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

Hello Everyone!

I hope your Cholinergic Urticaria is not bothering you. Mine are actually a little more painful these past 2-3 days after the whole stomach episode. Today while I was out in the sun (did some errands today), I started prickling & itching quite badly within seconds/minutes.

But here is the new development: As I mentioned in a earlier post, the hives were doing WAY better. But then, I made the gluten free/milk free pizza, and my stomach went all haywire. So something in those ingredients was NOT good for me.

Then, my hives start up much more intensely. This was a bit frustrating, since I was hoping gluten/milk was the ONLY problem. But it appears that is not the only problem, other foods could be causing this (or perhaps it is MULTIPLE foods I have to watch out for).

As if the whole stomach upset & increase in cholinergic urticaria attacks wasn’t enough, I now have noticed a very small (slightly itchy) “spot” that popped up under my left eye. It is red, slightly scaly looking, and slightly itchy (but not really bad itchy). Here is a picture of it:

It literally popped up out of nowhere, and leads me to think that once again there is something food related in all of this mess. Surprisingly, the spot did not reappear on my finger. Instead it popped up under my eye, which is strange. It has been there about 2 days now. It will be interesting to see if it clears up quickly after starting the new diet.

To be clear, this is just a small itchy rash, and not the kind of hives that sometimes appear in pictures of pictures of Cholinergic Urticaria. I get these random rashes mostly when my diet has been out of whack.

So again let me point out a sequence of events that are starting to form a pattern with me:

1. I eat some bad foods (that contains lots of possible allergens/preservatives/chemicals

2. I get upset stomach (ranging from bloating, gas, intense cramps, diarrhea, and any combination thereof).

3. The hives crank up in intensity

4. I notice a small itchy bump or rash that appears within a few days of all this. When I eat very lean & raw, it clears up, and the hives back down some.

My New Diet Plan-Starts August 1st:

So on August 1st, I am going to really make some massive changes in my diet. I will do this as strictly as absolute possible. I hope to do this for a minimum of 2 weeks, but if I see results, I will try to prolong it further. Here is how I plan to do this:

Old Diet Plan (the one I am on now):

I excluded all foods that contained milk (dairy), and Gluten (wheat/oats/barley/etc.). I focused on building a lot of foods that were good tasting, but still processed, containing preservatives, etc. I also consumed quite a bit of sweets such as cereals, home-made items (mostly derived from powdered sugar/processed sugar).

New Diet Plan: (The One I Will Start August 1st):

I will focus mostly on “raw” and “non-processed” foods. Basically let me put it like this: I want to eat how Adam & Eve would have eaten as much as possible! This means the same type of foods they would have eaten (raw fruits/veggies).

This means I am going to consume lots of cooked brown & white rice (rice is great on my stomach, and is a good “filler food.”). I am going to include raw fruits & veggies & salads from the store, and I will eat them both raw & cooked. I will avoid “canned or frozen” foods as much as possible or completely.

I am also going to try to avoid meat as much as possible. Not that I have anything against meat. It is just that most companies these days load meats up with hormones, antibiotics, artificial coloring (to make it look fresh), and all sorts of things that could be potentially bad. So I will definitely avoid that as much as possible. The only exception is if I find a source that I believe is 100% natural with no chemicals at all added to it-which I may look for if I start craving it badly enough.

I am also going to cut way down on my sugar intake (by probably 80%). I will only drink filtered water (no soda or juice). Of course, I will continue to avoid gluten & milk as well.

In addition, I will avoid all major allergies that I know about. This means no soy, nuts, xantham gum, yeast, milk, wheat, etc.  People can literally be allergic to almost any type of food (even some fruits/veggies). However, I am going to primarily focus on the “nasty” type of allergies, since my stomach tends to do well on this raw/plain fruits & veggies, and I don’t suspect I have any issues with those.

So I will keep everyone updated. I wish I could fast forward a few months & see how this all plays out!

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Hello everyone!

Well I just wanted to update everyone on my own hives situation, and also tell you about a few experiments I am going to try with my diet soon.

First of all, as many of you may know, I have already determined through a diet test that milk is no longer my friend. Apparently, I have some sort of  milk intolerance/allergy. I was completely unaware of this until recently, and used to eat lots of ice cream, etc. I only noticed this after having a lot of stomach problems, and completely removing milk from my diet a few months ago. I then reintroduced milk into my diet, and had severe stomach problems.

So, after this little experiment I decided I would try to reduce the milk in my diet, and when I felt the urge to eat it, I would simply take those lactose pills so it wouldn’t upset my stomach. Overall, the lactose pills worked well (but they are fickle & you have to make sure to take enough of them).

Anyways, I have been taking the pills, and still eating some milk products here & there. Then, over this past week, I got a lot of snack food on my grocery store visit. I got a lot of those little snicker bars (milk), some chocolate peanut butter cups (milk), ate a peanut butter milkshake (milk), and had a pizza (milk), and a couple of twix bars (milk), oh yeah, and those little peanut m&m’s (milk).

I did have some stomach upsets (just a little cramping), but that isn’t the reason I am writing this post. Instead, I think there is a strong possibility of a food intolerance with at least some Cholinergic Urticaria sufferers (myself included).

After about 2-5 days of eating all of these little snacks loaded with milk/dairy ingredients, I began to develop a small red/itchy bump on the inside of my finger. I have had CU off/on for about 7 years now (almost 8), and I never had any rashes or eczema issues. But I did develop a rash on the back of my neck/arms/hands about a year ago, which I was able to eliminate by reducing my milk intake, and with the help of a topical steroid cream.

Now, by eating a lot more dairy than usual, this bump appears (it appeared before in the exact same spot when I had my rash outbreak last year). Here is a picture of it (it is kinda hard to see with the lighting in the pic).

But that isn’t the only thing that has happened. Many of us on the forum have been trying to use a “sweat” type of therapy, which involves trying to make our bodies more adapted to sweating. Well I had been trying this with great results. I worked outside a few days during the week, and was sweating fine.  Then, I had a period of a few days where I mostly stayed indoors (also the same time when I was eating all the milk products).

Well, suddenly after these few days I became super-reactive. Literally, I started getting prickly just sitting in my apartment. The thermostat read 71 degrees, and I am usually fine at that temp. I continued breaking out like this for 2 days. I walked outside & immediately got prickly. I also got prickly in my sleep. Ugh. I hate the painful symptoms of cholinergic urticaria!

I even had a “BAD” type of outbreak. I was just sitting in my apartment. Suddenly I felt the prickly stinging/itching sensation in a few spots. So I scratched & didn’t think about it. Then, it kept doing it. I thought…Okay why am I breaking out right now. I then start scratching myself like crazy on my head, chest, abdomen, arms, etc. I told my wife to grab our camera. Then, after intense itching, my chest became red in a lot of areas, and I developed a few of the “pinpoint” hives. Here are some pictures of this whole event: PS..I apologize in advance about the small amount of chest hair, but in my defense, I am a guy…hehe.

The pictures above are right in the middle of my outbreak. It was itching & stinging very intensely before any physical symptoms appeared (such as the red flushed skin & hives). I usually don’t have very visible symptoms, only during a very bad attack like this one. I was itching so badly I could barely hold still long enough for my wife to snap the shots.

By the way, about 10 minutes later, the hives and redness were completely gone.

I will be making another post detailing my thoughts & a new diet test I will be trying…

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