Hi all!
I posted a while ago about my new found journey to diagnose/cure these hives that suddenly started appearing.
I went to an allergist and had no allergies, and my blood work came back totally normal. He wanted to put me on a injection drug Xolair, but I just didn’t feel comfortable altering my body’s chemistry without understanding WHY this started happening all of a sudden.
I then went to an alternative medicine doctor and tried out muscle testing, and she found that I have candida which could cause hives. I’ve been on an elimination diet for the past 2 months. (No wheat, corn, soy, rice, peanuts fruits other than berries, sweetener besides coconut sugar or pure maple syrup, and dairy every other day). I am also taking multiple supplements to try to kill the candida. It’s been going pretty well and I have had fewer hives.
Before it wouldn’t just happen with exercise. I could just be in bed watching tv and it would start. Now I have found that it’s only happening when I exercise. Tuesday I ran for 40min and when I was done, I had a terrible reaction with hives. My eyes swelled to the point that they were almost closed. I took prednisone and the swelling went down. Today I was outside with a hat on and got hot under the hat and had hives on my forehead and now without doing any sweating it’s spreading around the rest of my body.
I find that I’m constantly having to carry prednisone as it’s the only thing that is really helping when I start to break out.
I am going to try to start the stinging nettle.
My questions:
Has anyone has success with XOLAIR?
Anyone else have any issues with candida?
How long does it take for your hives to start when you slip up on the elimination diet?
Is anyone finding that their symptoms are not exclusively CU and are having reactions in other non-heat induced situations?
Thanks,
Stef
Christine Menounos says
Hi Stef,
Haven’t heard of Xolair or issues of candida with the CU, though the candida can cause leaky gut syndrome which can exacerbate allergies. Try a probiotic too.
My son (17yrs ) began the stinging nettle drops from the Newton’s Pharmacy in York St Sydney on Friday. The pharmacist used the leaf part not the root part and mixed it with sage for the sweating which seems to trigger it off for him. So far the reactions have reduced a bit but its only been not even 2 days. Ill post in a week to update. Goodluck!
Rebekah says
Hi Xolair didn’t work for me and I did 2 shots once a month for 4 months. I’m currently on the low histamine diet and I’m not sure that’s really helping either. I’m beginning to think it is what is and there’s nothing I can do about it.
John says
Christine, please give us an update when you can on nettle. I have been taking capsules. I increased my exercise and added some animal products back into my diet. Can’t say really if nettle helped or if the fish added to my usual rice and veg changed the hives. Mostly the winter cold makes it worse, but I have not been strict lately on diet or taking the nettle. However, I have had this problem 40 years so I really try to just accept the hives as a transient daily thing and not stress over it. In some ways it has made me a much healthier person than all my aging friends.
Stef, I would avoid the steroids like the plague personally. I know you feel desperate, believe me. Are you off ALL milk products? You may want to watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, a great documentary by an Aussie who cured his CU, lost weight and found a new life with a plant based diet that involved some juices. On the other hand, I got worse issues in some ways from juicing which I think exacerbate fungal infections. My theory is that some people’s CU could be a reaction to fungus, possibly candida and other fungi living on skin. One thing that may help…take a zinc pyrithione shampoo and coat your head, arms shoulders, torso etc and places where you feel the worst burn (of course no near the eyes) . Sit and meditate concentrating on your breath and observing your thoughts for 20 minutes for a few days in a row then skip and do again. Oddly I did this a couple of days ago and hives much diminished even with diet deviation. Fungus…yes, almost certain after all these years there is a connection. May be why diet, probiotics make it better. What do you think? In that light the best thing may be ZERO sweeteners, sugar of any kind and hardly any fruit or concentrated juices. Good luck and keep us all informed. 🙂 We do care about you.