Cholinergic Urticaria (heat Hives)

Absolutely.

Which poses another question, why is it that certain soaps, body washes and lotions end uo intensifing the itching?

I think that taking supplements might be a good idea, but I also fear that doing so will stimulate the immune system and perhaps make it worse...At this point, anything is worth a try.

The dryness factor might be linked to the fact that many people are more afflicted in the winter time, when humidity is down and everything is dry. Personally, I keep a small container of lotion with me wherever I go, but kind of get embarassed whenever I need to use it. Do you guys use any particular brands of lotion to remedy this aspect of the problem?

Been suffering for about 6 months, read some stuff on here such as the run it out theory. Impossible far too much pain. Anti histamines only work short term. Wanting 2 try homapathy does any1 know a good shop or product or dr in the area in london?

Before we get started let me give you a brief rundown of my cu and the differences in my case. Unlike most people, hives are not the problem. It is the severity of the itching. I can take pain. I play college football (well currently i'm taking a break until I can find a cure or at least treat the condition so it becomes bearable) and the itching is so severe at times that I have litterally dropped to the floor. I am 20 years old and remember getting sporadic, very mild sensations similiar to that of the pain I receive now at about the age of 17.
Rare case: as far as my cu goes I have only had a few severe cases in which I have broken out into a flushed red skin with little white and red spots over my body (mostly on the inner arms). 90% of the time my cu is without any physical symptom which makes my case somewhat rare. Every other symptom is the same as everyone else.

Cholinergic urticaria:average onset 16 years of age.

Peak of condition (when most severe) 20 years of age.

Average duraction 7 years

now i'm sure you all understand that cu is caused by histamine being released into your derma. The actual cause of this is sweating which can be caused by emotions (embaressment, nervousness), and/or a simply raise in body temperature caused by hot foods/drinks, exercise, or maybe just being in the sun.

Most of you have taken antihistamines. Doctors who practically no nothing about the condition are prescribing you drugs that they can only guess will help treat the problem which is histamine. Naturally the antihistamines are the first attempt at a solution and most of you will find this unsuccesful why? Strength.

The strength of the prescription drugs or the strength of any antihistamine you might have taken just isn't enough. The body contains a vast amount of histamine which is produced by the body and also recieved by a lot of different foods and also a lot of foods that help release the histamine build up.

Now for those of you who have antihistamines, my suggestion would be to up the dose significantly if you want to see results. Many side efects can occur from this so please do not do so without caution. A good trial would be claritin because it seems to have the least amount of side effects. This is currently the antihistamine of choice for me. I usually take about 4 in the morning. (normal being 1 for an adult). As it is an antihistamine I doubt it is possible to overdose on such a drug so I see no reason why this cannot be done. 4 seems to be a good amount with little to no side effects what so ever with the claritin.

Foods contain histamine
*foods release histamine

please understand that a lot of the normal foods you eat contain a vast amount of histamine and a lot of the foods you eat also get the body to release histamine. Do a simple search online to find out what these foods are. You might not be allergic to any of these but many foods will induce the histamine release and many foods contain a lot of the histamine which you suffer from so understand that

low salt/histamine diet

if we cannot find a cure than we need to find a way to treat the problem as best as we can, and nothing works best than eliminating the source of the problem which is histamine. By going on a low histamine diet (simply do a google search for low salt/histamine diet and you will find many results. This will significantly reduce the amount of histamine in your body, and together with the amount of claritin I take, there is a drastic improvement. If I want complete relief, simply running around in the back yard releasing the greatly reduced histamine in my body will provide with complete relief for practically the entire day (still experimenting with all three treatments).

I have read every post and I think I will also try the herb or natural solution some of you seem to have used. That along with the 4 claritin, a low histamine diet, and exercise will greatly reduce your symptoms and you might even find complete relief

now that my cu is becoming in check I can get back to work and hopefully back into football and get my life back! Please continue to post with updates and let me know if I helped. I wish you all the best!

David #18

And for those of you who were talking about how they never get sick. Well I have always had a very strong immune system (maybe why the severity of my attacks are so strong) and I get sick maybe once a year with minor stuffy noses here and there due to my enourmous nose probably. But cu seems to keep the immune system going strong as a side effect and I have not had even a slight stuffy nose in about 6 months to a year. There is definately a relation between the cu and the ability to fight off practically anything. Hell maybe cu is the answer to cancer?

Does anyone here have cancer and cu? Or know anyone who does?

Hi guys,
i've had cu for a few years now,but it has gotten very painful and more frequent in the past few months. The symptoms are similar to those described by others here, and I very rarely get sick.

I have tried three antihistamines so far: loratidine, zirtek and hydroxyzine.
Out of these, hydroxyzine proved slightly effective, at 25mg three times per day. However, it only reduces the attacks very slightly.

I have done a lot of research, crawling through lots of forum posts like this one and other web sites, and have decided to buy the following:

lacitrex
buscopan
vitamin c
vitamin b12
bromelain
quercetin

rhus tox 30c

i am also changing my diet to consist of the following:

rice
turkey
lamb
pork
carrots
parsnips
peas
sweetcorn
kale
brocolli
bananas

also, I am now taking a 30 minute hot shower every morning to try and induce some sweating (i cannot seem to sweat at all). This hot shower normally starts hurting after 10 minutes, but I am trying to persevere and "sweat it out".

I will report on my progress and hope that we can break this thing.

Kind regards

mike

Hey guys. I just came back from the doctors. What he said made sense to what you guys said!



He also explained why. He said there was a study in rural china that people over there rarely or never get allergies because all their cells went to fight off the infections (because of the dirtiness) so there are no cells to cause allergic reactions. But in our case, we live in a very good hygienic place so our fighting cells have nothing to do but to make big problems from little things. (this makes sense into jason's post about how he didint get cu anymore cuz he got sick)

he also said. I told him I take long hot showers and he said don't take long hot showers because long hot showers take out our natural oil in our skin. We should be taking shorter colder showers. He also said to put on lotion everytime I finish taking a shower and I should make that into habit.



And yeah. He also said what other doctors said. Take antihistamine. He said benedryl at night. And like claritan during the day.



So yeah, guys. Dont take long hot showers. Bad for skin. Cuz dryness is a factor.

::edit::

so yeah. We get cu cuz we're not getting sick. Not cuz we don't get sick cuz we have cu.

I'm thinking about seeing an endocrinologist for my problem...Has it ever occured to anyone that allergists and the medicines that you've been given up until this point only treat the symptoms?

Meaning that they only try to mitigate the pain by eliminating the histamines? What about going after the root.

Is it possible that there is an imbalance in my immune system, so now I can't sweat right...

I think this might be my best bet, let you all know how that goes.

Keep up posted cdz. Thanks

Hello everyone-

brand new to this board. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to it so far...There is a lot of valuable info in this thread, and I think that it's important to keep talking and sharing ideas. My problems with cholinergic urt. Started out of the blue about 2 months ago, and it has really forced me to alter my life in drastic ways, expecially over the last few weeks. I've even had to take the past several days off of work because I can't take antihistamines right now (allergist appt. On wednesday), and without them I am completely useless out in the real world ( I think I must have a pretty severe case). I've had a lot of time to just sit in my (now ice-cold)apartment and think, and I decided to start a blog to document my struggle with this. I posted some pics on there, too, of a recent outbreak, which might be of some usefulness. I dunno, I just think that there's not a whole lot of good info out there on this condition (this board being a rare exception), and the more we can spread the word about it and its effects on our lives, the better. Seems that most doctors are pretty clueless about hives and their causes, and that just means that those of us who deal with this on a daily basis really only have each other to lean on and draw support from and learn from. Perhaps someday we can get this figured out. Alright, i'll stop blabbering on, but if anyone wants to see the pics its at www.Jeffshives.Blogspot.Co m

jeff

Hi jeff,

thanks for your input, I really hope all is well for your wedding in june.

I think what we need is a collation of internet links to useful cholinergic urticaria pages. Most of the pages out there are pretty useless, so we need to filter through all the crap ones and just have a group of the good ones, with useful info.

Maybe we can integrate this into your blog? (if not i'm happy to make up a webpage about it)

here's a start:

low histamine diet: http://www.Urticaria.Thunderworksinc.Com/p ages/lowhistamine.Htm

cu in a jogger:
http:/ /www.Physsportsmed.Com/issues/2003/0603/sw eeney.Htm

lacitrex:
http://www.Lacitrex.Com

homeopathic treatment:
http://www.Urticaria.Com

tcm treatment:
http://www.Her bchina2000.Com/therapies/lct.Shtml#

general info:
http://www.Hollandandbarrett. Com/vf/healthnotes/hn_live_uk/concern/hive s.Htm

chris' blog:
http: //chris.Quietlife.Net/2001/10/01/this-is-w hat-i-have/

moducare:
http://www.Brita nnia-health.Co.Uk/products.Html

when I find more i'll post them.

Somne more:

diphenhydramine sounds promising:
http://www.Ncbi.Nlm.Nih.Gov/entrez/ query.Fcgi?Cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed& list_uids=8329794&dopt=abstract

ad where to get it (in the uk):
http://www.Mypharmacy.Co.Uk/ medicines/medicines/n/nytol/nytol_one_a_ni ght.Htm

Does anyone know of any low histamine dishes. Any cereal without histamine?
Also has anyone heard of that magicool body spray any good for the itch ?

Magicool is great for relieving an attack for myself. I carry it around with me everywhere! They're pretty expensive though... And they don't last long.

Hi mike-

thanks for your message. You've got a good list of resources there and I will try to incorporate them into the blog. A few of the links don't work but whatever does work I will include. I agree that people who suffer from this could benefit from a clear, concise list of links and resources that are truly helpful for our specific condiiton. I'll try to do that in the next day or two. Maybe i'll put a link to magicool, too. That looks interesting and I would pay almost any amount for a product that would provide instant relief when an attack comes on.

Jeff

Does anyone have any information on lacitrex. Does it work at all?

Ive been breakout free for several weeks now... Which.. Is quite awesome... Heres what I did..

Liver cleanser - cleanse liver which will clean your blood
candida cleanse - yeast overgrowth in intestines creates numerous allergic reactions.
Calcium w/ magnesium - balance your bodies ph so the immune system functions properly.
Royal jelly - good for allergies
apple cider vinegar - good for allergies

shower filter - $20 at home depot
salyctic acid body wash -

no drinking tap water - chlorine and flouride in water = bad.
No flouride toothpaste - many people are allergic to this poison and dont know it.

Hope that helps someone out there... This is the all natural way to go.. I definitely didnt want to have take drugs... Id hope all of you would stray away from them as well

Great post!

How did you find out about this stuff? Did you go to any kind of specialist? Also, do we find these items at a trader joe's? Thanks again.