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

There are several different types of “Hives” conditions. This website focuses mainly on a type of hives called Cholinergic Urticaria. This types of hives happens when one becomes heated, excited, nervous, or anything that can temporarily cause the body to become hot. Instead of sweating, most of us break out in an itchy/stinging sensation, which usually goes away within a few minutes. Otherwise, we are healthy and you wouldn’t know we have any type of “hives” at all.

But there are several other types of hives that are classified as “Physical type” hives. For example, one condition is called dermatographism. People with this condition can literally run their finger or sharp object along their skin, and within a few minutes a large wheal will pop up. This is often called the “writing” hives because people can write things on their skin & it will pop up really red within a few minutes. In fact, I even saw a television program a while back, and a girl actually would draw designs on her skin, then take a picture of it & sell the pictures as artwork. Pretty cool huh!

Another type of hives is Cold Urticaria, in which case, a person can literally stick an ice cube on their skin, and within a few minutes they will get a big red raised wheal. They can also tend to break out in hives when exposed to cold weather.

Solar Urticaria is another type of hives, which seems to appear only after solar exposure (the sun). Most people with this condition only break out in hives after being exposed to the sun.

Aquagenic Urticaria is a type of hives which appear after water contacts the skin. Usually, it takes up to 15 minutes for the hives to appear, and they can last up to 2 hours. I remember reading an article on some poor girl that had a very severe case of this. She took one of the fastest showers in the world. She also said that if her boyfriend was sweaty, should couldn’t even hug him until he was dry, or else she would have a hives outbreak. Poor girl! Sounds bad!

Exercised Induced Hives- This condition is similar to cholinergic urticaria. The main difference is that when the person exercises or become hot, they typically go into anaphylactic shock which means their throat starts to swell shut, and their lips can swell, etc. This is much more dangerous than cholinergic urticaria since this can actually cause death (suffocation).

Contact or Pressure urticaria is a condition where people can simply touch you, and you can develop a hive or wheal reaction. This is somewhat similar to dermagraphism, only it is a little bit different. In this situation, if a person has on tight clothes, or something is laid on their arm, they break out in a big rash/hives/wheal.

There are lots of crazy & bizarre hives conditions in the world. Cholinergic urticaria is just one of many. But it sometimes makes you wonder: Is there any type of common link among these hives people? There are some striking similarities. For example, almost any of the above hives conditions can come & go. Some people may have them for years, and then suddenly stop having them.

Another thing is that most of the hives seem to be skin related. Either the skin becomes hot, or it becomes cold, or it becomes wet, or it becomes touched, or gets hit by the sun. In every hives case above, the skin is having the reaction to something.

It makes you wonder, why are these people having these strange hives conditions? For many of these people, the treatment seems to be the exact same. According to most forums I visit, it doesn’t matter what type of hives they have. They are usually given antihistamines, in some cases antibiotics, lotions, creams, steroids, and you name it.

So could there be a common link? Could the same thing be causing hives in these people, but each person has the hives in a different way (for example, some people get Cholinergic Urticaria, while others may get dermatoographism).

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Posted under cold urticaria, dermographism

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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Posted under Diet