allergic to water?

[sneezybreezy]

I was just randomly wondering, Is it really possible to be allergic to water? I would think it would be almost impossible to survive since all living things need water. Are those the hypersensitive people that live in a bubble?

I don't mean getting water in the nose or swimming pools with chemicals etc...

[Orion]

hahaha somebody watched finding nemo recently. and no, I don't think it's possible. Since the human body is made up of 70% water. but it would be an interesting situation, thats for sure!!!!

[prisma]

there was a girl that was allergic to water I saw on Oprah

But her reation was blistering on the skin and not sneezing

It was very odd. There was some dr that invented a special water proof cream so she could bathe and stuf

[Lynne]

She was likely allergic to something in the water. Water, at its purest, is oxygen and hydrogen. I wouldn't think it possible to be allergic to the most common substances in your body. Otherwise, she'd blister from the inside out. There are minerals, additives, bacteria, all kinds of things in water that a person *could* be allergic to. Even distilled water isn't completely free of impurities.

[Shay]

I dunno, I find it very hard to believe that anyone could be allergic to just plain water. Most water is not just pure water, it usually has minerals mixed into it and sometimes they actually put small amounts of chlorine in the water supply. So someone could be allergic to any one of those things that are in the water. I wouldn't be convinced that someone was actually allergic to water unless they had access to just pure water and they still reacted.

[prisma]

I looked it up and here is what I found

Teenager Ashleigh Morris can't go swimming, soak in a hot bath or enjoy a shower after a stressful day's work - she's allergic to water.

Even sweating brings the 19-year-old out in a painful rash.

Ashleigh, from Melbourne, Australia, is allergic to water of any temperature, a condition she's lived with since she was 14.

Ashleigh, from Melbourne, Australia, is allergic to water of any temperature, a condition she's lived with since she was 14.

Scroll down for more ...

Ashleigh, 19, has been allergic to water for five years

Read more...

GUIDE: Allergies under the microscope

The 13-year-old girl who is allergic to almost everything

She suffers from an extremely rare skin disorder called Aquagenic Urticaria - so unusual that only a handful of cases are documented worldwide.

When Ashleigh gets wet her body explodes in sore, itchy red lumps that take about two hours to ease.

She has to wash. But showering is a painful experience and she can only do it for a minute at a time.

These brief showers are the only contact Ashleigh has with water. The one thing she doesn't miss is the washing up.

"People find it hard to believe, they say things like 'Oh my god, how do you wash

The rash Ashleigh gets after coming into contact with water is MORE painful than it looks

"That makes me feel dirty, but I consider myself a very clean person," she said.

Most of us take showering for granted but for Ashleigh it's a painful endurance that often reduces her to tears.

"Although my rash is unsightly, and often looks like I'm diseased, the feeling is so much worse than it looks," she said.

"I can't go anywhere for about two hours afterwards because it's so severe.

"There's been many occasions where I've been so itchy, I've made myself bleed from scratching."

Away from water pretty Ashleigh appears like any other healthy teenager.

She leads a busy life studying Journalism and Public Relations at university and working in an office.

But if she gets wet she attracts unwanted attention.

"People stare at me in the street," said Ashleigh who lives with her mum Louise Miller, 42.

"After a shower I stay at home until it goes away, that frees me of the burden of having to explain."

Ashleigh spends a lot of time explaining her condition because few people have heard of it. Most doctors and dermatologists have never seen a case of it. "Many people don't even believe me when I tell them," said Ashleigh, who hardly believed it herself at first.

She developed the condition five years ago after an acute case of tonsillitis. She was prescribed a heavy dose of penicillin that rid her of the tonsillitis but left her with another problem.

"I suddenly started getting a rash after I showered or swam," says Ashleigh who used to swim regularly and spend a lot of time at the beach.

"I tried to ignore it but it got progressively worse so I went to see a dermatologist."

Ashleigh's dermatologist, Professor Rodney Sinclair, told her the penicillin had altered the histamine levels in her body and caused the Aquagenic Urticaria to occur.

There is no cure and no successful treatment for the condition so the gravity of the situation began to dawn on the 14-year-old Ashleigh.

"I was in disbelief for a while, but I soon realised how serious it was.

"I cried for a few hours, then picked myself up, and kept going. I realised it was something I had to live with," she says.

So Ashleigh found ways to avoid water - she stopped doing sports and anything that made her sweat.

She makes sure she stays in air-conditioned places and always has an umbrella in her car. Her family and boyfriend of three years, Adam, 23, are very supportive but her condition makes intimate moments with her Adam a little difficult.

"We have to sleep with a sheet between us at night, and I can't go near him if he's sweaty," said Ashleigh.

Even the experts seem a little vague about Aquagenic Urticaria.

Dermatologists agree there's an association with elevated blood histamine levels, but there are other processes at work since antihistamine drugs often provide no relief at all.

Nina Goad of the British Association of Dermatologists says: "There isn't a wealth of information about Aquagenic Urticaria because it's extremely rare.

"We're not sure how many cases there are in the world and we do not yet fully understand the precise mechanisms that trigger the weals."

[Lynne]

so how does she survive? The body needs water to survive. ANYTHING she would drink or eat would cause a reaction, since it ALL contains water.

btw, a link might be better than the entire article.... It *is* copyrighted.

[prisma]

youve got to be kidding

I copied the article cause I thought that putting the link would be some kind of violation

I cant keep track of these rules

[chui]

i understand, it can all get a bit confusing. it shouldnt be long before we have the revised Constitution up and running, and then hopefully, we'll have everything ironed out so its not so confuzzling.

basically, we just need to give credit where its due, in the case of articles and such, as long as you give the link, or properly cite it, it's not an issue.

[sneezybreezy]

Thank you guys for answering my question!

so how does she survive? The body needs water to survive. ANYTHING she would drink or eat would cause a reaction, since it ALL contains water.

I was wondering about that too! Maybe since the article is saying its a skin condition, if water comes in contact with the outer layer of skin it causes a reaction...but inside the body it doesn't? I don't think it makes much sense.

I feel really bad for people that have to suffer like this.

[Lynne]

youve got to be kidding

I copied the article cause I thought that putting the link would be some kind of violation

I cant keep track of these rules

Relax. Why on earth would it be against the rules to post a link to the actual source of a text you're posting. Reposting copyrighted material is against the copyright laws of just about every country. Common sense, really.

The updated Constitution is being discussed currently in the Staff Board, and will be posted soon. Patience.

[Armor.]

I'm allergic to water.

Not to that extreme, but everytime I get sprayed with water, within minutes I'm broken out in a rash and hives.

It's really bad with hose water and rain water, the shower can get pretty bad too though sometimes.

I've been tested for chlorine and all that other good junk that's in the water, but they all turned out negative.

So it is possible...I guess. Very weird though.

[Lynne]

My auntie the wound-care nurse explains this as super-rapid oxidization of the skin. Essentially, it's like rusting metal. The presence of water accelerates the oxidization process, which in some people, can severely irritate the skin. There we are. No allergy, just a skin condition. (I asked her about it last night)

[Guest SneezyB]

Water allergy, or "Aquagenous urticaria", is such a rare condition that there are less than thirty patients in the whole world that have been diagnosed with it.

Fourteen year old Heidi Falconer is unique because she's the only person on record to have been born with this allergy. When water touches her skin or mucous membranes (like the inside of her mouth) she breaks out in a rash and often blisters, if she has a severe response it can lead to anaphylaxis — where her airways swell and close.

It's like any other allergy - an over-reaction of the immune system — where production of histamine causes the symptoms.

Doctors are still unsure as to why this happens with something as essential as water — one theory suggests that unusual proteins in Heidi's system react to the water. And because we're all made up of 80% water, Heidi is actually allergic to herself — her saliva, sweat blood and tears all blotch her skin.

There is no cure for aquagenous urticaria. The only relief for Heidi is a special barrier foam developed in Sweden that stops water from touching her skin. Heidi has applied it religiously every four hours for the past couple of years and it gives her the freedom to do basic things — like having a shower.

[sneezybreezy]

Thank you everyone (lynne, sneezyb, prizma mainly) for going through the trouble to answer my question! : ) I was always curious about it. Sorry that it doesn't really have much to do with sneezing though.

[Guest SneezyB]

yea ive heard about that

its weird