Water-induced itching can stop
Feb 21, 2006
IMAGINE getting ready to shower one evening. You are sweaty, tired after a long day. You shower, come out clean and fresh, ready to relax. Five minutes later, your legs start itching.
By Paul Semugoma
IMAGINE getting ready to shower one evening. You are sweaty, tired after a long day. You shower, come out clean and fresh, ready to relax. Five minutes later, your legs start itching.
The itch spreads to the hands, neck, stomach and chest. It is so severe that you wish you had more fingers to scratch everywhere. You grab a towel to help you scratch and dive into bed. Twenty minutes later, it stops, leaving you exhausted. You may brush it off; but it just occurred, because of something in the water, or the soap, or something else.
But next morning it returns and again you realise the itch comes after touching water. Whether the water is hot or cold, it doesn’t make a difference and no rash appears on the skin. Your skin itches badly whenever you bathe or swim. It is so distressing that you no longer want to clean yourself.
The condition
This is Aquagenic Pruritus, a fancy name for Water-induced (triggered) itching. It is un-imaginable to one who does not have a problem with water and terrible to one who suffers from it.
Starting in early teens and lasting years, it is a daily nightmare. It is fairly common, but not well recognised in medical literature.
Doctors may assume it is an allergy to something in the water.
Anti-allergy tabs may be tried, but no relief is got. Aquagenic Pruritus is a real condition. It affects many people, with differing degrees of severity.
There is no defined treatment and it lasts years, so one has to learn to live with it. It is necessary for the doctor to distinguish it from some conditions, which are related.
Polycythaemia Vera, a rare condition when one’s body produces more blood than necessary, has a similar itch.
In Cholinergic urticaria or pruritus, one reacts to heat, hot or warm water with itching and a skin rash. What makes water-induced itch stand out is the lack of a rash, the lack of response to anti-histamines and the itching occurring with both hot and cold water.
What to do?
This is a problem a few drugs have been able to cure, but a dermatologist should recommend them.
Tips to help one live with the problem include
1-Itching may be less if you don’t stay long in the sun.
2- The itch may be less when you bathe at night
3- Sweating (for example working out) before bathing may make the itching less.
4- A long relaxing bath may induce less itching than a quick shower
5- Half a teaspoon of baking soda in your bathing water may help. The best tip may be to minimise contact with water.
The writer is a medical doctor
Ends
IMAGINE getting ready to shower one evening. You are sweaty, tired after a long day. You shower, come out clean and fresh, ready to relax. Five minutes later, your legs start itching.
The itch spreads to the hands, neck, stomach and chest. It is so severe that you wish you had more fingers to scratch everywhere. You grab a towel to help you scratch and dive into bed. Twenty minutes later, it stops, leaving you exhausted. You may brush it off; but it just occurred, because of something in the water, or the soap, or something else.
But next morning it returns and again you realise the itch comes after touching water. Whether the water is hot or cold, it doesn’t make a difference and no rash appears on the skin. Your skin itches badly whenever you bathe or swim. It is so distressing that you no longer want to clean yourself.
The condition
This is Aquagenic Pruritus, a fancy name for Water-induced (triggered) itching. It is un-imaginable to one who does not have a problem with water and terrible to one who suffers from it.
Starting in early teens and lasting years, it is a daily nightmare. It is fairly common, but not well recognised in medical literature.
Doctors may assume it is an allergy to something in the water.
Anti-allergy tabs may be tried, but no relief is got. Aquagenic Pruritus is a real condition. It affects many people, with differing degrees of severity.
There is no defined treatment and it lasts years, so one has to learn to live with it. It is necessary for the doctor to distinguish it from some conditions, which are related.
Polycythaemia Vera, a rare condition when one’s body produces more blood than necessary, has a similar itch.
In Cholinergic urticaria or pruritus, one reacts to heat, hot or warm water with itching and a skin rash. What makes water-induced itch stand out is the lack of a rash, the lack of response to anti-histamines and the itching occurring with both hot and cold water.
What to do?
This is a problem a few drugs have been able to cure, but a dermatologist should recommend them.
Tips to help one live with the problem include
1-Itching may be less if you don’t stay long in the sun.
2- The itch may be less when you bathe at night
3- Sweating (for example working out) before bathing may make the itching less.
4- A long relaxing bath may induce less itching than a quick shower
5- Half a teaspoon of baking soda in your bathing water may help. The best tip may be to minimise contact with water.
The writer is a medical doctor
Ends