Is there any way for the immune system to detect and react to water molecules?

Yeah, that's nonsense. No one is allergic to water, as it encompasses 60% of an adult's total weight.


Milk is a homogenous solution. It consists of 87% water. Milk comes in different percentages of cream, with skim milk being less than 1%. The fact she can drink milk and survive suggests she's not allergic to water.

I agree with the post above. The immune system can't detect water molecules because if it did, then the person immune system would eat itself alive.

Quoting Tessa, ''the fats, proteins, and sugars in milk surround the water molecules and allow the water molecules to sort of sneak past my immune system''

Not sure how plausible her explanation is, though. Hence why I'm asking here.

Say you have 100 mL of milk.

87% water means that 87 mL of the 100 mL is water.

The remaining 13% is cream, proteins, sugar, etc. Or in other words, 13 mL consists of everything that's not water.

There's not enough cream, proteins, sugar to coat remaining 87%. So this explanation isn't logical to me.

She says she drinks about 800 ml of milk a day, and she's constantly dehydrated (hence the attempt to hydrate her using intravenous saline - which she cannot tolerate due to her allergy). It's implied she still reacts to milk but not as badly as pure water.

Unless you live with the person, there's really no way to verify what they're saying is true. Anyone can claim anything

Her instagram and the news articles about her show photos of her in the hospital being treated for her internal allergy to water molecules.

Just to entertain the idea, can you forward a news article written about this person?

Mind you, believing in this is no different then believing in the tooth fairy 😆

https://allindiaroundup.com/news/student-who-is-allergic-to-water-breaks-out-in-rashes-when-she-sweats-or-cries/

Quoting the article:

''I get rashes on my body quite often, but especially where clothes rubs/rests on my skin. Even during a slow walk, the body will produce some amount of sweat. Most of the time it’s so minuscule people will never even notice it—but we have to wash our clothes because they’re getting dirty somehow! Even though when I walk slowly (the only form of exercise I can really handle) sweat is produced, but while it starts out as a very small amount like everyone else, my body quickly reacts to this and makes my temperature increase, which in turn makes me sweat more. It’s not a great cycle for this allergy. This is just one example of what my skin looks like, the waistband of my leggings I was wearing today rests on my stomach. There are no bumps because the medication I take helps reduce the allergic reaction, but the skin will still flare up and be extra sensitive. If I started to itch these spots (which I try really really hard not to) then rashes and hives can quickly pop up and persist for a lot longer than this sensitivity. I try to post pictures and videos that show physical, observable reactions, because since half of this allergy is all internal the worst parts of my allergy are invisible. People with invisible disabilities and conditions face a lot of discrimination and hate. I’ve had people, even people in the medical field, accuse me of lying about my condition if I can’t produce reactions visible to the naked eye. When I was in the ER a few weeks ago receiving IV infusions, the nurse didn’t believe me at first that I had to have steroid anti-histamines injected first or the saline would hurt me. But in between injections of medicine saline needs to be injected to flush the IV tube, and during this time she saw me grimace in pain and asked me to show her where the pain was. I pointed to part of my arm, starting in my wrist where the injection site was, and following an odd path up my arm. She looked shocked when I perfectly pointed out the route of a deep vein, and only then did she believe I was in actual pain. This condition is hard enough to deal with, but the accusatory attitudes that come from others makes it hard mentally. So be kind to everyone! 💕''



Another article refers to Tessa -  https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/a30647028/can-you-be-allergic-to-water/

''Hansen-Smith can’t drink more than a few ounces of water without getting severe stomach cramps, so she drinks whole milk instead. “The sugars, fats and proteins help the water molecules sort of ‘sneak’ past my immune system so I can get some hydration,” she says.''

They're just quoting her. All these articles are referencing her Instagram page, as did you, so I don't know what's real or not. Assuming those reactions are real, I don't think it's caused by water, but instead due to some phobia she's experiencing. Sufferers of "aquagenic urticaria" articulate the phobic object with their flesh. She has developed some anxiety being in contact with water and bodily fluids, that her body is stimulated to react to it; this is why milk works for her because she believe this nonsensical fact that it is surrounded by equal parts cream, which is illogical, but to her, a sense of subconscious comfort. Hence, the phobia of being in contact with water and bodily fluids is translated into the above physical manifestations through which the body speaks and attempts to symbolize through bruising.

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270133139_Aquagenic_Urticaria_and_Aquagenic_Pruritus_-_a_psychoanalytic_study_by_Ayelet_Hirshfeld_PhD

Thanks for that! If it is psychological, I wonder why aquagenic urticaria is still considered a mystery by most scientists.

I think it's because biologists like finding definitive proof to things. For example, if substance a and substance b react, then it's definitive proof that a and b form a reaction. Here we see that on >>99.9% of the population, nothing happens when someone's skin comes in contact with water, hence situations like these stump scientists because it goes against what's expected in nature. When we can't find definitive proof to something, we turn to the brain. The brain is very powerful, but it is also difficult to study since variables are hard to control especially when experimenting with one's mental state. This is where psychology comes in, it fills the gap between the scientific world with our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Scientists, however don't like using psychology to explain certain phenomena, as it doesn't provide the definitive proof they're looking for, even when it's sufficient.

Could the psychological explanation explain Heidi Falconer's case? She too was diagnosed with aquagenic urticaria and suffers internal reactions to water severe enough it results in her going into shock (she has Epi Pens just in case). Her mother claims that when Heidi was born, she was covered in welts.  Like Tessa, Heidi also had internal reactions to intravenous saline.