Cholinergic Urticaria

Cholinergic Urticaria Outbreak Resistance?

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Hi. I am a first year college student, who in the recent winter months have been experiencing an increasing amount of  these urticaria outbreaks. Previously these attacks were not frequent (only a few times during the winter)and I didn’t even know I had Cholinergic Urticaria until recently.

I used to do cross-country and track in high school and I have heard that excessive exposure to sweating can sort of desensitize the outbreak.

So basically my question is, now that I do not run everyday (and therefore do not sweat as much) could I be experiencing more frequent outbreaks because of this?

Comments

  1. It is certainly possible, and many do manage their hives by frequent workouts. However, your hives outbreak frequency isn’t always related to your workout. You may go through periods of light reactivity with no exercise, or you may get very reactive even when you do exercise (run) regularly.

    You can always see what works for you, but I’d use extreme caution. For safety’s sake, it may be wise to run with a buddy, and you may want to have an Epi-Pen on hand just in case you ever experience a severe reaction.

  2. Dear College Runner, I have been running for 20 years with CU and I am “cold-sensitive” like you are — and I have not experienced any “sweat desensitization.” Reading this forum (which I only discovered today, but I’ve been reading for three hours straight now!) I will certainly try to “sweat desensitize” — in particular I plan to try “run hard at first to build up heat” rather than starting off slowly and working my way up to a harder run. But I have three possible solutions for cold-weather running, which I’ll copy-and-paste from my other post to another runner:

    I have noticed a strong correlation of itchiness with “impact” as well as cold. If I run on pavement, I get more itchy than when I run on grass. If I run with good sneakers (soft soles and an under-foot liner) I get less itchy than with last season’s half-torn-up sneakers. On a chilly day, I know I should get out the good sneakers and run on a soft surface — then I don’t need antihistamines.

    Also, I’ve developed a “soft impact” step — this idea I got from a running magazine — try to land “softly” on your heel, and roll to your toe — evidently this technique is used by a lot of runners for other reasons — to protect their joints from impact and whatnot. It really did work for me too. Usually, on a half-chilly day — say 60 degrees F — I start running and get some itchiness after 5 or 10 minutes — but I can postpone the bad itchiness for another ten minutes by looking for a grassy route and also “soft impact” stepping.

    With regards to your question about whether less frequent running means more cold-sensitivity: I can tell you that the answer is unambiguously yes. Years ago, I would stop running entirely in the winter — because the CU made it just too hard — and when I started running again in the spring, it was TORTURE. My solution over the past few years has been to avoid the tortuous start of the season by never quite ending the previous year’s season. In other words, get out and run a couple of times every week in the winter — this last winter I have not gone one week without a hard bicycle ride, and maybe a little running too, all winter long, snow and cold notwithstanding — and now, in early spring, I have entirely bypassed the torture period. I can do a normal run of a few miles, without any itchiness, as long as I wear long pants.

    So that’s my form of “desensitization” — don’t force your body to endure CU torture by never letting your body get into a non-running state. You don’t have to run a LOT in the winter — just enough so that “spring training” is less of a shock to your system. I think this method has helped my training in other ways too, like getting me more in shape before the summer — but really the reason I started it was all CU-related!