It sounds like a scene from a horror movie.
A 21-year-old woman is admitted to a hospital with an extremely rare condition that causes her to sweat blood from her face and the palms of her hands.
But, this isn’t a Hollywood storyline.
This is real life, and it stems from a disease that affects just 1 in 10 million people.
Florence, Italy based doctors were puzzled by their young patient who reported experiencing stress-induced BLOOD “sweats” lasting one to five minutes for the past three years, usually occurring whilst exercising, sleeping, or in times of heightened anxiety.
Medics couldn’t pinpoint an obvious trigger for the spontaneous bleeding, though the instances were so intense when she felt stressed that it was reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ).
Though online speculation surrounding similar cases drew criticism for being fraudulent, doctors confirmed the legitimacy of the case, but couldn’t pinpoint a cause as tests revealed her blood count and blood-clotting functions were normal.
After a series of tests, she was eventually diagnosed with hematohidrosis, an extremely rare condition characterized by blood oozing from intact skin and mucosa.
While doctors have successfully reduced the patient’s symptoms with a beta-blocking medication, propranolol, they’ve not been able to stop them completely.
Aside from the obvious physical toll that the condition has taken on her life, she’s reportedly become depressed and socially isolated because of the condition.
Hematohidrosis is a very rare condition of sweating blood, rarely (but poignantly) documented in the historical literature.
Leonardo Da Vinci described a soldier who sweated blood before battle. Jesus Christ experienced hematohidrosis while praying in the garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion as mentioned in the Defenders Bible by Physician Luke as “and being in anguish he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”
The causes of the disease have been divided into nonreligious and religious. The nonreligious causes are as a component of the systemic disease, vicarious menstruation or bleeding from a place where it shouldn’t normally exist, excessive exertion, psychogenic, and unknown factors.
The religious cause is a stigma, which formerly referred to a spot, a sign, a wound, or a mark branded on a slave. From the time of Christ’s crucifixion, this term took on the special meaning as the reproduction of the wounds on palms, soles, and crown that Christ suffered on the cross and it was believed to be supernaturally imposed by God.
The disease is so rare that even the most seasoned medical professionals will never encounter it firsthand in their lifetime.
Canadian medical historian and hematologist Jacalyn Duffin wrote commentary accompanying the article and revealed her initial suspicions that Italian doctors had been duped.
But, after exhaustively examining the medical literature she changed her view.
While it’s unknown what causes the disease, it’s thought to be a result of extreme stress or fear.
This hypothesis is supported by a study published in the Indian Journal of Dermatology that suggests blood vessels which surround the sweat gland constrict, or narrow, under the pressure of stress. As the anxiety increases, the blood vessels dilate to the point of rupture, pushing it into the sweat glands and toward the skin’s surface. Thus presenting as droplets of blood mixed with sweat.
This case is rare, though the second widely reported instance of BLOOD “sweats” this year.
In May, UK outlet MailOnline reported on another case of a 7-year-old girl who bleeds from her eyes, nose, ears, and skin every time she gets a headache.
The child’s mother says that she’s getting treatment and remaining positive that they’ll find a cure stating: “’My daughter has always been a very happy child and still continues to smile when she can, she is a very brave girl.”
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