Cholinergic Urticaria (heat Hives)

I'm 20 and I've had this condition for just over 2 years. I can't stand it. It started when I would sweat wearing short sleeve tshirts. Over the past two years it has progressed such that now I am afraid to break a sweat outside. My body and my face break out within 5 minutes of sweating...not fun.

However, I believe this can be fixed. In fact, I believe, at least in my condition, that the reaction is a caused by a mental trigger. Essentially it is all in my head. Unfortunately, because it has taken me so long to address is it now a conditioned response to sweathing.

**this is an odd story, but might provide you some insight into the roll the mind plays in this condition**

I remember about 7 or 8 months into this whole ordeal I had read or heard somewhere that confidence meant addressing your fears. Late one night walking back from the library through campus to my dorm I passed by a dark set of stairs that led down to some sort of storage area. Walking by I thought to myself, "I could never walk down those stairs if someone dared me."

I got back to my dorm, sat on my bed and thought about what I said. Subsequently I realized that I was still afraid of the dark. I began to ask myself why I was so afraid of the dark. Ultimately I couldnt think of a reason. So I told myself that I would walk down those stairs to prove to myself I wasnt afraid of the dark. So I marched myself back to those stairs. It was around 3 oclock in the morning in the middle of campus. There was no one around. I remember feeling paralyzed standing at the top of those stairs. By some grace of god I took the first step down those stairs. Then the second. All the way down into the dark. I stood there terrified for what seemed like hours. When I felt I had enough I walked out.

Stepping out of that dark storage alley I had never felt so confident and alive in my life. The experience was truely amazing.

You might be wondering what the point of this story is...

Well the next day I wore a short sleeve shirt to the gym and didnt break out in hives. I played squash for an hour, my shirt was drenched in sweat and there was not one hive on my entire body.

This is basis for my opinion as to why I feel this condition is ultimately a product of my mind. Several days later after letting the high from overcoming my fear of the dark subside the hives came back.

I am doing some introverted work trying to figure out what the trigger to this reaction is. I'd like to get some feedback on any insights you guys have had that has reduced the stress levels or provided relief for this condition. Check out emofree.com. I have had some great success from "tapping."

I am currently on Zyrtec and have just taken a diminishing steriods dose that has been effective. I hope this helps as I am desperately trying to provide help to those who suffer from this condition.

I welcome any comments and I am glad I've found a place to vent my frustrations with this limiting condition.

Do any of you all suffer from any type of thyroid problems?? I was diagnosed with Graves 3 years ago and treated with RAI.. I take synthroid now and my endo states that my thyroid is on track right now.. I am just trying to see if this has anything to do maybe with my thyroid being on track instead of out of whack..

ImBurnin...Are you?

After reading all of the posting, I am quite confident that I have CU. For the longest time I thought I had prickly heat because of the feeling, but CU fits the description a lot better.
This would be my second go through with CU. The first time I had it was in high school. It was a really intense prickly feeling whenever I was in a very hot room, got angry/embarressed, ate spicy food, excercised or anything that would cause me to sweat. This lasted for about 2 years for me before it slowly disappeared. I found the sweating it out process was the cure for me at the time. I started working out, and noticed that when I had an intense workout, my CU would go away for a few days. The more I worked out, the larger the buffer it created between breakouts....until it eventually disappeared.

My CU went away for about 3 years. I thought I had beaten it until it came back last year. Although it is not an intense as the first time I had it, the sweating approach doesn't seem to be working as well as it did the first time. I noticed that if I don't break out in a good sweat, I'll have a more intense break out. I'm still quite confident that sweating it out is still one of the best options out there. I went to Florida this summer for vacation, and although I was very afraid I was going to suffer major breakouts on vacation, it was probably one of the best CU free weeks I have had. It was extremely hot and humid, and although I had a minor breakout during the first day I was there....all of the sweating from being outside in the hot weather stopped my from breaking out at all throughout the trip.

Typically I can sense a breakout coming with a prickly sensation around the side of my head. The prickly sensation then spreads to my upper back and chest area. Certain areas of my body become flushed, and eventually tiny red dots appear for a while before they go away when the attack goes away.

When I go for runs at the gym, I get the feeling around the 3-10 minute range of my run, it typically lasts 2-3 minutes before I begin to sweat. When I start sweating, the itching goes away. But I have noticed that it is a lot harder to sweat than I used to when I didn't have it. I notice some small red dots on my inner arm that eventually go away after the itching has subsided. I usually run for 30 mins, and although I'm dripping sweat from my face, the areas where I itch have little to no perspiration. Those areas look like sweat filled goose bumps after the red dots and the itchiness go away. It is almost exactly like the bubbles look as described by fellow sufferers, but I can't poke them because they're not at the uppermost surface of my skin. Is this the case for fellow CU sufferers?

Guys does anyone get an overwhelming feeling of burning when this rash happens please respond I have been to PD, Endocriologist, Allergist, and Dermatologist all who just want to do bloodwork. All morning My forhead has had this warm sensation but everytells me Im not feverish but that is what it feels like..

ImBurnin...Are you?

Dunno if this will help anyone but fungal or bacterial infections also raise histamine levels in your body. If you suddenly have urticarial symptoms, maybe you should check for signs of athletes foot or jock itch.

I've got CU again this year for the 3rd time in the last 5 years. Mine only comes on in Winter and usually goes about January and February. As a researcher by occupation, I've read a number of interesting papers which might be a help to some people (and help explain the sweat it out theory). People who only get CU in Winter most likely have problems acclimatizing to heat. Thinking back over the last number of times I've had CU, I've tried to identify what I've done different (as I'm sure others here have). The one thing I've come up with is that whenever I have CU, it's in my football off-season as I'm normally a very active person.
From reading up on the internet on different sites, I think this is down to my body acclimatizing better to heat when I am in a fit condition. This isn't just a myth. Here are some points I've pullled off a site:

Lower core temperature at the onset of sweating
Increased heat loss via radiation & convection (skin blood flow)
Decreased heart rate
Decreased core body temperature
Decreased skin temperature
Improved exercise economy
Adaptation to exercise in a cool environment
Adaptation to exercise in a hot environment

All of these points are as a result of exercise which improves heat acclimatization and while may not totally rid you of CU, they may help quite a bit if you can stick through the initial discomfort of exercising. People who this may not help are those who are actually allergic to their own sweat and those who have exercise induced anaphylaxis (be careful!). After 14 days, the body is far more capable of acclimatizing to heat.

The killer thing about heat acclimitization is that for your body to be able to do it, you have to first exercise in the heat. Even just being in warm environments helps. But as CU sufferers know, we want nothing more than to be further away from the heat. This leads to a bit of a vicious circle I think as we become less acclimatised to heat because of our tendency to steer clear of it. If anyone has any opinions on this, please let me know.

Jon Law:

From what I've read, CU is caused by heat. Your condition is (atleast according to the swedish sources I've found) not CU. It's basically the same thing, but not exactly. I think it works similar, but it has a different cause. You have Chronical Physical Urticaria where the cause is cold. People who have Chronical Physical Urticaria caused by heat have what is called Cholinergic urticaria.

As far as I know, the reason why Cholinergic isn't reffered to as just "Heat urticaria" is because there are more things to it. It mainly occurs in men ages 17-25 for example. That is not true for other types of urticaria (based on what I've read).

Insats,

What I've gained from personal observation and from the posts of other users here is that an underlying level of stress is a trigger or amplifier of the condition. Stress is a mental issue, which often results in some kind of physical manifestation. As far as my condition, I am sure I have CU. When my core temperature rises due to exercise, exposure to the sun, ambient temperature, or social situations, my skin becomes itchy and breaks out in hives within 2-5 minutes and generally lasts for 30-45m thereafter.

It seems to me that drugs can inhibit this condition, but not solve it. I bet you'll agree with me seeing how your condition has lasted 5 years and you haven't found the correct drug to get rid of it. Going back to my original statement: Stress is an underlying trigger or amplifier of the situation/condition. This is a premise supported by the observations of myself and those of the other users on the site. Further it is the consensus of medical profession (though I recognize they are not always correct, but have to agree on this case) that stress is a mental condition. Therefore, I have to believe that CU is fundamentally a mental issue (at least in my case).

My feeling is this: because our minds and our bodies are linked, i.e. our thoughts and emotions eventually manifest themselves physically, this condition--which started in the mind--has now been adopted as a conditioned response to a rising core temperature by our bodies. So while drugs may address the physical components of the condition, they ultimately do not solve our problem because they ONLY address the physical issues: the hives. This is why I believe drugs only work for a relatively brief time. Or, let me rephrase, this is why I believe drugs that address allergies only work for a relatively brief time.

What I am unsure of is whether or not the condition can be cured by changing the way our mind operates...in other words, "the way we think." The issue is so entwined physically that addressing the mind might not fix the problem. I think so far that it will be a combination of mental and physical solutions (drugs) that will solve this condition.

I have just started jimmi56's regiment, so hopefully I wont have to change the way I think...

Comments encouraged!

-B

Hey guys, how have you been? It's getting very cold now and I'm not exercising, so my CU is getting VERY bad. It's unbearable, hope you guys are having better luck.

Just a quick question CU and sleep. How many hours are you guys getting a night?

Personally, I only get like 5-6 hours a night and I think it's having an effect on my cu.

Anatta,

You make some interesting points. The reason why I don't agree with you is because the way I see it, CU is solely based on heat and the way your body emits the heat.

-Stress raises your body temperature, thus making your body react.
-Jogging or exercising raises your body temperature, thus making your body react.
-Steam bathing does not cause hives as much, most like due to the fact that the body isolates itself in an attempt not to get too warm (you would die otherwise). From what I can tell, the hives come when your body attempts to cool down. Ventilating by widening the blood cells.

At one time I tried a new deodorant that sort of made the sweat-gland stop working in the armpits (I don't know if you're familiar with it, but it's not like any other deodorant and it hurts like hell the first time). Anyway - Using that deodorant made me get hives a lot easier which is why I'm quite certain that the way the body needs to ventilate is part of this condition. I had blocked one major heat outlet from my body, thus getting hives easier.

Feel free to add your ideas or discuss my views.

/Adam

Why would you think I have CU caused by the cold? Cold places are the source of my relief when my hives come on, as I'm sure they are for many other people. I only get the hives when my body temperature heats up, like you. Stress, hot rooms, exercise etc. It's common for people only to suffer from CU during the winter months due to their bodies not acclimatizing to heat properly. This does not mean that the CU is caused by the cold.
The reason I was suggesting exercise for relief (in the long term) is that there have been papers published which suggest that fitter people acclimatise to heat better due to better circulation, lower core temperatures, better sweat production etc. I myself didn't get CU one winter when I continued playing sport which I normally only play from March to October so I looked for a link between not exercising and CU and I found a few. Plus a lot of people on this site have suggested that sweating has helped them. I think it might not necessarily be from sweating, but from exercising to create that sweat. It kills me to exercise when i have CU, but after 5-10 minutes of the hives, they usually recede.

re: anatta
You say that CU is fundamentally a mental issue. I have definitely questioned that myself in the past. But, now I don't think it the case. Stress (which is obviously mental) brings it on, but this is due to your bodies increase in temperature. Even if it was only down to stress (and not other sources of heat), I'd still put it down as a physical problem because other people are stressed and don't get hives. Your body is creating unnecessary levels of histamine which is a physical thing. If your hives are only brought on by stress and not by other sources of heat, I'd count yourself lucky. because maybe some yoga or something might be a source of relief to you.

Hope ye both can find some relief anyway, and if ye do, don't be afraid to share your methods with the rest of us!!

Has anyone else here ever heard the theory that you can have a hot shower in the morning and get rid of your histamine stores for the day, thus preventing unwelcome attacks for the rest of the day? If so, does anyone have any success with it?

Another quick question. This is just in regard to the theory that sweating/exercising can help. Have many of the people here been continuously active right up to the point when they started having the hives? Do people still exercise regularly and still have the hives or have they stopped because they can't bear the pain?

I'm gonna have to get back out and exercise cause I never have any problems when i am but things just got a bit crazy in work lately and I've become very unfit. I've gone from one extreme to the other. During football season, I'm exercising in one way or another about 5 times a week and I've decreased to none.

Here is the website I've read about acclimatizing to heat:
http://sportsci .org/encyc/heataccl/heataccl.html

This is the paper I found which lead me to look into heat acclimatization. It's just an abstract but interesting anyway and I think a lot of us might relate to it:
http ://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte. asp?Doi=57877

I've also just read this website about histamine increasing in response to dehydration. It's interesting nut I don't know how reliable it is or whether it's from a respected source or not but drinking water can never be a bad thing:
http://islandgrove.ozwide.net.au/y our_bodys_many_cries_for_water.html#6