Do I Have Cholinergic Urticaria?

Hey everyone, so I’m 18 years old and I recently developed what I think is cholinergic urticaria. I’m not completely sure. I got it around mid November in 2017. So this is a question to anybody who can possibly help me.

So these are my current symptoms: when I get hot, take hot showers, and feel an emotion aggressively (get really happy, sad, excited, scared), I get stinging on my upper body followed with itching on my neck and my scalp. I then get small red bumps on my arms, but they don’t happen on my hands though.

I used to get hives on my chest but I don’t know if it was hives cause it NEVER itched! And I only got them after I took a shower. Like literally only when I took a shower I would get these red flares and there weren’t any bumps either. So these are the symptoms that I do get.

But here’s the thing. After I started getting this, I got a shower filter to see if it would help. It helped a lot, and my flare ups went away. And sometimes I would get them but I know it happened because of my shampoo. For the last 3 years I’ve been shampooing almost every day, like not 2-3 times per week, but everyday. Which I know is bad and I think maybe that’s what effected this. Because the days I shower without shampooing my hair, I get absolutely no flare ups on my chest.

And I recall one time when I was sick for like 2 days, I didn’t shower because I couldn’t get out the bed. I was also taking Vitamin C pills, when I tried to exercise to see if I would get the symptoms I didn’t get them. I didn’t feel itchy or have the prickly feeling but when I showered that night, the following day I slowly started getting the symptoms back. But it came back slowly, it took 2-3 days for it completely come back(I showered with shampoo those days). This was early December.

So where am I now? I’ve been on a elimination diet. I was a vegetarian my whole life (no sea food also). But as of now, I’m Vegan. I only consume vegetables (no nightshades), fruits and I only eat sweet potatoes and rice every day. Also my rice is mixed with turmeric, so it’s cooked in a special way.

So I have a regular intake of turmeric as well. But so here’s the thing, 2 years ago I had constipation problems, like I would go but I always felt like I wasn’t completely finished. I got very paranoid cause I would spend more time than usual in the washroom, so I booked an appointment with my family doctor. He told me I might have lactose intolerance and had me take Metamucil, which helped a lot, but I only took it for a 2 months cause my situation got better by itself (and I didn’t have any problem defecating).

This was when around 2016. The one thing I noticed was that when I ate pizza, I had constipation for sure, and I ate pizza like 3-4 times in a span of 2 weeks in the month of October(2017). Not slices but a whole medium pizza by myself. I also ate cereal with milk in a high quantity as well. My washroom situation would go back and forth from diarrhea to constipation and vice versa. This is all before I got CU. I ate dirty, I mean like dirty the month of October.

I hardly drank pop (quit when I was 15), but around October I drank pop twice. I know it isn’t a big deal but it could have contributed a bit by dehydrating my body. I was also stressed cause of studies and didn’t drink a lot of water either. My diet would consist of pizza, Taco Bell, Subway, and I ate a lot chocolate. Like 4 small Kit Kat bars a day.

I’m a skinny dude by the way but around November of last year I felt like I gained weight (3 pounds).

Even writing all of this points to the simple fact that I may have some gut related issue that caused this, and maybe it’s outputting these symptoms that similar to those of cholinergic urticaria. But I need a second opinion to help me clarify or confirm what this issue is. Also I went for a blood test and thyroid check up, all came out negative.

So I’m now questioning myself what I may have and I’m not taking antihistamines, as I know they won’t help me, same with steroids or any injections.

-Kunal