Allergy to water - now?

Allergy to water - now?

It probably sounds impossible given the fact that about 60% of the human body is made up of water , someone has an allergy to the living liquid.

But medicine has already registered several such cases. Among physicians, this condition is known as aquacogenic urticaria .

One could not live without water, and fortunately, allergy is not deadly . Allergic reactions are not triggered by drinking.

They only occur when water enters the skin. Whether it's sweat or saliva. For people with aquatic urticaria, however, a drop of rain or tears is associated with a number of unpleasant symptoms .

After just a minute of water exposure, people with a higher degree of allergy get red and painful rashes and very severe headaches . They bathe as little as possible and try to spend the minimum of time in conditions that can make them sweaty.

This is the case, for example, of the British Katie Delle, suffering from the rare illness.


She can neither swim nor cry. He does not dare to go out if there is a danger of falling asleep because he knows he's wet, he'll have painful rashes. He even leaves his job as a dance coach because sweat is also causing painful reactions. Taking a shower

as quickly as possible to minimize water contact, and her husband helps wash the dishes and spread the laundry.

The woman says she not only can not lead a normal life, but her allergy has also resulted in a limitation of her social contacts. It has often happened to cancel meetings because of rainy weather.

"I mainly drink a car because it hurts my lips and skin at least," Katie said.
So far, 42 cases of aquacogenic urticaria have been reported worldwide, but the pathogenesis of the disease remains unclear. No one is quite sure what causes the development of this allergy. Some trigger mechanism , such as an attack on a given disease, is sometimes available . Other times, however, people just start to notice that they get bruised every time they bathe.

They suggest that this is a reaction to soap, until an expert tells them the bad news.

Doctors know that when water touches the skin of a person with this condition, it stimulates the release of histamine (present in most allergic reactions) and acetylcholine . This is why specialists have come to the conclusion that elevated histamine levels in the blood are associated with this hypersensitivity.

The latter is a neurotransmitter that modulates the autonomic nervous system of the body. It controls stress responses and responds, apart from everything else, to the muscles that regulate those under the skin and make the hairs of our hands bristle.

In addition, the vegetative nervous system controls the expansion of the blood vessels .

It has also been found that almost half of these cases have a kinship between patients.

In fact, allergy is incurable, but there are therapies that alleviate the unpleasant symptoms of the disease. Most often they include antihistamines.