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

Okay, so in my previous posts, I talked about how this experiment came about (part 1), and what I saw in the mirror (part 2). When I saw that in the mirror, a condition known as “tinea versicolor” immediately came to my mind. Why? Because:

1. I have studied a lot of diseases in classes at the college level
2. I have studied a lot of diseases in my hopes to cure cholinergic urticaria
3. My mom, wife, and mother in law are all nurses
4. At least 1 forum post has brought the topic up

So because of those 4 things above, I immediately thought it somewhat resembled that condition. So I cracked open my laptop, and I immediately began researching the condition in more detail. What I found shocked me.

Here are some quick facts about Tinea Versicolor that intrigued me:

1. One of the symptoms are listed as: A “pin prick” feeling when a person becomes hot, which is relieved once the individual sweats.
2. The condition is most noticeable when someone tans (that is when discolored pigment becomes most prominent)
3. While many pictures online look dramatic, most cases often don’t look as dramatic
4. Nearly everyone has this one their skin (it is naturally found on our skin), but only becomes overgrown in certain individuals
5. People in forums were talking about having this condition, and most got itchy when they got hot.
6. This usually happens to people at age 15-60, being most common in the late teens and early 20′s (sound familiar)
7. It can often come and go over the years on its own (sound familiar again?)
8. One person on the cholinergic urticaria forum mentioned having this, and apparently cured their “itch when hot symptoms.”

That alone was enough to make me suspect that I may very well have this fungus on my skin. But the interesting things didn’t stop there. Here is what I also discovered:

As I was reading over eMedicine’s website, I came across this phrase on Tinea Versicolor:

Human peptide cathelicidin LL-37 plays a role in skin defense against this organism.

As I read that, I thought to myself, “What in the world is cathelicidin LL-37?” So i googled it. Guess what vitamin makes that peptide? Vitamin D!

It is no mystery that many of us have reported very low Vitamin D levels on the forum before. So I reasoned that if I was Vitamin D deficient, I wasn’t making that peptide above. If I wasn’t making that peptide, I didn’t have a lot of protection from an infection from this fungus (that naturally occurs on the skin).

Also, I have posted in the past how Vitamin D can help regulate the hypothalamus and thyroid, and that it plays an important role in the human body. Some have mentioned on the forum about their thyroid or hormones being slightly off, and I find it interesting that Vitamin D can help regulate those things.

Putting it All Together

So at this point, I have pretty overwhelming evidence that I may indeed have this, and it may be the reason for my Cholinergic Urticaria Symptoms. So many things fit. I had discolored skin patches (but they were very faint and you can’t see them from a foot away). I knew I had low Vitamin D levels, which seems to put me at a greater risk for this. I used to get really sweaty and humid (and this fungus loves that), and so much more.

So I felt that it was absolutely worth a shot to try and treat my tinea versicolor (if I even had it at all).

How I treated my suspected Tinea Versicolor

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Okay, so if you read my previous post on how I came to try my most recent cholinergic urticaria experiment, then you will know that I saw something in the  mirror. What was it? Let me explain.

What I Saw in the Mirror That Made Me Curious

I look in the mirror daily, so it isn’t as if I suddenly saw something that was there every other day. I didn’t. I saw something that I would have only noticed because I was working outside in the sun.

The sun had given me a slight tan on my skin (my back especially). So when I looked in the mirror, I noticed these very faint areas of light pigmented skin. They were very tiny and I almost didn’t notice them. They are so tiny, in fact, they are almost as small as the pinpoint hives we get.

They weren’t everywhere, but they were noticeable enough on my shoulder for them to catch my eye. Just a few mainly on my shoulders, and in the center of my back. Here is the picture of what I saw:

Discolored spots

You should be able to see the light colored “dots” in the picture above. That is what I saw in the mirror, and I only noticed it because my skin had tanned from the sun a bit.

As I saw this, an older condition that I had researched online (and that had even been discussed on this forum) immediately came into my mind. So I grabbed up my laptop to look at some pictures and read more about it.

Which condition am I talking about? Stay tuned for the next posts below…

Tinea Versicolor, and then, my treatment experiment

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