Now that winter temperatures are starting to hit most of the United States and other countries, I wonder how many people will start realizing that they have developed Cholinergic Urticaria for the first time? It seems that so many people first experience Cholinergic Urticaria symptoms during the winter or colder months.
It almost always starts as a person doing a physical activity, or being in a hot atmosphere. Then suddenly they start feeling waves of itching and prickling sensation on their body. They scratch, it keeps stinging and itching.
Then, they soon find themselves getting itchy and tingly every time they do a physical activity (exercise, work, laughing, nervousness, etc.). Then, they will probably take a trip to the doctor after it starts really bugging them. Hopefully they will get a doctor that can recognize the symptoms and know something about hives and cholinergic urticaria. If so, they will at least know what it is, and be given treatments (which may or may not help at all).
If not, I feel sorry for the poor person. They will probably spend a great deal of time trying to figure out why they keep getting itchy and breaking out in hives every time they get hot. They might even get the old excuse, “it is probably your nerves,” or the old “you must be stressed lately.”
I just feel sorry for all the people that will realize this winter that they have an uphill battle with stinging and itching for a while (or even years to come). I wonder how many people have this out of the whole population anyways? I wonder how many people with develop cholinergic urticaria for the first time this year? We will probably never know since it seems to be misdiagnosed so often (at least initially). Also it comes and goes so much that it would probably be hard to pin down an accurate figure.
My Cholinergic Urticaria (Heat Hives) Update:
I still have hives (of course), and they seem to have gotten slightly more reactive these past few days. I am not sure if it is because it has been colder (we got a little more snow), or if it is because all the food I ate at Thanksgiving (yum), or if it is just a regular up and down cycle. But I do have them.
I am really starting to think that more sun exposure, and regular sweating will really help this condition for me. I can’t wait to try this out within the next year when it starts getting warm again. I used to be outside all the time when I was younger during the summer, and I am hardly ever outside now. I used to play baseball every summer, ride my bike, etc. I was outside all of the time sweating. I can see a pattern in my own hives that they really started when I stopped being so active outside.
I can’t wait to see if moderate exposure to outdoors (sun) and consistent sweating will cure it after about 2-4 months of doing this daily. If not, I still have other things I can try (such as the water purification/water softener). I can also get a humidifier/vaporizer and crank up the heat at nights after I get a house as well. I can’t wait to see if it works. I am just praying that it helps, because that would be awesome if we could all eliminate our hives forever just by altering a few things.
UPDATE: 1/21/13 This is an old archived post, and I have made more recent posts regarding my new diet and how I was able to finally get my hives under control. Read more about it on my cholinergic urticaria diet page. What I essentially did was keep a journal and do several allergy elimination diets.