Friday, December 6, 2013

Meet the 19-year-old teenager who cries and sweats blood



This is so bizarre!

Delfina Cedeno, 19, from the Dominican Republic, has an anxiety disorder which causes her blood vessels to rupture and the blood to seep out of her eyes and skin. She began suffering from the bizarre disorder - which also causes blood to seep from her fingernails and belly button - four years ago. As her condition deteriorated, she started crying the red fluid, having nosebleeds and suffering hair loss. At her worst, she has bled for up to 15 days and was once left in such a critical condition that she needed a blood transfusion.

The   rare condition called hematidrosis, which means she has 20 times the level of adrenaline of a normal person. The anxiety attacks it causes makes her blood pressure rise so severely that she sweats - and this sweat comes out of her body as blood.

According to a study published in the Indian Journal of Dermatology, the many 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. The blood goes into the sweat glands, which push it along with sweat to the surface, presenting as droplets of blood mixed with sweat.

Miss Cedeno is currently on medication to control her anxiety, which has helped to control the bleeding.

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