Not a Mask, but a Medical Mystery!
 WABC-TV
| | Danny: "For my life it is normal, just like anyone else. I play football, I play videogames. I go to the movies. I am the same as everybody, except what you see on my face, that's all." |
Who hasn't heard about the legend of the werewolf, the creature whose monstrosity is fueled by the light of the moon, who lurks around in the darkness of night, thirsty for blood? Well, scientists now believe some of those wolf-like characteristics were themselves fueled, not by the moon, but by genetics.
Case in point: A young man in Mexico.
Danny Ramos Gomez looks like any other circus performer. Look a little closer and you'll quickly realize why Danny is known as "the wolf man".
Danny has a condition called hypertrichosis, in which the body produces an abnormal amount of hair.
Gomez said, "Sometimes, people who touch me say that the hair on my face is finer than the hair on my head. That's what they say."
Twenty-two-year-old Danny and his 25-year-old brother Larry are known for their daredevil feats in a Mexican circus. But when they were little, it was different. They were part of a freak show, and they were known as "los ninos lobos", the "wolf children", and exhibited like animals.
Besides his excessive hair, Danny is by all other accounts "normal". But there are still people who view him as a freak. "And they speak badly to me but I don't take it seriously. I know who I am inside."
For those wondering what it's like having so much hair, Gomez says, "For my life it is normal, just like anyone else. I play football, I play videogames. I go to the movies. I am the same as everybody, except what you see on my face, that's all."
Dr. Luis Figuera of Mexico's Center for Biomedical Research is an expert in hypertrichosis. He has studied people with the condition for more than 20 years. "This kind of hypertrichosis as shown in this family is very rare. As far as I know, there are two or three families in the world."
How does it start? Dr. Figuera says, "We believe that this is a gene which was functioning a long time ago in the evolution of man, when primates were becoming men." |
Vallarta Weddings
News from Around the Americas | August 2006 
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us