidents including unexpected accidental launchings, firing, detonating, loss, and even theft of weapons.

The first weapon was lost on 13 February 1950. It was a 30 kiloton Mark Four, also known as the “Fat Man” bomb. It was dropped into the Pacific Ocean by the crew onboard a US Air Fore plane when they learned of the possibility they would crash with a warhead while en route from an airbase in Alaska to one in Texas.

The second warhead had to be dropped on 10 March 1956 into the Mediterranean Sea while a US Air Force plane was en route from a Florida airbase to Morocco. The details on the weapon were never disclosed, but the nearest guess is that it was 3,400 kilograms Mark 15 nuclear bomb.

The same type of bomb was dropped again on 5 February 1958 over the Warsaw Sound near the mouth of the Savannah River.

The fourth one is buried in a field near Goldsboro, Carolina. This one is a 24 megaton nuclear bomb and was abandoned because the B-52 carrying it became unstable and crashed shortly after taking off.

A one-megaton thermonuclear weapon managed to roll off the deck of A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft and sank 16,000 feet into the Pacific waters and was never seen again. The accident happened on 5 December 1965.

The sixth and the last one was lost into the depths of the ocean 400 miles to the southwest of the Azores Islands along with 99 crew members inside a USS Scorpion attack submarine. (source)

4 Terminal lucidity is the unexpected return of memory, mental clarity, or consciousness a few moments before one’s death. The condition has been observed in roughly 10% of dementia patients.

Terminal lucidity is often experienced by people whose brains have not been functioning properly for years, generally because of neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia.

During terminal lucidity, people experience a variety of things like wordlessness, sudden recovery of memory, and high levels of emotional exchange, for sure.

Once someone meets terminal lucidity, the person is sure to die within a few days if not hours.

The phenomenon of terminal lucidity wasn’t conceptualized before 2009. It was German biologist Michael Nahm who brought the matter to light after going through the 18th- and 19th-century medical case reports.

The real possibility of trouble in such cases is that the relatives perceive the behavior of the patient going through terminal lucidity as an improvement in their mental health whereas, in reality, things are actually getting worse for them. (source)

5 Rainbow Valley at Mount Everest is named so because of the colorful coats of dead people lying there. Nobody knows the exact number of dead bodies on Mount Everest, but the number is certainly more than 200.

The conditions of the dead bodies at Mount Everest are horrible. They lay tucked in crevasses, buried in avalanche snow, and their limbs are all distorted and sun-beaching.

Rainbow Valley is not so cheerful as it sounds. Instead, the case is exactly the opposite. It is also said to be the dark side of Mount Everest since one will find the dead bodies of the unsuccessful climbers all over the site.

Technically, the place is colorful because the dead bodies are covered in their red, blue, orange, green jackets forever. And there are not just bodies. Also, one will find colorful garbage dumped there including tents, cans, and oxygen tanks spread all over the place.

Unsuccessful climbers die at different places on their attempts to climb Mount Everest, but most of them lost their lives at the altitude of 800 meters where the Rainbow Valley lies.

All the bodies are cold and covered in snow, therefore they remain fresh forever. No one has tried to recover them and bring them down because of course, it’s a risky task. (1, 2)