Can you have cholinergic urticaria without hives?
Post by: lifeischanging on March 11, 2010, 05:27:06 PM
WEIRD to be struck with something so out of the blue. I’m a 24 year old male in perfect health (great diet, no alcohol/cig/drugs regular exercise) and suddenly, after this past winter, getting hot has become ridiculously painful/itchy. In every respect except one everything on this site makes sense.
I have no physical manifestation on my body. Can I still have this, since I have all these symptoms, without the little bumps?
Here are my experimentation…
Hot shower soap and water: nothing.
Hot shower just on front of my body, leaving back dry: unbearably itchy back, no manifestation on chest
Steamroom after having taken Claritin: yes.
Exercise outside: yes, once body reaches a certain threshold, then once it is under that temperature threshold it seems to disappear immediately
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Title: Re: Ghaaa
Post by: Joeshep on March 13, 2010, 04:15:22 AM
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Yes it is possble to have it without the visible symptoms – I do.
Have you been to your doctor?
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Title: Re: Ghaaa
Post by: HivesGuy on March 13, 2010, 05:25:39 AM
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Hey lifeischanging,
Excellent post and welcome to the forum.
It is odd indeed how Cholinergic Urticaria can strike out of the blue, and also disappear out of the blue.
About the physical manifestations–yes, indeed you can get the intense itchy sensations without dramatic physical symptoms. In fact, for the first few months of me having this, I didn’t see anything on my skin.
Now, I usually only see some redness during the attack (not very noticeable), and if it is a REALLY bad attack, I may see a few small pinpoint hives–which clear up almost immediately once the attack stops.
As Joeshep pointed out, many of the ones on this forum don’t have dramatic physical symptoms at all.
Anyway, thanks again for the great post and welcome to the foroum!
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Title: Re: Ghaaa
Post by: Henrik on March 14, 2010, 11:59:02 AM
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I have this condition, with very intense itching, and I have no visible symptoms at all. For me, the itch is the only symptom.
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Title: Re: Ghaaa
Post by: Snuff on March 27, 2010, 08:59:57 AM
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My back itches incredibly also but ive gotten used to the back itching. also when im having a bad dream only my back itches and it does not go away until i flip on my back.. and also during full outbreaks right when it starts to go away it feels rlly nice sometimes like my whole body feels warm and i just wanna cuddle in my bed and fall asleep lol idk why but it feels like heaven sometimes cuz all of my body feels warm right at the end. its a feeling i cant describe
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Title: I don’t get hives everyday only some days
Post by: Irishhivegirl on August 13, 2010, 12:46:52 PM
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Okay, I really have to clear up a slight misunderstanding here. I don’t actually get an outbreak every day because I avoid the triggers as much as possible. For me, it’s physical exertion, i.e. dancing, running, mowing the lawn,etc. I have a few emotional triggers like crying or excitement. I try to just chill as much as I can but it has made me lazy in the process. Summer really isn’t summer here. Temps struggle to get above 17 or 18 degrees celsius. Very rare it goes into the 20’s.
So in all fairness I’m not too badly off all thigns considered. It’s just frustrating when I can’t do any physical hard work like cutting the lawn which has totally got out of hand over the summer. Anyway I thought I should get that off my chest. By the way, Hiveguy, you rock!! If it wasn’t for you and your generosity of spirit in stting up this site we would be still in the dark! Thank you so very much for listening and being interested in how we all feel. Peace.. 😉
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Title: Re: I don’t get hives everyday only some days
Post by: No I Got Hives on August 13, 2010, 07:20:10 PM
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Yea I don’t get them everyday either, but ever since my most severe outbreak, (my whole upper torso, back, neck, forehead, scalp was flush red as if someone poured some kind of fruit punch over me!) I have been getting less flushing, been able to somewhat control myself from being angered, stressed out from the outbreak, even with school around the corner.
I’ve been getting it twice a day or so, but not so severe, haven’t tried any Benadryl yet, so when school starts I will need it.
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Title: Am I the only one here who doesn’t have visible hives?
Post by: ken8lk on March 14, 2011, 09:01:02 PM
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I have no visible symptoms of this at all. Only the itching.
It was a hell of a time convincing people that I had this, since people thought I was making it up.
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Title: Re: Am I the only one here who doesn’t have visible hives?
Post by: nowash on March 14, 2011, 10:08:16 PM
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Can you sweat?
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Title: Re: Am I the only one here who doesn’t have visible hives?
Post by: silvertones on March 15, 2011, 06:03:19 AM
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If I get off my treatment regimen my symptoms are confined to my hands & feet 90% of the time. The other 10% I’ll get it all over and will rarely have visible signs. When it was at it’s worse a little more then year ago when it happened all over I would get just the little bumps all over my chest and arms. This is when I decided to hit the Dr. trail.
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Title: Re: Am I the only one here who doesn’t have visible hives?
Post by: ken8lk on March 15, 2011, 10:02:52 PM
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I can sweat, yes. Although it is a little difficult.
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Title: Re: Am I the only one here who doesn’t have visible hives?
Post by: nowash on March 16, 2011, 12:16:40 AM
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The reason I ask is because there is another condition called generalized hypohidrosis which is postulated to be a family of conditions, one of which is Acquired Idiopathic Generalized Hypohidrosis. This particular subset, I’ve read, can sometimes manifest as symptoms similar to ChU, and also can just lead to itching (pruritis), IIRC.
If you don’t mind me asking, what ethnicity are you ken?
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Title: Re: Am I the only one here who doesn’t have visible hives?
Post by: ken8lk on March 16, 2011, 08:40:45 PM
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Hmm…that is interesting. Nobody in my family has any medical condition (besides the minor ones, like migraines and pollen allergies). Thanks for the information, you might’ve saved me from spending a lot of money on anti-histamines (which, incidentally, don’t work in the slightest. I used claritin and Zyrtec with no success.)
I am half Japanese and 1/4 Swedish and 1/4 White.
And can you give me more information about this? I can’t seem to find any on google. Is this worse than ChU? Hopefully not, lol
But I can still sweat if I’m in the sauna for about 10 minutes. After that period of time, the sweat flows freely. It’s like I never had this condition. Admittedly, I don’t sweat as much as I did before this, but doesn’t that happen to everyone?
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Title: Re: Am I the only one here who doesn’t have visible hives?
Post by: nowash on March 16, 2011, 11:49:25 PM
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My bad, the article actually doesn’t say it can lead to JUST pruritus, but that it is associated with red eruptions. Here is the article if you’re still interested, the info is in the Discussion section (toward the bottom), 2nd paragraph.
Rereading your other post, you say you get a little redness but no hives; do you still get the redness, or none at all? There is a subset of ChU called Cholinergic Erythema that does not present with raised wheals, just with redness spots (macules).
What about water, does water make you itch any? Aquagenic pruritus doesn’t leave any redness, and can be brought on by sweating.
Also, histamine isn’t the only thing that causes itching.
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Title: Re: Am I the only one here who doesn’t have visible hives?
Post by: White Rice on March 17, 2011, 05:43:33 AM
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I used to get visible hives – chest, arms and legs – but it’s been a while since I’ve SEEN anything. I still get the prickling sensation (mainly arms and back now) when I get hot, but that’s about it. I can sweat some – I’m not sure if it’s a seasonal change, they’re on the way out or if it even means anything at all.
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Title: Re: Am I the only one here who doesn’t have visible hives?
Post by: ken8lk on March 17, 2011, 02:59:13 PM
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thanks for the article, but I reckon I just have ChU without visible symptoms. My body gets red with heat, but this was happening before I had ChU.
Water doesn’t make me itch, but if I’m in a bath, my body would get the stinging sensation. I’ve taught myself to ignore it, which is working a little bit.
This is OT, but are there any bad side affects to holding my breath to ignore my attacks?
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Title: Can you have cholinergic urticaria without hives?
Post by: Oskar on January 19, 2012, 06:03:30 PM
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Hey guys.
I think I have this condition, but I’m not sure. I have every symptom – attacks when changing from cold to warm, exercise induced, reduced ability to sweat, prickly skin, flushing, etc. BUT, I don’t get hives. Or I’ve never seen them. Could I have this condition?
Also, what’s weird is since it does take a while to sweat for me, whenever I do, the attacks seem to lessen in severity and stop altogether for that time of exercise
Please help, and nice to meet you all.
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Title: Re: Question
Post by: HivesGuy on February 11, 2012, 06:44:56 AM
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Hello Oskar,
Great question and welcome to the forum. I have a F.A.Q. page on the home page of this site (cholinergicurticaria.net). I address some common questions people have.
The short answer is–yes, you can have Cholinergic Urticaria without experiencing visible hives forming on the skin. When I first got this, I barely even got flushing, and I had NO hives at all. It would only be that nagging stinging/prickly sensation. Eventually it evolved into a flushing redness, which then eventually evolved into very defined pinpoint hives.
Nice to meet you too, and welcome to the community.
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Title: Re: Can you have cholinergic urticaria without hives?
Post by: HivesForDayz on February 13, 2012, 04:27:51 PM
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Hey man unfortunately yes. Same thing happened to me. At first i got the sensations and flushing then couple years later I got full blown hives. I wonder why it happens like that? Hopefully it doesn’t happen to you! Good luck!
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Title: Re: Can you have cholinergic urticaria without hives?
Post by: Nathaaan on February 16, 2012, 03:50:58 PM
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For me the hives come randomly. I’ve noticed at times I don’t get hives and at others I do, depending on how severe it is. Another thing I notice though, is that if I itch my skin (even gently) during an attack, rash’s will appear.
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Title: Re: Can you have cholinergic urticaria without hives?
Post by: lowkey on March 10, 2012, 02:04:51 PM
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The answer for me is yes. I can get very very painful itching/burning without much, if any visible hives, sometimes attacks last as long as a half hour, where I’m forced to lay in bed, motionless, enduring but not itching… because itching always makes it worse.
For me extremely visible hives only come when I’m exposed to extreme heat or exert myself, like in the gym. My warmup sets in the gym are more than enough to ensure that I break out in bright red pinpoint hives all over my body, from my ankles all the way up to my forehead.
Keegan says
I experience with this too. Though I do not get hives, my legs tend to turn blotchy and my feet red. This happens especially if I am taking a warm shower or outside on a warm day.