Tuesday, 15 November 2011

i sweat blue.

no kidding.

Instance 1:
   i noticed this just a week back on my school trip in Kerala. it's so hot and sticky there, you can't help but sweat gallons and gallons in one day. on the first day of the trip (which was epic btw), my friend pointed at my chest - "dude, there are drops of blue stuff on you... OHMYGOD I THINK IT'S SWEAT! OHMYGOD, OHMYGOD YOU'RE SWEATING BLUE!!!"
Instance 2:
   at the end of my trip to Kerala, my bag was full of lightly tinted blue tissues.
Instance 3:
  while writing, the sweat on my fingertips/palm gets onto parts of my pencil, soaks through the wood and makes it blue. this i've been observing for the past 3 days.
   i have noo idea why this is happening. i'm pretty sure it isn't because any of the products i use, the clothes i wear or the food i eat. that's just retarded. i sit thinking to myself - am i super cool sci-fi being whose sweat glands have special pigments? would that signify that i possess superpowers? does this mean i can don the skimpiest outfit possible and head out to save the world?
i wish.
on Googling 'blue sweat', this is what turns up:
   first off, sweating blue isn't an unheard of phenomenon like i thought it was. quite a lot of people sweat blue. in fact, not just blue, people sweat yellow, red, green and black as well. and this isn't because these people are blessed with extraordinary abilities. truth is - it's a kind of illness.
   Chromhidrosis or 'coloured sweat' is a rare condition characterized by the secretion of coloured sweat. in our body, two gland produce sweat - eccrine and apocrine glands. eccrine glands secrete a clear, odourless fluid that serves to regulate body temperature. apocrine glands, on the other hand, produce a thicker fluid which, when broken down by bacteria, is the cause of body odour. Chromhidrosis is brought about by deposition of lipofuscin in the apocrine glands. lipofuscin, one of the aging or "wear-and-tear" pigments, is contained in fine yellow-brown pigment granules. its various oxidative states account for the characteristic yellow, green, blue, red or black secretions observed in apocrine chromhidrosis.
   although apocrine glands are found in the genital, axillary and facial skin, chromhidrosis is mainly reported to occur on the face and underarms. for curing this condition, regular application of the Capsaicin cream and botulinum toxin treatment are effective to an extent.
   an even rarer condition is eccrine chromhidrosis which occurs due to ingestion of certain dyes or drugs. pseudochromhidrosis is caused by extrinsic dyes, paints or chromogenic bacteria present on the surface of the skin which colour the clear eccrine sweat.
   approximately 10% of people without chromhidrosis have colored sweat that is regarded as acceptable and within the normal range.
Conclusion:
i am either:
a. afflicted with Apocrine Chromhidrosis
b. afflicted with Eccrine Chromhidrosis
c. one among the 10% without chromhidrosis having coloured sweat within the normal range
   until i reach a definite answer, i'll just make believe i'm the next Wonder Woman.

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