Alright, let’s cut to the chase. The method I used may not work for you now but just continue reading and hopefully you’ll be able to pull it off. Basically what I needed to do is just to take an extremely hot shower. I know that there was no way for me to endure a hot shower a year ago.
But after I’ve been using the sauna on a regular basic for almost an entire year, and making my body getting used to sweating, my hives got much weaker compared to before. Yes I still had them and it was still annoying but they were much weaker. I was in my freshmen year in college last year and I suffered a lot from cholinergic urticaria.
I got a really bad anxiety I would freak out if the second someone talks to me because I knew I would get itchy and they would think I am weird. I didn’t have any friends and there wasn’t really anyone around that I can talk to (back when my cholinergic urticaria was so severe), and I was trying to avoid social situations just not to feel itchy around people and embarrass myself.
I used to stay in my apartment the entire time and make the AC on, even in the winter I would keep it on! I went to the hospital so many times to address my cholinergic urticaria until I accepted there is no cure for this thing so I was just using the sauna treatment.
Then I sought help from the counseling services on campus and through them they suggested that I should see a doctor to address my anxiety in general, which we believed can also help with my CU. So I got a medication for my anxiety and it did make my hives weaker but they still weren’t gone.
So about a week ago I was taking a shower and I suddenly remembered when my doctor told me at first (he thought I had a Physical Urticaria not CU), but cholinergic urticaria is technically a type of Physical Urticaria. Anyway he told me a way to treat is to take a really hot shower. So I said to myself I’m going to try this. I opened the hot shower and I didn’t feel itchy, if it was last year I know I would break out in hives but the treatments I had really helped.
So what I do now is I take a warm shower, and once I’m done I turn on the hot shower, I don’t make it hot all the way to the maximum that’s too much even for me, but it’s still hot to the point where if you make the water hit your hand you would normally pull away your hand immediately.
If your doctor says it’s safe for you to try, what I suggest is first make the hot water hit your hands, it’ll be hot and eventually your hand is going to turn red, that’s a good sign you’re going to want to make your entire skin feel like your hand is feeling. Then make the hot water hit your body, do it one part at a time.
First your hands, then arms, then your armpits, then your front body, then your back, then your face,… etc. Also you should NEVER take a cold shower. You can make the water warm or a little hot at first and then you should increase the heat but NEVER take a cold shower—that won’t help.
I’ve been doing this for 5 days now and I never felt itchy I am able to sweat normally at all times, I didn’t even need to use the sauna treatment. I even had a walk today right after I had a shower and I was sweating just normally it felt so good. I do not know if my hives are returning if I stop using this method but I’m not taking any chances. To me taking a hot shower is nothing compared to getting a cholinergic urticaria attack so I am willing to do it everyday.
Like I said if you can’t take a hot shower now, then use the sauna treatment if your doctor says that it is safe for you. If you have anxiety or something then go to a doctor and address it separately. In time your hives should get weak enough for you to endure a hot shower. I know that this condition really sucks and even me myself I can’t celebrate just yet because I don’t understand how it works and I still think it can come back at anytime, but honestly I’ve been like this 5 days and never felt itchy so it seems that it’s working.
Best of luck to you all!
Ali
Hivesguy says
I’m glad to hear that this is working for you, Ali. Thanks for sharing it with everyone! I hope it keeps working.
Anonymous says
Update: This method is still working for me! The anxiety medication that I am taking is called “Bupropion”, I don’t know if the medication itself made my hives weaker or something else. Still if you have anxiety I would suggest you address it so you can overcome CU.
Anonymous says
Hi, I’ve been dealing with chronic hives for two years now. I honestly didn’t even know that it was hives, I thought it was some sort of seasonal allergy issue, but then I began noticing the raised wheels on my arms and sought out the help of an allergist. He diagnosed me with solar urticarial, heat and prolonged sun exposure does make me break out. I do believe that it may be cholinergic as well. Stress and sweating causing breakouts too. I’ve been on multiple medications. First zyrtec, then doxepin, ranitidine and cyclosporine. I began xolair injections 4 months ago. I have had intermittent times when I’m not itchy YEAH, today isn’t one of them, but those times are so awesome! My current problem is that the cyclosporine is beginning to effect my kidney function, so, my doctor recommended that I reduce the dose. I went from 100mg daily, slowly down to 25 mg, but I do up it to 50 mg if I just can’t stand it. The doxepin I take only at night. Makes me super drowsy. Has anyone ever tried going off of all meds for an extended period, to see if there would be an improvement??
My husband has severe fibromyalgia and we currently live in NH. Because he just can’t tolerate the cold anymore and neither of us want to deal with snow, we’ve decided to take a bold step and move to a warmer dryer climate, to see if that will help him. We have friends with RA and they say that Arizona has done wonders for their condition. So, my question is….could the change in climate possibly help me too. Perhaps being exposed to warmer air all the time would force a change in my body??
Does anyone have anyone thoughts, could it work in a similar fashion to the hot shower remedy??
I would really appreciate some feed back.
Thank you so much
Shelley