Cholinergic Urticaria (Chronic Heat Hives)-Cholinergic Urticaria.net I Get Itchy Heat Hives (Cholinergic Urticaria) When I Get Hot or Exercise

In the last post, I showed some more pictures of the hard water, and also talked about scrubbing my skin with the exfoliating pad. I wanted to update about this whole experience.

Well, if you remember, I had this strange white build-up on my skin, which I believed to be hard water residue, along with dead skin cells and soap scum. So my wife helped me take another bath with distilled water, and also scrubbed me thoroughly.

In hindsight, I think we scrubbed a little too hard. We scrubbed my skin so hard to get off the residue, that afterward, my skin was itching me to death. I think I really irritated it. It wasn’t “Cholinergic Urticaria” type itching when hot, but just general itching.

It felt really uncomfortable, and if I could go back in time, I wouldn’t have scrubbed it that hard. In fact, it put me in a rather bad mood all day. I got in one of those, “I hate these hives, why me???” type of moods.

Anyway, I put on some of my generic lotion, which really doesn’t work well. It tends to not absorb into the skin, and didn’t really moisturize well. I decided that I needed something better.

So I did some research online for a really good brand of lotion or emollients. I know that lotion won’t cure cholinergic urticaria, but I am always on the lookout for anything safe that can lesson symptoms and make my skin feel better.

After some research, I found that a brand named “Eucerin” was a good brand. It even had one review of someone who uses it who apparently gets a prickly type hives as well. It had excellent reviews on Amazon.com. So I decided I would go to the local supermarket and pick up some. The stuff certainly isn’t cheap. It cost $7.99 for an 8 oz. bottle (while most other brands would cost only about $4-5).

What Was the Eucerin Lotion Like? Is it Worth It?

So I gave it a shot, since it really had great reviews. When I got home, I immediately put some on. It is very thick, kind of like an ointment rather than a lotion. It rubs into the skin very well, and felt as if it was really good stuff.

After I applied it, I could immediately sense that it was much better quality than my old generic lotion. I guess you get what you pay for, as this was more expensive.

The interesting thing is that it made my skin feel very moist and cool, which is great. Not only that, it has helped dramatically with my skin quality, and yes, even my hives (although it isn’t a cure).

Instead of my skin feeling all dry and “icky,” it feels moisturized and cool now (without feeling too greasy). Not only that, but it has pushed back my hives sensitivity dramatically. Instead of having an attack right away, it seems as if my heat threshold is much higher with this cream.

The reason I found this brand is because I was googling a good lotion to use with dry skin or eczema. As it turned out, some people even said this brand helped clear most of their dry flaky skin and eczema. It is a frequent referred brand by dermatologists.

So the moral of the story is this: I would recommend anyone with cholinergic urticaria to find a great skin moisturizer. This is one great brand that I would recommend 100%. It is kind of pricey, but to me it is worth its price. It won’t cure your hives (most likely), but it can make your skin so much more comfortable, and may lessen the reactiveness or threshold of your CU. But always follow doctors orders over any advice I give.

Update on Showers and Hard Water

I have still been on my regimen of taking showers only with distilled water. I also changed soaps to a moisturizing soap (by dove), which replaces my terrible drying dial soap. So this too with the lotion is helping my skin look and feel amazing.

I think the Eucerin company makes a cleanser for the body, and I may look in to that at some point, because they make great products. But as of right now, the dove sensitive skin soap is a great product too.

I plan to continue taking the distilled water baths. It feels so much better, and I can now do it with just 1 gallon of water. In fact, I have even considered doing this for a month or two more just to see if the soft water does anything (before buying a water softener). I only bathe about 2-3 times per week with this method.

So far, I still have had a few prickles, but my skin seems to be slowly improving, especially since applying the new lotion and newer soap. Only time will tell if I can completely overcome the hives by using purified water and lotion.

Well that about does it in terms of updating on the hives.

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In a recent post, I took some pictures of some shower items to show what hard water residue pictures looked like. If you check those out, then you will see that it leaves a very thick white residue on anything it touches (including your skin).

This film of “gunk” is very sticky, and is extremely difficult to wash off of anything. My wife and I are clean people, and when we take showers it isn’t like we are filthy or something. Yet in no time gunk builds up on our sinks and tub due to the extraordinary hard water.

The dissolved minerals in hard water bind to almost any surface it touches, and to remove it you have to scrub extremely hard and buy cleaners that deal with the dissolved minerals.

Anyway, I wanted to take another picture to just display how hard the water is here. This is from the side of my shower. Keep in mind a couple of things before you even look at this picture:

1. This is just the side of the shower, most of the water runs off into the drain. This is just a residue only of the side, which shows just how insanely hard the water is here.
2. We clean our tub regularly (at least 1 per month or so), and we are never “filthy.” It isn’t like we get in the tub covered in mud or something.

Anyway, here is what the side of the tub looks like. The tub is white, and has hard water (whitish) residue on it:

Hard water

So just to illustrate how fast the water builds up (just on the side where the water barely touches), I took a scrap piece of wood I had lying around. I then took the wood, and scraped from the bottom to the top of this small side part. Here is what it looked like:

Hard Water Residue

Yuk! No folks, that isn’t cocaine, sugar, or even salt. It is nasty gunk in the water supply. And let me remind you, I have CITY water (not a well). This is just regular tap water from the city!!!

The only good news is that I have a new business idea: I can buy some empty capsules, and start a calcium/magnesium supplement business by scraping my shower!! Yah! (just kidding of course)

Not only does it leave this white powdery residue when it dries, but it also leaves a brownish colored residue as well (I am assuming probably iron deposits). On top of that, there is this black “sludge” that always forms in the drain.

I know this because my wife has extremely long hair, and every month or two I have to remove it from the drain in the tub to prevent it from clogging. And I always see this black sludge material, which I am assuming is probably some type of magnesium or manganese deposit.

Not only that, but we have to replace our shower curtain almost monthly, because the water is so hard and sticky, that mold starts to form on the shower curtain very quickly, even when cleaning it with bleach every month.

To clean this beast, I usually get some shower gel stuff with bleach, let it sit for an hour or two, and then scrub it and scrub it until it finally gets clean. Needless to say, I don’t exercise on that day…

Is This Water Great for Cholinergic Urticaria and Eczema Conditions?

Okay, just a little common sense here…does anyone actually think this water could HELP cholinergic urticaria, or eczema type conditions? My water has at least the following known chemicals in it:

1. Calcium
2. Magnesium (or manganese)
3. Chlorine (added by city)
4. Fluoride (added by city)
5. Possibly Iron
6. Who knows what other contaminants/minerals

I don’t see how all of these chemicals can help cholinergic urticaria or eczema. In fact, it is quite obvious to me that the water is going to aggravate or inflame any conditions with the skin (including psoriasis, or any type of rash/hives).

At the very least, hard water like this would clog pores and dry the skin. At the worst, this hard water could inflame or cause eczema, skin rashes, and potentially even Cholinergic Urticaria or allergic reactions.

Don’t get me wrong, I do realize that minerals are sometimes found naturally dissolved in water supplies like rivers, lakes, etc. But I honestly can’t see how even a river can be as bad as my water here!

Oh yeah, and this reminds me: When my wife and I moved in we purchased a small aquarium. We filled it with this crazy water, and the fish died within days. I now realize I should have used distilled water. I feel so sorry for those fish! I wouldn’t splash this nasty water on my worst enemy.

And after considering how my hives went crazy after I moved here, and how I developed terrible eczema/dermatitis type rashes like I have never developed before in my life, I think it is safe to say this water has some involvement with my skin problems.

So while I have no idea whether or not softer water will cure cholinergic urticaria (it may, it may not), I am fairly confident that it will at least make my skin more comfortable, and help cut down on skin irritation.Worst case scenario, I won’t have to scrub the tub as hard and my skin will feel softer. Best case scenario: It will cure my hives and prevent any eczema rashes from forming.

I Am Scrubbing My Skin Tomorrow and Using Distilled Water Again

In my last post, I talked about how I have been using distilled water to bathe every few days. I also talked about the white gunk my wife was able to get from my skin. It did it right after the shower, while my skin was moist. A person also replied on the forum and noticed this same gunk on their skin as well.

Anyway, I have purchased more jugs of distilled water, and also a nice little scrub brush. Here it is:

Loofah Scrub

My wife is going to scrub me down, and trust me, it will be painful. Hopefully I will get as much of this gunk as I can off my skin. I know that in the eczema water softener trials, most people seen an improvement within 2-3 weeks. After a few months the change was incredible.

So I know this is going to be a long process, but I am definitely going to be experimenting with it over the next 1-2 months. Time will tell if it helps. I still think an actual water softener will be even better, as it is hard to really scrub using heated jug water.

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