As most of you know I have also been on a gluten-free/milk free diet for about 1 1/2 months now. I just wanted to provide a quick update on it.
First, I still have Cholinergic Urticaria, and can still breakout at any time. So far the diet does not appear to be helping with the hives. However, I do plan on continuing the diet for at least a few more weeks, or even a couple of months.
I have realized that the milk free diet is going to be permanent in nature even if it doesn’t help my cholinergic urticaria. Milk was the issue with my stomach problems, and since going on this diet I have not had one single episode of stomach cramps, excessive bloating, excessive gas, diarrhea, or any other bad digestion problems. So even though the milk doesn’t help the cholinergic urticaria, it looks like this may be a life-long avoidance thing (I may cheat or eat small quantities here and there after the diet experiment is over).
Also, I have not had any skin rash or eczema problems, which I now strongly suspect was linked with the milk. So milk was causing some problems for me, and I don’t think at this point it is causing the cholinergic urticaria, but time will tell since I plan on avoiding milk long term.
In terms of gluten, I am starting to think maybe gluten is not an issue. I did strongly suspect it could be involved with CU, and I have confirmed that it is related to at least some physical urticaria conditions. But at the same time I am not yet seeing any results, and someone on the forum has confirmed that they went gluten free for almost 9 months and didn’t see any effects at all.
So if this diet hasn’t changed within a few weeks/months, then I will probably keep it similar to what I am eating now, but I may expand my foods to those that contain wheat/gluten occasionally, while still avoiding milk as much as possible. I am happy on the diet so far and I am really not having any excessive cravings or problems.
