Two weeks ago I went to the doctor. After hearing my description of my symptoms, the doctor confidently said I had cholinergic urticaria without giving me any test. I asked her how could you be so sure about it. She said because I had the same symptoms when I was young and now it happened again, otherwise she would give me some test to confirm.
Then I was prescribed desloratadine 5mg per tablet per day. I was told I could take one pill when I was triggered or take it in advance before activities. I did so in the first two days after getting the tablets. It worked really well. I was no longer triggered even when I was waiting in line in the supermarket (used to be triggered 100% of the time). Walking under the sun gave me mildly tickle but totally bearable.
However, the side effect is pretty strong. I felt really sleepy all day and some pain in the joint of my fingers. I am afraid that the medicine have long-term side effects, so I don’t want to take it every day.
Three days ago, I decided to go to the gym without taking desloratadine. I jumped on the track mill and began to run. Two minutes later, I could feel it in my back. By the 6 minute mark it was insufferable, but faded away by about the 12 minutes mark. After that I felt no pain or tickle.
The next day I did a little experiment and took the pill 1.5 hours before going to the gym. I jumped on the track mill with the same settings. Everything was about the same except I felt nothing until 6 minutes. Then it went 0-100 real fast.
I tried to call back the doctor, but she is on vacation. I know a little about the placebo effect, so I wonder if this is the case. The medicine is definitely useful on daily activities, but I see no difference when I go to the gym.
The doctor clearly said that I don’t have to take the pill every day. But I still could not do sports without scratching my body every 3 seconds until I past that phase.
Thanks,
Yuan
Hivesguy says
When I had CU, taking antihistamines every day only made my body adapt to them even faster, rendering them less effective over time. However, some people have reported that taking antihistamines regularly helped to minimize their symptoms. It’s difficult to say how your body will respond, but I’d definitely talk to your doctor about it when she gets back.
Some people even rotate out different kinds (Zyrtec, Allegra, etc.) so that their bodies never adapt to one brand of antihistamine.
You might find that other brands are more effective for you, so you might want to continue to work with your doctor to try different antihistamines to see which one gives you the best relief. At least your doctor seems to be familiar with this disorder, so that will probably make things easier on you.
Hang in there, and keep trying. Also, I’d recommend examining your diet and minimizing any potential food allergies/intolerance.
Yuan says
Thank you for posting my article written in poor English.
During my visit to the doctor I did ask if it had anything to do with my diet. I don’t know if the doctor was inpatient or what she just said no without giving explanation. But this is probably true since I have been eating at the university and the menu has been the same for a few years.
” some people have reported that taking antihistamines regularly helped to minimize their symptoms” This is the main reason why I decided to submit this post. I learned somewhere from the Internet that desloratadine should be taken regularly to be effective. But I could not find the source. It seems to be true that the first few days when I took the pill every day, it is very effective, though I did not go to the gym.The staff at the drughouse only told me to take the medicine 0.5-1 hour ago before activities.
Amit Luthra says
I am taking this med since 2 years now. Regularly. If I skip for a few days the symptoms come back. Usually with this medicine. I need to take it 7 days or more to work effectively after skipping. It doesnt make me feel drowsy.