In our previous articles, we discussed about allergies to sex, sunlight, sweat, and exercise. We learned the causes, symptoms, and treatments of these four weird allergies. In this article, we will tackle two more weird allergies: water and vibration allergy.
Water Allergy
No one will argue to the fact that water is one of the most important compounds on earth. Life on this planet would be impossible without it. We humans can live for many days without food but not without water. We need water to swallow our food better and to clean our body. We also need the most abundant water to cook our food and wash our clothes and dishes. With all these uses of water, we could not imagine a world without water.
You will be surprised that there are few people who wish that there should be another compound to replace water, a compound that would not cause allergic reaction in their skin. These people have a weird allergy to water, medically known as aquagenic urticaria with symptoms including painful hives, lesions, welts, and rashes on the body that appear within 5 to 10 minutes after exposure to water.
Unlike common allergies, water allergy is not treated with antihistamine as the condition is not caused by histamines. It is treated with capsaicin cream instead.
The cause of aquagenic urticaria is not yet clear but experts believe that it is caused by the ultrasensitivity of the skin towards additives in the water and not the water itself.
I wonder how people with aquagenic urticaria clean their body to maintain proper hygiene. Do you have any idea?
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Allergy to Vibration
Vibration is the process of moving or being moved back and forth very rapidly. It can be produced by sound or machine. Our body has specialized neurons that detect vibration at different intensity. Vibrations, especially weak vibrations, are usually not harmful to the human body but not to the body of people with vibration-induced urticaria, commonly called skin allergy to vibration. Similar to aquagenic urticaria, symptoms of vibration-induced urticaria include welts, rashes, and other forms of skin irritation that usually appear five minutes after exposure to vibration. The symptoms can persist for hours or even days in extreme cases. Unlike water allergy, vibration allergy comes from histamines so the medication to be used is antihistamine. Calamine lotion or corticosteroid cream can also be applied to the skin to control the symptoms.[ad#afterpost]