Cholinergic Urticaria

Allergic to my own sweat??!

by

Hi, I’m new here but I have been suffering with cholinergic urticaria for about 18 years. I started noticing my reactions to hot showers while I was pregnant with my 2nd child and it has been getting worse as I get older. I am 41 years old. I don’t like taking meds everyday because I don’t want to become dependant on them.

I try to avoid any kind of strenuous activity that may cause my body to overheat, but some everyday things are impossible to avoid. Hot showers, exercise or even just laying out on the beach have caused severe reactions for me. So benedryl has become my only defense.

I have to take it before I try any kind of physical activity. And it makes me very sleepy so it can pretty much ruin an entire day. I’ve tried Zyrtec but I don’t get the same relief. It makes me upset although I know there could be worse things happening to me, so I’m grateful. But 18 years is a long time. I hope I grow out of it someday.

-Yvonne

Comments

  1. Hi Yvonne, hang in there and keep fighting for yourself and your kids , we know you’ll get through it ❤

  2. Have you examined your diet? Try a low sugar, low sodium, hypoallergenic healthy diet. That’s what help cure me. And exercise really helped me, i know it hurts. Try to get an allergy a ige allergy test done to see which foods you are allergy too. Remember even if your not allergic to a food, but you find that it always causes problems, part ways with that food because it may be a food intolerance. Just do an experiment monthly to see which foods are ok for you and not ok for you. Diet along with exercise is the best solution. And remember that diet change may take up to a year and a half for your immune system to get with the problem so please stay consistent and don’t quit. God bless you and take care.

  4. Have you tried going off the meds long term? The meds just make things worse. It’s like trying to build a dam to hold endless water overflowing. Any type of inflammation will trigger it.

  5. I have had the symptoms for at least 25 years. I used to joke how I am allergic to exercise never knowing it was actually true. Until last year, when I started doing some exercise , I didn’t know how bad it is. For some reason since the last summer it all got much worse. Now I get rush so quickly, if I walk a tiny bit faster for a minute only, have warm shower, get upset (sometimes rush appears and I am like “hey, I am not even upset!!”, tight jeans, I hurt my wrist and was supposed to have bandage on and that was impossible, massage…you know it. I have fibromyalgia too and there is apparently connection. I have also been on gluten and lactose free diet for 20 or more years and that doesn’t seem to help. Now I was given antihistamines which I so don’t want to take as I believe they just mask the real cause.
    I might give it a try, not sure yet.

  6. I don’t recommend long term use of benedryl as that is linked to alzheimer’s and dementia, you’re better off with larger doses of Zyrtek or Claritin but you need to take it with an antacid like Pepsid AC. The trick is combining it with an antacid. It can take about 30 days for it to take effect from what I’m understanding, but please talk to your doctor before trying any medications.

  7. Also, and sorry for two posts….if you work with a Naturopathic doctor, you can have an IGG test which test for inflammatory responses to food. This is much more effective and quicker than any elimination diet and generally can be done for a reasonable price. They use saliva testing at home and it’s mailed into a lab. I’ve had this done, and you would be amazed to learn that the foods you eat most often, even foods that are considered healthy foods, you could have an inflammatory reaction to. Our bodies build up inflammation to foods that we repeatedly eat on a daily basis oftentimes. One of mine was chicken, for example.