• Question: can people be allergic to water?

    Asked by anon-232913 to Varun, Sammie, Rebecca, Anna, Alin, Adam on 19 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Rebecca Shaw

      Rebecca Shaw answered on 19 Nov 2019:

      Yes! So I googled this after our chat and I’m definitely not crazy and I did read this haha..
      It is called Aquagenic urticaria and it sounds awful. Some sufferers are actually allergic to their own tears and sweat and on exposure to water can come out in hives, rashes and their skin can swell.

      Like most allergies it is the body becoming really sensitive to something, your body thinks it is a threat and attacks it. This attack can cause the symptoms that you commonly find in allergies – redness, swelling, rashes.

      And it actually appears to be more common than I thought!

    • Photo: Samantha Firth

      Samantha Firth answered on 19 Nov 2019:

      Wowwwww, I didn’t realise that this was a thing! That sounds pretty bad! You learn something new every day…

    • Photo: Varun Ramaswamy

      Varun Ramaswamy answered on 19 Nov 2019:

      Wow, I never knew it either. Thanks for that rebecca! That is really interesting and scary to imagine that someone is allergic to water that we need everyday!

    • Photo: Anna Kalorkoti

      Anna Kalorkoti answered on 19 Nov 2019:

      Oh wow, I didn’t know this was a thing either! At least it looks like it’s pretty rare, & from what I’ve just read (via Google, so not necessarily reliable) people can still drink water & are fine with the water inside their bodies, it’s just getting water on their skin that causes problems… still sounds horrible though!

      But let mine & Sammie’s surprise be an example of an important fact that I wish more people realised: being scientists doesn’t mean we know everything! 😉

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