Hematidrosis is an extremely rare medical phenomenon where a person bleeds through the sweat glands.
Hematidrosis is believed to be caused by the rupturing of capillaries near sweat glands during periods of extreme stress. In these rare cases, the nervous system sends an intense enough fight or flight response to the circulatory system that the capillaries get overwhelmed and burst. This causes the now free flowing blood to exit the body through the sweat glands.
Hematidrosis isn't life threatening. The worst it can do to you is make you dehydrated. Treatment is usually confined to dealing with the stressors and stress reducing medication. From 2004 to 2017, there were 28 documented cases in peer reviewed journals: 24 were female, four male. Most were young, with an average age of 14 years for females (7 months to 34 yr) and 26 years for the four males (9, 10, 15 and 72 yr).
Documented cases throughout history have described blood sweat among people facing imminent death. Cases trace all the way back to the writings of Aristotle in the third century B.C.:
"Instances, indeed, are not unknown of persons who in consequence of a cachectic state have secreted sweat that resembled blood."
And later:
"If the blood get exceedingly liquid, animals fall sick; for the blood then turns into something like ichor, or a liquid so thin that at times has been known to exude through the pores like sweat."
Three hundred years after hematidrosis' first documented cases, the Bible described Jesus sweating blood in the garden of Gethsemane.
"And being in agony, He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground." -Luke 22:44
Doctors in the medieval period described the phenomenon occurring in patients with high fevers, scurvy, and among many facing execution. Leonardo da Vinci wrote that one of his soldiers had bloody sweat after an intense battle.
The medical community is still in the process of learning about hematidrosis. Because it is both extremely rare and non life threatening, there isn't much research about the phenomenon. It is especially difficult to research since most cases occur in under developed areas of the world. Many people still believe that blood sweat is the stuff of religious mythology. Hopefully in coming years, the condition of hematidrosis will be better understood by both the medical community and the common man.
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