Finding Relief for Cholinergic Urticaria

I wanted to share my relief and gratitude with Hivesguy and this community, as well as give some more hope for individuals. I’ve posted twice before, once about “what can I eat” and another time when I first found this site titled “18-year-old student” or something like that. The previous post made me want to share what I’ve been doing.

First, I tried exercise. I loved food and figured if all I have to do is exercise then that’s easy because I love exercise and I have a strong will. I was nervous about the anaphylactic shock, but luckily that isn’t currently a problem for me. However, when I exercised I got very little relief, even the same day. I would walk home to my dorm and get itchy on the elevator as well as when I tried to heat my room up to test my limits. I gave up on exercise and tried to just stay calm and avoid flare ups.

This lasted a couple weeks. I could feel the hives, but I kept cool, so they didn’t matter much to me. Everything was fine until one morning at work when I started getting my worst outbreak and both my arms broke out and I felt like a dragon because my skin felt scaly and I felt terrible. This is when I dropped everything and decided to go all in on a cure.

I adopted Hivesguy’s diet because after reading his posts, they are logical as well as provide an achievable solution to our problems. I’ve only been eating chicken (only because it’s easier for me to buy and cook), sweet potatoes, and broccoli, as well as drinking water. I continued to eat this diet for the past, maybe 4-5 weeks. I turned down all food, snacks, invitations, any and everything, you just have to say no. Why risk it. I wouldn’t take a bite of any of my favorite foods, not a taste of anything different. Not until I’m at least a couple months in with no results.

I exercised occasionally while on my diet, because every time I did, I would reach sweating, but when I was done I got hives again, so I got very discouraged every time. My plan was to let my diet do the heavy lifting and then exercise will do the trick. I went to the gym 4 days last week and these times were way different from before. Yes I still got the itchy feeling when exercising, but once I got home, it wasn’t bothering me at all. I turned my thermostat all the way up to 72 and sure I got a little hot, but no hives. I did jump squats at that temperature because I wanted to test if hives or sweat came first, and sweat won.

Anyways I’ve been feeling so much better about life and just everything. My CU is definitely not gone as I still felt it today repeatedly during my workout. But listen when I tell you, the little prickles I go through when exercising is so worth being able to hang out and actually go places without burning up and feeling like a freak. This is still very early in my relief stage so who knows if I’ve yet to see the worst or if there’s more light up ahead. It was snowing when I started feeling relief (Maryland), so I’m hopeful that this summer will be a good one.

I didn’t want to post my story yet because I very recently started feeling relief, so I didn’t want to jinx myself or anything, but I could relate to the last post and I felt the need to give a push to any other sufferers.

Lastly, I really want to say please be proactive in finding a cure. Some people get lucky and their cholinergic urticaria goes into remission. Well I’m not willing to risk years of torture by simply hoping for better days. Change your diet today, hit the gym tomorrow. Don’t expect immediate results. Change your mindset, and I promise you will get through. Some people have special cases and I don’t know all the answers, but where there’s a will there’s a way.

-Dante