An American girl, who suffers from a  rare and undiagnosed syndrome that prevents her from putting on weight,  has to eat every 15 minutes in order to stay alive. Lizzie Velasquez,  21, from Texas, who is a communications student, weighs just 25.4 kg and  has almost zero per cent body fat, but  is not anorexic. This, despite  60 small meals a day, consisting of between 5,000 and 8,000 calories  daily. Velasquez had been born four weeks prematurely and doctors found   there was minimal amniotic fluid protecting her in the womb. Genetic  experts could not diagnose her illness, and her case fascinated doctors  all over the world. Now she is part of a study run by Professor  Abhimanyu Garg in Dallas. Garg believes Velasquez may have Neonatal  Progeroid Syndrome which causes accelerated ageing, fat loss from the  face and body. People with PRS often have triangular and prematurely  aged faces with pointy nose.



Lizzie said: “I weigh myself regularly  and if I gain even one pound I get really excited. I eat every 15-20  minutes to keep my energy levels up. I eat small portions of crisps,  sweets, chocolate, pizza, chicken, cake, doughnuts, ice cream, noodles  and pop tarts all day long, so I get pretty upset when people accuse me  of being anorexic. When I meet new people I have to say: ‘Hi, I’m Lizzie  and I have this rare syndrome, I am NOT anorexic’.”



Lizzie has a brother Chris, 12, and a  sister Marina, 15, who are both normal.She was born four weeks  prematurely – weighing just 2lb 10oz.

Lizzie’s parents said: “They told us  they had no idea how she could have survived. They told us she would  never be able to walk, talk or have a normal life. We had to buy dolls’  clothes from the toy store because baby clothes were too big.”




Despite what her appearance might  suggest, Lizzie’s brain, bones, internal organs… developed normally, but  she nearly died twice: once when her appendix ruptured at 16 and  another time at 19, because her blood cells were not multiplying  properly (she was critically anemic).Lizzie was born with two brown  eyes, but when she was four, her right eye began to change of color and  she became blind from that eye.








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 newjoyzzz
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