Here’s an allergy that’s hard to explain: Darren Young is allergic to his wife. If he touches his wife when she is wearing cosmetics, creams or lotions, he breaks out in blotches and has a reaction that sends his heart rate crazy.

Technically, Young is not actually allergic to his wife: he’s allergic to her beauty routine. His body swells and his heart could even stop beating, if he came into large enough amounts of a common chemical used in many cosmetics.

He discovered his allergy after a steroid injection. Young had a serious reaction. Now, if he wants to snuggle with his wife, he has to be sure she isn’t wearing any cosmetics with polyethylene glycol in them.

Young’s steroid injection contained polyethylene glycol. It was a treatment for a foot problem. His reaction was so severe that in mere seconds, Young’s face and body had swelled and his heart stopped. Doctors had to restart it, twice.

Polyethylene glycol is not just used in cosmetics. It’s also a medication to treat occasional constipation. The helpful characteristic for cosmetics is the compound’s ability to retain water. It is considered to have low toxicity.

As a result, Young’s challenge doesn’t stop with his wife’s use of lotions. He can get a reaction if he goes into a restaurant or bar where a woman has been sitting. Even trace amounts of this chemical can throw him into a reaction. Young has had to learn to study product labels of all kinds, from food ingredients to toothpaste, soap to shaving cream, suntan oil to air freshener.

Doctors cannot explain why Young has had this sudden onset of allergy.

Young’s wife, Sue, finds her husband’s allergy useful at times. She’s been known to warn him that she’s wearing creams if she just doesn’t feel “in the mood”.

Sources: Wikipedia; The Sun