Cholinergic Urticaria (heat Hives)

It's really kind of strange, because some of the symptoms the folks in this thread have described fit me to a T, but others dont...

My symptoms are fairly simple. I have lesion-like sores or hives that pop up from time to time on my scalp (mainly around the sides and back of my head), giving me what I can only describe as a case of dandruff worthy of the Guiness book. These hives shed skin the size of the head of an eraser, even larger. They itch like mad, and until recently i had absolutely no idea what made them come and go (seems like they come a lot more than they go)...

Then, the other day I finally made a major correlation. I was out waxing my car and wore a baseball cap. Needless to say, I was sweating profusely, and by the time I was done, my scalp had developed probably one of the worst outbreaks ever. The outbreak seemed to key on the exact areas where the band of my hat had been, leading me to the conclusion the hives are being caused by sweat and possibly heat.

The condition is not simply relegated to my scalp, either. In fact, if memory serves me correctly, it actually began on my nose, where it meets my face... From there it developed on my scalp, on the skin under my moustache and on my chin and lower chin. I suppose it's worth mentioning that I have a beard. Also, most recently it has begun to attack my chest.

All of these areas commonly sweat the most when I heat up, especially my upper lip, where this skin-shedding is by far the worst. I often have to take a comb and scrape the skin from my upper lip and chin to keep it from shedding in large pieces all over me.

I went to the doc for this about 2 years ago, and she prescribed hydrocortisone cream, but that hasn't worked at all. In fact, nothing I've tried has worked... And it's embarrassing.

I'm a rock guitarist, and my favorite color to wear is black. You can imagine how that looks when I start flaking... It seems like I've had some periods of remission. In fact, I was having one when the car-waxing thing happened, and now it seems like it's worse than ever. My barber suggested a special shampoo that contains australian tea tree, but all thats done is make me smell like a cross between a peppermint and tree root.

Any suggestions?

anyone got any tips for getting through the summer

Hey all! I dropped by to see how everyone was doing. I am more and more convinced that CU is a result of a colon in need of cleansing. If you have tried everything and dont have the money for all those natural vitamins and what not that i recommended earlier... I would say try this:

Eat only apples for three days straight. (i ate about 10-12 apples per day) The deal i read said to use red or golden delicious.. i opted for some organic galas at my local grocery. On top of that use a colon cleanser (the deal i read said to do an enema... i opted not to and i used the futurebiotics colon green herbal/acidophilus supplement). Drink only water. Thats it.


if someone gives this a go let me know if it helped!

Well your colon has alot to do with your bodys well being. If you have a messed up colon... your body is probably not absorbing the nutrients it needs and if the colon is run rampant with Candida yeast, all types of allergic reactions may occur, perhaps CU is one of them. Your question could be reworded to say "what does what I have to eat have to do with my skin in general?" if you eat tons of junk food, then ofcourse your skin will reflect that. if you eat healthy but your colon isnt absorbing the nutrients correctly, then your skin will reflect that. That is my take on it anyway. All I know is i dont have CU anymore! Nor my nasal allergies as they were, nor my ridiculous acne breakouts as they were.

Hey Everyone,

I'm glad I found this forum and realize I am not the only one suffering. I was recently told I am suffering from CU. Im 18 and its been going on for about 4 months and it really sucks. I would say I'm very tolerable to pain but the CU symtoms easily brings me to my knees and I understand how much agony you all are experiencing.

I haven't read the whole forum yet because I should be studying for finals, but I would really appretiate it if CDZ19 and Jimmi56 could post a summary of exactly what they did to eliminate their CU, leaving out the things that didnt work. This would really help because it would cut down the ten pages of sifting out what works and what doesnt. I will do almost anything to get rid of this. Its hard to do anything becuase the prickling feeling is worse than torture.

I did notice the relation between sweat and CU. When I exercise I would flare up but when I start to sweat, although less than before CU, the swelling would soon disappear and I would be relieved while running. Once I cool down and start again, however, I would still break out and then it would disappear.

Wishing you all relief, Nick

It finally warmed up here (into the mid 70s to low 80s) and I have now been hives free for around a week. Unfortunately, the warmup came at the same time as new treatment plan I just started. I am assuming the lack of hives is due to the heat and humidity (I am sweating all the time now, and there is no gap in time between when I get hot and when I start to sweat, which is when the hives would occur before) and not the medication. My treatment is as follows:

morning: 10 mg zyrtec, 75 mg zantac
afternoon: diphenhydramine 25 mg if needed (if I am getting hives at all during the day, I haven't needed this for the past week)
evening: 10 mg zyrtec, 75 mg zantac

The zyrtec and zantac doesn't usually make me drowsy at all, but I definitely notice when I take the diphenhydramine (I also notice a pretty immediate decline in itchiness and hives when taking benadryl). I'm going to continue my treatment until after finals (I def want to keep the hives away for now) then I will stop it for a couple days to find out whether its the meds or the heat that's helping.. I'll let you guys know.

I'm happy for now, it's amazing how a simple thing can make you suffer so much.

T

The weather in Chicago has been pretty ridiculous. One day it's cold and rainy, the next day its 80 degrees. On the few days when it was hot my CU was as bad as I feared it would be. Alot of people on this board say that it goes away when it gets hot but the weather has been too inconsistent to make a difference.

I've learned to tolerate it somewhat but it continues to be a debilitating condition. I'm still quite reluctant to go out to any clubs/bars/social gatherings.

I used to wear tank top/a-shirts but I had to stop because wearing any tight clothing makes the attacks sooooo much worse.

Fortunately my benefits kick in tomorrow so I'm gonna see a doctor IMMEDIATELY with the hope that he takes my problem seriously.

southside,
In the meantime if you don't mind being a little drowsy sometimes, benadryl works short term wonders for my cu. If you know you are going to be active (exercising, sports, etc) you won't hardly notice the drowsiness anyway, so take a benadryl before you go! I can't recommend you take it before going to the bars though, you would likely fall asleep at the table!

I'm in champaign so I feel your pain with the weather. On the hot days, make sure you get out and sweat! Seriously, the more you are outside sweating (likely suffering for the first 30 minutes or so) the better the cu will be for the rest of the day and probably the day after. In my experience, if you keep sweating, the cu stays away. I have also been keeping my apartment warm.

T

You can try coupling the benadryl with an otc H2 inhibitor such as Zantac, it won't make you drowsy so take one 75 mg pill in the morning and evening.

I have suffered through CU for over a year now (got it around april of 06) and it def. sucks. I have not noticed a difference between winter/summer months, I seem to get it whenever I get overheated. I am going to see an allergist/immunologist tomorrow but I dont really expect him to tell me anything I don't know.

Just a question for all you sufferers though, if it is cold out (not like freezing, but still chilly) have you ever noticed that if you wear a short sleeve shirt or your arms are exposed and you are outside for like 10ish minutes, a red rash starts to appear on your skin. I just started to notice it, it isn't like the bumps from CU its like a large red rash, but it doesnt itch at all. Just wondering if that might somehow be connected to CU??

what the doctor told me makes a lot of sense. Instead of your mast cells (the cells that actually contain the histamine and normally release it) being solid and kind of shaped like a basketball, they have somehow become wiffle-ball shaped (very porous and lots of holes). This allows any small signal received by the mast cells (exercise, stress, emotions, etc.) to result in the release of massive amounts of histamine because the mast cells cannot contain the histamine like they could before CU. My doctor said that the body tries to repair itself and eventually (of course he didnt tell me how long) the holes would be filled and my mast cells would go back to being normal. He said to not let CU interfere with things that I do (which is almost impossible) but to limit very strenuous activites.


I was just curious and asked him how many patients with CU he saw a day, and he said he sees about 3 people a day with CU and this is in a small practice in a fairly small city. I can't imagine that with CU being as prevalent as it is, that more research isnt being done.

[quote="jimmi56"]

If that's true that would be the case for me. I am a male who had acne pretty much my whole teenage years. I took a lot of tetracycline and at one point acutane. I developed CU this winter around December. It had to be the longest winter of my life. However now that summer has rolled around I noticed that it hasn't reoccured for 1-2 weeks.

What really bothers me is that I have seemed to develop another form of urticaria in the absense of CU. I can now write things on my skin (Dermographism) but so far for me, this form of urticaria is nothing comapared to CU. Luckily I am going to the dermatologist in 2 days.

I have had CU for about 4 years now. I definatley feel for the suffering. It has gotten so bad for me i tried to kill myself. And since have had zero quality of life.

I have read over the whole 10 pages on this forum string. I will begin to research and put into effect some of the mention solutions.

I keep hearing vitiamin C being mentioned. I resentely did a Vitiamin C detox. I used Vitiamin C Calcium Ascorbate Powder. I was told to take a certain amount an hour until i had diarriha. It took two days and 48 000 mgs later. I woke up the next day with what felt like colapsed lungs and followed by the worse pain in the world. If you have seen the movie Braveheart by Mel is the closes thing i think would come close to the pain. At 7am i was rushed to the hospital via ambulance. It was over in a couple hours. I was told by the doctors on staff and my naturalpath that it's the most Vitiamin C they had ever heard of anyone taking in such a short period of time. The doctors said the pain was from my kidneys or liver (i forget which one) and my naturalpath said it was my stomach.

Apparently people usually get the diarriha after 6 000 to 10 000 mgs.

If anyone has any ideas about why i was able to take so much without diarriha or Vitiamin C's link to CU, i would be very thankful for the input.

Other than that i have your classic CU. Which includes heat/stress induced and as of lately solar induced. I have seen about 5 doctors with various different specialities. Nothing and no-one has seemed to help.

But I feel a little better knowing i'm not the only one. I was beginning to question my past-lifes and whether or not i was being punished for something i did.

I can't leave the house during the day and pretty much sit in front of a fan my waking hours. I can't even play guitar without my hands breaking out. I don't know what else to do. I don't sweat period. And when i HAVE to go out i put on wet clothes and keep a couple bottles of water on me to wet a cloth i use to keep my exsposed skin wet. This works for about an hour then its back to pure hell.

If anyone has any comments or suggestions please reply.

Thanks for your time.

I'm 15 and I also have cholinergic urticaria. I got it February of this year and I just got rid of it. What I did to get rid of it was exercise like once or twice a week and blaze it. But I think it was the bud that got rid of it cause after I exercised I still itched a little. If you have any questions my AIM is nalaneyugn.

Edit: A nick of stress would do it. Get a piece (glass pipe), it'll cost $10 but it'll last forever. I sweat normally now all over my body but it does take a while to start sweating on my forehead

ddoogg, what's the longest reaction you've had during physical activity? Have you tried jogging or running through the hives until you are completely exhausted?

Do you have an epipen prescription? If so, my advice to you would be do everything you can possibly think of to make yourself sweat. Run, take extremely hot showers, find a sauna, etc.. once you start sweating, make whatever you did a daily routine. I wouldn't advise doing this without an epipen handy though, you never know when you might push it over the edge. I suffered horribly all winter before I finally realized sweating was key. I started running everyday, sometimes twice a day and the symptoms started to go away. Now its summer and I'm sweating all the time, I haven't felt a hint of the CU in over a month. Also, before exercising or attempting to make yourself sweat, take a diphenhydramine tablet to slow down the hives.