Sponsored Links
Is Cholinergic Urticaria (heat hives) Caused By Food Intolerances in Your Diet? My Own Personal Experience:
Doctors are unsure what causes Cholinergic Urticaria to develop. There are many theories of the cause of hives ranging from autoimmune disorders, food intolerances, allergens, & more.
After experiencing a lot of stomach cramps, bloating, & uncomfortable feelings in my stomach, I thought it was time to see if there was something that could be done about it.
Also, I happened to read one forum one day, and a member had posted that he suffered from hives for about 10 years. He controlled the hives with antihistamines & an asthma inhaler. He did not have Cholinergic Urticaria, but instead had another type of hives “pressure urticaria & cold urticaria.” Basically if pressure was applied or cold weather (or an ice cube) was applied to his skin, he would develop a hives condition.
He dealt with the hives for years. By chance, he decided to go an a weight loss diet that reduced carbohydrate intake (such as an Atkins diet).
After removing many foods from his diet, he realized something…his hives were gone. So he & his wife tweaked his diet until they realized what was causing the problem…GLUTEN.
Gluten is a substance found in many popular grains (such as wheat). If you have a gluten intolerance, you may have symptoms such as stomach cramps, bloating, diarrhea, & more. If you have a gluten intolerance, it is usually called celiac disease.
After he removed the gluten from his diet, the hives went away & have not returned since. He told me that it took about 1 month on the diet to clear his hives symptoms. Again, he found this by accident by eating very strictly on an Atkins (low carb) diet.
Could I Have Gluten Intolerance (Celiac Disease)? Was this Causing My Hives? My Own Little Experiment:
I was intrigued by this guy’s story. I was also a little excited. I looked up some of the symptoms & they sounded like some things I had experienced for the past year or two (upset stomachs).
So I decided to give it a little try. As a matter of fact, I went all the way & did an elimination diet. An elimination diet is where you remove certain foods from your diet for a short period of time to see if you are allergic, & then you re-introduce them back into your diet & see if they cause any problems.
So I cut out most all of the major allergens: Wheat, Gluten, Milk & Dairy, Peanuts, Shellfish, & more. Basically, I ate fruits, vegetables, & plain cooked chicken & salmon.
After a few days, my stomach started feeling better. The bloating feeling had gone down. I had no more bad pains/cramps in my stomach.
I stayed strict on this diet for about 3 weeks. I had no gluten, milk, or anything else.
At the end of the 3 weeks, my stomach was completely better. It felt great-no more bloating, gas, cramps, etc. But what about the hives?
Actually, I did see a small improvement. It seemed that I was not as “sensitive” to breakouts. It took more exercising to get me to the point to where I started to itch. Instead of doing 10 sit-ups & then feeling itchy, I could do almost a whole set. Also, the itching was not as bad.
This made me feel a little better, but at this point I was about to die! All I could think about was my favorite pizza place, ice cream, chocolate, & all that yummy stuff.
So I broke down & ate a vanilla ice cream cone from Dairy Queen. On their website, they advertise the ice cream as being gluten free. So I though, “Hey, it does have milk but at least it doesn’t have gluten in it.” So even though I thought I’d cheat, I would still be on the gluten free diet (just not on the milk free diet).
So I had a yummy cone. Everything seemed fine & dandy…Until about 5 hours later. My stomach wasn’t happy. It was started to cramp & hurt so badly I thought I was dying or something.
Also, not to make you sick or anything, but it even gave me diarrhea too. I didn’t really think anything about it. I continued on the diet, and it had been about a month. The guy said his symptoms were gone by 1 month. I exercised, the hives were still there (unfortunately).
So I decided to forget about the diet since the hives were still there. My stomach felt 100% better while I was on it, but the main reason I did the diet was to see if it would stop the hives.
Then, after I quit the diet, my wife & I got a pizza from my favorite pizza place. It was delicious (as always). But then, about 5 hours later, same thing as before. Terrible stomach cramps, & everything else. Then, it hit me. “Man, I get bloated, gassy, cramps, & more whenever I eat a lot of dairy.” Maybe I have lactose intolerance.
I Have Lactose Intolerance (or some type of milk allergy/intolerance)!
To give you a little background on me, I am a dairy-holic. I love ice-cream, cheese, pizza, chocolate, etc. I have ate it my whole life without a problem. But all of a sudden I realized this stuff was killing my stomach.
But instead of going to the doctor, I did a simple test. I ate my diet for a couple of days until my stomach got better. Then I ate some food with only milk in it. My stomach was in BAD shape.
Then, I bought some lactose pills that you can buy at Wal-Mart or your local drug store over the counter. I ate healthy again for a day or two.
Then, I ate the same foods that were killing my stomach before. Only this time I took the lactose pills first. Guess what…my stomach felt great. I guess I am LACTOSE INTOLERANT!!
Yes, that is right! I ate dairy almost every day of my life & loved it. Now, I can’t touch the stuff without taking lactose intolerance pills to make sure my body can digest the lactase (sugar in milk).
So now I can eat whatever I want, but if it is dairy I have to make sure that I take the lactose pills. Then I am totally fine. No stomach problems at all. So I am glad to have my stomach issues under control.
NOW…if I can just figure out this HIVES thing, I will be back to 100%.
But before I publish this article, I hope this gave you some insight. I had no idea that I had a food issue. Neither did the guy I mentioned at the beginning of this article. But the point is, maybe a small percentage of hives sufferers could have a food related issue.
Maybe you are also gluten intolerant, or lactose intolerant, or have another allergy. It is something to think about. If you decide to try a diet or get tested, make sure to let us know the results. Feel free to add a post to the cholinergic urticaria Forum.
UPDATE: After many experiments with diet, I can now confirm that cholinergic urticaria does NOT seem to be initiated by diet. Diets may affect the reactivity of the hives, but at the time the evidences suggests that diet alone is not responsible for this condition.
Sponsored Links
Posted under Uncategorized
This post was written by Ben on June 26, 2008
