Hello Everyone,
I want to tell the story of how I was cured of cholinergic urticaria (CU) by adopting a whole-food, plant-based diet (a so-called “vegan” diet).
This was a happy, unforeseen, side-effect from adopting such a diet. I originally adopted this diet for general health reasons, particularly to prevent heart disease. A number of years ago I experienced a heart attack scare. I experienced several episodes during which I experienced some of the classic symptoms of a heart attack. I went for a full diagnostic workup by a cardiologist. Thankfully, he found that I did not have heart disease—instead, I had gradually become extremely sensitive to caffeine, and I had been drinking a lot of coffee. This caused large spikes in my blood pressure and led to the symptoms I was experiencing. I immediately ceased drinking all caffeinated beverages, and my symptoms gradually disappeared.
On the flip-side, however, this worrisome period during which I thought I might have heart disease turned out to be one of the most fortuitous in my life. Why? Well, during the two-to-three week period during which I was getting checked-out by the cardiologist, I stumbled across the book, Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease. This book introduced me to the research pioneered by Dr. Ornish, and later replicated by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, proving that a lot-fat, whole-food, plant-based diet can reverse heart disease—that is, allow the body to dissolve the atherosclerotic blockages in the coronary arteries.
Following my heart attack scare, I was extremely keen on not going through that experience again, and so I immediately adopted the type of diet recommended by Drs. Ornish and Esselstyn. After experimenting, I gradually settled on a diet that is something of a hybrid between the diet recommended by Dr. Joel Fuhrman (the “salad guy”) and the diet recommended by Dr. John McDougall (the “starch guy”). On a typical day, I eat oatmeal topped with fresh fruit like blueberries for breakfast. For lunch I eat a giant salad (1+ pound, plus a cup of beans and some sort of starch like quinoa, barley, etc.). Finally, dinner is usually some form of cooked starch like potatoes, rice, corn, sweet potatoes, “winter” squash (acorn, butternut, etc.), beans or other legumes.
About four years before I had my heart attack scare, I had developed CU. As with so many others, this suddenly appeared out of the blue. At the time I had no idea what it was or what caused it. All I knew was that when I exerted myself and my core body temperature went up, I developed tiny, intensely itchy hives around my armpits and along the undersides of my forearms and elbows. The CU continued to progress and eventually it would appear when I took a hot shower or bath, or when I experienced episodes of acute anxiety or embarrassment.
The episode with the heart attack scare occurred before I had a chance to discuss my CU with my personal physician. Up until that time I was merely “managing” my CU by avoiding excess physical exertion as much as possible. I had eliminated all forms of exercise and greatly limited the housework and maintenance tasks I performed around my house.
Following my heart attack scare I was so focused on my heart health that I momentarily forgot about my CU. This continued during the period in which I adopted the whole-food, plant-based diet and focused on improving my overall health. It wasn’t until two or three months later when I had to do a physically-demanding task around the house that I found myself overheated and sweating and suddenly realized—hey, I’m not breaking out in hives!
I am happy to report that it has stayed this way ever since. I have not experienced CU since adopting a whole-food, plant-based diet. Since then, I have become much more physically active. Five years ago, I took up the sport of cycling, and I have completed a bike ride of 100 miles (a so-called “century” ride) with absolutely no hint of CU. During the winter, I hook up my bike to a contraption called a trainer which turns it into a stationary bike. I regularly do intense indoor cycling sessions during which the sweat is just pouring off me with no trace of CU.
Modern science is beginning to identify the mechanisms by which a whole-food, plant-based diet works its magic. The relationship between dietary fiber and the gut microbiome plays a large role in this. I highly recommend you go to your local library and read the special section on the gut microbiome which appeared (pp. 53 – 70) in Scientific American magazine in the March 2015 issue. The subsection on “The Importance of Fiber” which begins on page 58 is especially insightful. It describes how people consuming a large amount of fiber (and remember, only plants contain fiber) develop a thick layer of mucous around the lining of their large intestine. This mucous layer is inhabited by beneficial bacteria which break down the fiber in the diet and produce a number of metabolites, the most important of which are the short-chain fatty acids (SCFA): acetate, butyrate, and propionate. These flow into the body of the human host, where they attach to receptors in messaging molecules of the immune system and help to regulate the immune system, keeping it from going into “overdrive”.
There is an epidemic in America of autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, lupus, asthma, and the inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn’s Disease. Several researchers quoted in the section in Scientific American state that this is due to the fact that the Western diet is hugely deficient in dietary fiber by evolutionary standards.
The Web sites of both Dr. Fuhrman and Dr. McDougall have sections containing testimonials from hundreds of individuals who have been cured of autoimmune disorders from adopting the respective diets. Another fascinating resource in this area is the documentary, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, a film about how Australian entrepreneur Joe Cross cured himself of obesity and a cousin of CU, chronic urticaria, by “rebooting” his system with a “juice fast” for 60 days and then adopting a whole-food, plant-based diet afterward (see the entry in Wikipedia on Joe Cross, filmmaker, for more information). Another highly informative documentary is the two-part TV story entitled Gut Reaction produced by the TV show Catalyst on the Australian Broadcasting Company (video available on YouTube).
It is my most sincere hope that my story will help other sufferers of CU reverse this horrible disease and return to normal life. I urge you to give a whole-food, plant-based diet a try. Good luck, everyone.
Thanks,
Bob
John says
Bob, Your comments are the ultimate truth about CU and most of our degenerative diseases, and the actual cure that really works is the whole food plant based diet. Your example is not some unusual lucky phenomenon. It represents a cure that is within the grasp of billions of people for their various illnesses. Ben, the founder of this site and author of the book, has emphasized diet as part of his cure. He is still evolving but found something that worked. He eats a diet that is whole food plant based except for some turkey. The plants have plenty of protein and the animal products have many negative physiological effects and introduce excess protein. See Dr. Michael Greger’s presentations on youtube to understand all the reasons why I will never eat animal products. Moderation? When dealing with autoimmune diseases do we really want to add ANY proteins to our system that can integrate themselves into our tissues and continue to trigger CU? Anyway, Bob, you are the FIRST comment I have seen on the forum that has the entire picture and the most effective dietary approach to CU and most diseases. As a long time CU sufferer who is currently completely symptom free and on a strict whole foods plant diet like yours I want to strongly suggest everyone here follow your suggestions completely and happily knowing a cure is at hand and inexpensive with many good side effects. All you suffers out there PLEASE take this to heart and take immediate action. Your mental and physical health will improve starting today and you can ditch the drugs and start living again. Copy and paste Bob’s comments and print them and study them and read the authors and books and watch the films he mentions and you will find a new life. Let Bob be your inspiration and guide (and Ben has made it all possible). With that said there may be other things you are doing or ingesting that also make you hivish like caffeine possibly. When you quit those and change your diet you will get results. But don’t stop there. Continue to study the benefits of the healthy diet for the rest of your life so you will not relapse and listen to the cravings and voices of “un” food products that will make you sick. Get to know yourself, your 14 billion year evolution and your body. Thanks Bob and Esselstyn and McDougall, etc.
Ted says
Hello Bob- thanks so much for sharing your experience!
Upon reading your story I was excited to obtain the March 2015 Scientific American article that you mentioned. I got an online version for only $5. The pages that you refer to seem to be about the ebola virus and climate change. Is it possible that the info was in the march 2106 issue?
Thanks again for taking the time to help other sufferers of CU and glad you found a cure for yourself.
Ted
Bob says
Ted:
I am so sorry. I got the page numbers wrong, but it was definitely the March 2015 issue of Scientific American. It turns out that it was a “Special Report” insert section entitled Innovations in The Microbiome. It appeared after page 69. It may not appear in the online archive of the magazine because it was an insert.
However, I just now tried Google and it is available online. Just search on “Scientific American innovations microbiome” and a link to this very informative section will appear. I am especially glad that you are able to see the very informative graphic from the magazine which shows how the beneficial bacteria inhabit the mucous layer, digest the fiber, and produce the SCFA like butyrate.
Cher Bonilla says
Good info, Bob and John (and Ben). Glad you guys are cured. 🙂 As for diet, I have tried a lot, attempting to deal with the CU or whatever I have had the last few years. A few months ago, I phased out of a year of off and on prednisone that helped when I was desperate. And now I am dealing with a few side/after effects of that!, but except for lots of antihistamines at times, i am doing much better. I had a few Xolair injections with no noticeable effect and am on a series of allergy immunity shots for my most severe allergies.
BUT the diet is the thing — I am on a pretty much paleo diet (recommended by my son) with intermittent fasting, beginning my day with lime and water, then the Bullet (coffee—usually organic decaf–coconut oil and butter, turmeric, cinnamon, dash of Celtic salt and pepper–activates the turmeric, sour cream, almond milk, maybe a little stevia or honey). Then I usually do not eat until later — emphasis on lots of veggies and good fats (coconut, real butter, olive and palm oil, animal fat like bacon), some animal protein, very little or no grains — especially no wheat since I know I am sensitive to that, no or very little fruit. I hate that bc we live in Costa Rica now and I LOVE papaya, pineapple, bananas, etc. But the truth is that most disease and inflammatory conditions like I have thrive on sugar of which fruit has a lot. I seem to be doing pretty well on this.
I went off reflux rx and all my many vitamins awhile ago and only stay with my thyroid rx (until I can phase out of that safely and convert to natural). I have recently reintroduced quality vitamins (C, selenium, magnesium) in preparation for starting an iodine protocol and later cleansing of liver, etc.
I would prefer just to live my life simply and enjoy God’s good earth — eating basic healthy foods, getting good exercise (swimming, yoga, walking), and not getting too radical in all this. But I can’t if I’m itching all the time, so I’m willing to do what it takes.
Good luck to all.
Cher
John says
Cher, Have you tried whole plant food diet with little fat for a few months? STRICT? It can’t be done half way or partly to get the results. Enjoy the fruit! Forget the liver flushes and supplements and the paleo. Bob would suggest you drop the caffeine and so would I. Every day go to nutritionfacts.org on youtube and learn from Dr. Michael Greger’s presentation of all the research pertaining to diet. Believe me, the research does NOT support paleo. Some here may have been OK with it, but as Ben suggests you will want to basically eliminate everything and reintroduce foods, BUT add one more step to that to get the results in every aspect of your health esp. CU which is to drop ALL animal products and no oils either. I refer you to the work of John McDougall and watch the film on Netflix…Forks Over Knives and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. Report back in 3 months after a strict regimen and let us all know of your success. Of course, there are other causes, perhaps viral or fungal, but the diet helps those too as Bob is suggesting with the article on the microbiome. You can win this!
Ted says
Hello Bob-
Okay – Thanks for clarifying where to find the article – I found it.
THANKS VERY MUCH!
Wishing you continued health and success with your new diet!
Ted
John says
Here is the link to the Scientific American articles re: microbiome
https://www.scientificamerican.com/report/innovations-in-the-microbiome/
Jason says
Bob, thank you for this post! The similarities between your experience and mine are striking to me. Actually, I never even had a name for CU until coming across this site just today! (What a relief to find out what this actually is and to see there is a community of others to connect with.)
My experience with CU started when I was around 19 and persisted until I hit about 31 (I’m 35 now). It would typically strike during the summer months or anytime that I would get even slightly embarrassed. The worst was when I was working as a cook in a restaurant (it get’s hot back there!) but thankfully there were huge walk-in freezers that I could go into which would quickly help. There were times though when I’d literally have to crouch down into a ball because the itching/pain/needling was so bad I felt like I had to rub all parts of my skin at once (especially my chest).
As an aside, around the same time I developed an undiagnosable itch that affected mostly my arms and legs. This however was constant itching and felt different than CU. It lasted for about a year and a half and eventually went away on it’s own, but it was extremely difficult to live with as it would prevent me from sleeping and I would often end up injuring myself when I could fall asleep. I mention this only because I’ve always wondered if the two conditions were related. Anyway…
Around my mid-20s on a camping trip I had some coffee (which I used to drink a lot of) with breakfast and a few hours later felt really sick. At first I thought it was maybe some bad food (or too much to drink the night before), but after a few more times drinking coffee and getting sick again exactly 3 hours after, I realized it must be the coffee. I thought it was interesting that you mentioned you had issues with coffee as well. I also found it interesting because in my early 20s I also developed an occasional irregular heartbeat and on many occasions it would lead to a sudden rapid heart-rate (tachycardia). In one episode it happened at work at my heart rate shot to 211 beats/min and would come down so I had to be taken to the hospital. I definitely thought I was having a heart attack! Not sure if you’re experience was similar…
Around the time my CU symptoms (thankfully) subsided, I had actually switched to a whole food plant based diet too. I was similarly influenced by many of the same medical experts you and others on this thread referenced and to this day follow Dr. Michael Gregor on NutritionFacts daily. I never really put the two together, but now that you mentioned the diet seems to have eliminated your CU symptoms, I see now that perhaps it helped eliminate mine as well! Looking at the foods you eat, my diet is almost identical.
Perhaps it might also be worth mentioning that I recently learned from my doctor that I may have an autoimmune disease that primarily affects the skin. I had some soreness and sensitivity to acidic/spicy foods on both sides of my tongue (with some slight white patches) as well as some recent issues with what seems to be vitiligo and an increase in minor heart palpitation frequency. Perhap coincidentally (or not) I’ve had a bit of meat/fish a few times over the past few months, so I’m going to cut that out completely again to see if these new symptoms go away.
Definitely makes me wonder if all this isn’t somehow tied together by some type of autoimmune disease?
Anyway, thanks for sharing your story. At least I know now that I’m not the only one out there!
Bob says
Jason:
Thank you for your very insightful comments. I cannot imagine how tough it must have been to have had to endure CU for 12 years. I am so glad that you found relief. I’d be willing to bet that it was because you adopted a whole-food, plant-based diet. As I mentioned in my original post, the modern “Western” diet is severely fiber-deficient by evolutionary standards, and it is is leading to an epidemic of autoimmune disorders, CU being one of them.
Yassine says
Hi all .
i want to share my experience with you as well but my english is not that good soo sorry in advance .
I had UC for many years ago and still have found no cure for it. im under antihistamines like atarax and aerius but still nothing chaged the only thing that i noticed after reading all of you témoignages is that every year after the sacred mounth of ramadan( im a muslim from morocco btw) my hives dissappear for a period of another mounth then it come back again the difference between Ramadan and the rest of the year is the food we eat during that mounth but still can’t know wich food that make the difference .. i will start a diet program too to see if there is a change hopefully.
Thank you all for sharing your stories and sorry for my english.
Mesonoxia says
SPAM: after being vegan for 6 years I broke out in hives horribly b/c I depleted all the diamine oxidase from my gut. I still don’t eat animals, but i had to supplant diamine oxidase to get my life back (which is made from. Porcine Kidney) keepin it real.