Water allergy - symptoms, causes and treatment

Allergic reactions through water

Allergic to water? It sounds like a joke of dirty finches who do not want to wash, but it's a bitter reality, if only for a few dozen people worldwide. The phenomenon is also known as horseradish, aquatic urticaria or aquagent urticaria. Those affected have allergic reactions when in contact with water, which can lead to death from shock.

contents

• Allergic reactions through water
• Water allergy - The most important facts
• Inducible urticaria
• symptoms
• Aquagenic urticaria
• Is it really an allergy to water?
• causes
• diagnosis
• treatment
• prevention
• What are antihistamines?
• Stress in everyday life
• When do you have to go to the doctor?
• How dangerous is the disease?

Water allergy - The most important facts

• It is a form of hives in which sufferers develop symptoms when exposed to water.
• Drinking water is easy, the body does not react inside. The symptoms arise when water touches the skin.
• Skin contact causes pustules and skin becomes red.
• Those affected suffer from itching and pain.
• There is a risk of allergic shock.
• Water horseriding is one of the rarest diseases ever, with only three dozen cases known worldwide.
• The causes are not sufficiently clarified. In some patients, contact with water causes overproduction of histamine. Accordingly, it is medically an allergy. In other similar reactions, histamine is not the cause of the symptoms.

During a walk in the rain, people with water allergy must be careful to be completely protected from the rain. (Image: Jürgen Fälchle / fotolia.com)

Inducible urticaria

This word refers to forms of hives with clear triggers such as

• physical effort,
• warmth,
• light,
• cold,
• Pressure on the skin (physically caused hives),
• allergic reactions to substances in food and medicines
• and stress in so-called stress-induced hives (here are the triggers of mental stress).

Water allergy belongs to the physical forms. Two-thirds of all hives are inducible.

symptoms

Approximately 15 minutes after contact with water, be it by bathing in the lake, contact with rain or seawater, whitish itchy papules form on the skin. Even reddish wheals may occur, taking the form of buttons or dots. The skin can also swell - this is usually a sign of an increased release of histamine. Not all patients react to all forms of water, some only to seawater, others hurts the skin like burns, whether they wash their hands or melt snow on their skin.

Aquagenic urticaria

Shelley and Rawnsley first described hives in 1964, which occurs when those affected come into contact with water. The phenomenon is extremely rare, currently around 35 diseases are known worldwide.

Is it really an allergy to water?

You should be very careful in the diagnosis. In water are a lot of other substances that can cause allergies. If you are allergic to this, it is not a reaction to the water. For example, allergenic substances can accumulate on their skin, which dissolve during washing and penetrate the skin.

Allergic reactions after a bath in the sea are not necessarily indications of a water allergy, because the sea water contains many other ingredients. (Image: kwasny221 / fotolia.com)

The tap water may contain metals that adhere to the water pipes, but also limescale and salts. These even quite often cause allergies, as well as chlorine, which is present in small amounts (in other countries in larger quantities) in tap water. An irritated skin after visiting a swimming pool knows almost everyone. That's another reason why you should take a shower after swimming in a public facility. In addition, biological substances, germs, bacteria, fungi and other microbes, which are located on taps or in water pipes. For example, if you get infected with allergy testing or cholera, you are not suffering from water hives. If they are allergic, this can be found by means of an allergy test, which you can have in an allergological practice.

Affected people only react to water that comes from the outside to their skin. Inside the body, they have no problems with it. For example, they can drink with a straw and only develop symptoms when the water drips on their chin, for example. But once it is in the mouth, there are no further complaints.

causes

There is no clarity about the causes of aquatic hives. A twin study revealed a genetic predisposition, but there are probably acquired forms of the disease, and in some patients the symptoms went down over time. In some cases, the disease broke out in early childhood, in others in prepuberty, and in others almost in adulthood.

In contrast to "right" allergies, it is often not an excess of the neurotransmitter histamine, but a reaction of the skin. For example, chlorine allergy in the narrower medical sense is not an allergy.

diagnosis

With allergy tests, the doctor recognizes whether it is a hives. For this he puts the patient on the skin with water-soaked compresses. The diagnosis is considered certain if the skin reddens, itches and / or pimps without any other possible stimuli.

treatment

The disease can be treated well, but not healed. If the cause is the increased release of histamine, then antihistamines effectively help. If the cause is unclear, medicines relieve the reactions of the skin. Very important in this case is a life plan to avoid the trigger in everyday life.

prevention

You can not prevent water hives as the cause of the disease is not clear.

If too much histamine is released through contact with water in the body, it is called a water allergy. (Image: Zerbor / fotolia.com)

What are antihistamines?

These histamine receptor antagonists block the sites in the body where histamine binds. There are these drugs for four different histamine receptors: H1, H2, H3 and H4. H1 and H2 blockers are most effective and are therefore the most commonly used for allergies.

Stress in everyday life

Patients often put a mental burden on the disease. Children fear being bullied and sometimes do. Not only does the disease occur in certain forms of water, so that contact can be avoided (as in seawater), then this hives extremely limit those affected in everyday life:

• You can not wash your hands.
• You can not go outside even in light rain.
• They can not walk through wet grass as they have to be afraid of getting wet feet.
• You must be careful when drinking that not a drop gets on the skin.
• For their daily hygiene, they must resort to means such as dry shampoos or fresh towels - cleaning the body without water is not impossible, but expensive.

When do you have to go to the doctor?

A water hives almost never disappear by themselves. Therefore, you should consult the doctor for the first symptoms, that is, when the skin reddens on contact with water. You can go to your family doctor and he will refer you to an allergist for safety.

Through an allergy test can be determined whether it is actually a water allergy. (Photo: Katarzyna Leszczynsk / fotolia.com)

How dangerous is the disease?

Water horseriding is very very rare. The likelihood of it hitting you is one in 100 million. The severity of the disease differs in all those known today - here are some examples:

Emily

One patient, Emily, reacts so badly that she was unable to do sports, as even sweating leads to a strong itchy skin swap. She cleans herself with damp cloths and does not shower anymore. At any time threatening an allergic shock, which can bring the heart to a halt and thus lead to death.

Alexandra Allen

When Alexandra Allen was twelve years old, her whole body ached as she climbed into the pool. The doctors suspected a chlorine allergy - in contrast to the water hives a frequent reaction. Alexandra was skeptical and researched herself on the internet. Then she found all her symptoms of water allergy. Despite treatment, she can often only lie in bed with pain when in contact with water.

Ivy Angermann

The kid Ivy Angermann of Minnesota screamed as the parents bathed and his skin was very red. The parents suspected that the daughter was allergic to the bath foam, but allergy tests showed that the girl was suffering from aquatic hives. In this case, it is an allergy in the narrow sense, so Ivy was treated with antihistamines. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)