10 years ago, when she was 14 years old, social media star Flávia Leonel Santana began to experience eating and enjoying her skin after washing. Suspecting it to be a soap problem or shampoo problem, he turns it around and tries to solve the problem.
This was to no avail. He brought pimples to his skin every time he cleaned himself and washed with water.
“It got to the point where I was washing the water alone but I was still in a bad mood”, he recalls.
The girl got to the point where she started to pay more attention to what she was eating, thinking that this problem may be caused by being abused because of the same food. But one day it was raining and he changed his thoughts.
He had never heard of a person being physically abused by water. He immediately started searching the internet and saw many other people with symptoms like his whenever they came into contact with water.
“I didn’t know that a disease like this still exists”, he said. I went to the doctor and told them about my problems. They tested the disease and found that I really have aquagenic urticaria (water damage). I was surprised because, until then, no one in my family had ever had this problem.”
You don’t help anti-allergy drugs
Flávia says she usually drinks water and doesn’t have any problems. But when he touches her skin, it becomes something else.
“When I study or sweat in the gym, the wet body area is red and filled with acne on top of the gym”, he said. This girl says that the most common places where she eats are on her back, chest and head on the skin where her hair grows.
In treating the symptoms, Flávia says she tested several drugs against the ‘allergy’ doctors prescribed to her, but none helped.
So all that was left was to adapt and avoid water and wet areas.
“I don’t go to the swimming pools and I can’t go to the beach because the delay in the water makes it worse and causes sores on the skin”, he said. Even my regular swim is so fast that I’m so warm.”
Symptoms of the disease begin to form on the skin less than 30 minutes after it has been touched by water.
Apart from this life of avoiding water, this girl says that she otherwise lives a normal life. He even does a lot of physical activity and likes to go out with his friends.
“I’m trying to wipe away the sweat so I don’t eat it; I don’t let this disease get into my life,” he said.
According to Flávia, doctors told her that just as aquagenic urticaria can come suddenly, so can it go later.
“Since it was a disease that came when I was an adult, I didn’t have it when I was a child. The doctors explained to me that it can go away at some point in my life,” he said. No one in my family has it, and it was a very new thing for all of us.”
What is Aquagenic Urticaria?
It is a form of physical abuse when exposed to water, whether cold or hot, bad, table, salted, or any other.
Like other ‘allergies’, this causes swelling on the skin, acne, and itching, like when you’re pregnant. These symptoms often last between 30 and 60 minutes after the skin is dry.
These symptoms come because the human body’s immune system has this ‘allergy’ that takes water as a special substance, and thus, in preventing it, the body’s immune system automatically activates the ‘antibodies/anticorps’ that protect the body when it comes into contact with water.
At that time, skin cells release hormones that cause the muscles to expand and cause excitement and swelling of the skin.
Gabriela Andrade Coelho Dias, an allegerie doctor in Brazil, said: “Aquagenic urticaria is a rare disease, so the data and studies on it are limited.
It is more common in women and often comes in puberty or shortly after because the immune system is not yet fully developed. So far, however, there is no complete explanation of why it affects certain people.”
When this disease is severe, it causes shortness of breath and a sore throat. Doctors advise observing if you don’t swell your throat and lips because they are signs of when the disease worsened, according to a dermatologist.
Getting it and treating it
This disease is seen by dermatologists taking measurements, the most famous of which is to see how the skin is in the water.
In that test, an object placed in the central temperature water of 35–37 °C is placed on the human body. The item is removed after 30 minutes, and if the person has an eating disorder or an infection at the place where it is placed, it is confirmed that they have Aquagenic Urticaria.
Experts told the BBC that there is no cure for the disease and that conventional drugs against ‘allergies’ are being tested. But just like in Flávia, there are times when these drugs are useless. That is different from person to person.
Beni Grinblat, a dermatologist at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, said: “Since it is impossible not to come into contact with water, the most common task is to prescribe an antihistamine drug to someone, popularly known as ‘antiallergic’. The patient always takes it to protect him from other diseases.
Amani Nesta