I have been battling cholinergic urticaria ever since I moved from England to Germany. I would have the most embarrassing flare ups even in public, and this made me hate socializing. I would always sweat so easily, but then I couldn’t even sweat at all.
Whenever I would itch, I would rush to pour cold water over myself or turn on the a/c. If I was in public, I would enter a grocery story and stand by the freezing isles. I never knew I was only making myself worse!
The cure for me is to keep warm. I forced myself to sit in a hot bath with epsom salts for 30 minutes, and it stung really bad. Since then the flares reduced and I can run again. I now sweat again!
I always keep warm and avoid cold drinks when possible. It’s crazy that I even changed my diet to gluten-free but even that never helped, but I did notice eliminating sugar was a positive.
I recommend everyone to consider staying away from cold remedies and warm up! It’s the only thing that worked for me.
Thanks,
Healed By Grace
Hivesguy says
Thanks so much for sharing!
Ryan says
So true, during the summer my urticaria is gone and has been gone for ages because I sweat easily due to the weather. Now it’s winter it’s come back and im itching like crazy. Going from cold outdoors to hot inside is horrific!
VaBaller says
I can relate to OP. I’ve had CU for some years (with it mostly coming on during winter months). In winter months I’m always in and out of hot and cold areas, so I can see how the CU came about. Saunas help, but staying warm, exercising, and spraying itch areas with a warm water bottle seems to be the best solutions so far. I used to get the itch the worst on my back. One day the itch was so bad that my whole body was shaking. Made me feel very hopeless and I didn’t know what was wrong with me. Tried tons of pills, lotions, and cooling off in the cold. Just seemed to have little effect or make it worse when in hot areas again.
Dominic says
Was wondering if you got breakouts from different emotions as well as from heat and if the hot baths have cured that as well? When do have a breakout do you still try and cool off or do you just fight through it ?
Thanks