Peanut allergies may be bad, but can you imagine being allergic to people?
Johanna Watkins from Minnesota was newly married when she realised she was allergic to (of all people) her husband, leading her to cough when he came close, and to even go into anaphylactic shock after he came home from the barber. Called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, the rare condition is due to her mast cells reacting to any of literally hundreds of triggers (from food to natural chemicals to body odours) and sending out chemicals that trigger a potentially fatal allergic reaction. To avoid this, she has to live in a very clean environment, complete with sealed windows and air filters. With MCAS, the couple’s love life has also taken a peculiar twist – they watch a movie in separate rooms three floors apart, interacting via their smartphones.
If that condition is bad, at least you can mention it in public. This next one is so private, you might think it’s a joke.
Semen allergy
This bizarre condition became all too real for a newly married couple in North Carolina whose love lives were abruptly halted when she experienced burning, swelling and redness after sex – symptoms of sensitivity to his seminal fluid. The rare condition is estimated to affect up to 12% of women, and could also result in painful urination or anaphylactic shock. Ironically, the cure is to desensitise the woman’s body with repeated injections of seminal fluid. Gross as it sounds, the treatment rescued the couple’s sex life.
As if that’s not embarrassing enough, some men are actually allergic to their own semen. It doesn’t mean they’ll need a sex-change, but when they ejaculate it results in unpleasant symptoms like fevers, nausea, backaches and hives – a real libido killer that may be spoiling the sex lives of 1% of men. The treatment? The -ahem- boldness to get help, which comes in the form of (you guessed it) having their own seminal fluid injected into their bloodstream.
Chocolate allergy
This might be the most painful one of all – some people are allergic to chocolate. In many cases, a reaction to chocolate is really caused by nuts or other ingredients, but an unlucky few are sensitive to the cocoa itself. The allergy is blamed for such serious symptoms as migraines, cramps, and – you guessed it – anaphylaxis. While many of us would rather die than give up chocolate, there are still plenty of other desserts out there.
Water allergy
As unbelievable as it sounds, some people are allergic to touching water (it’s called aquagenic urticaria – I am not making this up – which affects one in 230 million people worldwide). A woman in the UK with the allergy had to cut back her bath time to just 10 seconds a week (ew), and remove water-rich fruits and veggies from her diet. Strangely enough while she could not drink water, juice, tea, and coffee, she is able to hydrate with diet cola which her body tolerates. Not only did exposure to moisture in the form of rain or even humidity trigger a reaction, even the tears of her own son gave her hives. Now I feel like crying.
Sweat ‘allergy’
While it sounds like a lame excuse to skip gym, this hives disorder is actually a health hazard for some. While not strictly speaking an allergy, it can also lead to anaphylactic shock in serious cases when the body is exposed to heat and sweat. For a soccer player out for a run in Ohio, it came in the form of a disturbed tummy, heat waves, and swelling tongue – luckily she alerted someone for help. The condition is usually milder, and affects only 4% of people; but that still comes up to about 200,000 itchy people in hot and humid Singapore.
While peanut allergy is annoying, those of us who have it can at least be grateful that it’s not as bad as these reactions that make it hard to exercise, drink, socialise, have sex, and even (gasp) enjoy chocolates.
By Vincent Tan
