Hello, 2 months ago I was playing tennis 2x/week competitively, and I even was in Arizona with my wife hiking Pinnacle Peak and walking around in a hot sweaty t-shirt when it was 90 degrees out. I came back from the trip, and accidentally broke my foot just stepping wrong playing tennis.
Fast forward several (maybe 4) weeks after breaking my foot, and when I started to move around more on my foot, I started getting that prickly itchy feeling. It went from a small prickly and itchy patch on my back to all over my body – but ONLY triggered when my body would heat up. Causes could be vacuuming a couple rooms, being on a stationary bike at PT, or having a few layers of clothes on when I am carrying a basket of laundry up the stairs. After two months of inactivity, I now get red dots all over my body and intense itchiness. The only way to stop it is to jump in a cold shower, apply ice packs, and/or take high doses of Benadryl. The prickly and itchiness lasts only a few minutes until I apply these remedies.
I have also noticed that my feet are terribly dry. This never has happened to me before and I’ve lived in the same climate for years and years. I have found that Eucerin Calming cream caked on my feet at night (and also during the day under my socks) works wonders.
I have gone to both a Dermatologist and an Allergist. My Allergist has doubled up my Allegra, added Zyrtec, and then they added in Doxepin (for itching), low dose, Amitriptyline (to try to suppress nerves), and even had me take Steroids. After trying these for a while, I even got a shot of Xolair – which my insurance would only agree to after I tried other remedies.
After all of this, I can prevent a flare up from happening ONLY if I avoid things that heat up my body. I am forced to wear lighter clothing even during the cold winter. Today, I vacuumed for 5 minutes and I had a massive flare up.
After reading all of this, I bought the book, and am going to start changing my diet immediately.
For those who successfully did sweat therapy, can someone share with me (or write me – jkaiser4@hotmail.com) what process they took? I know after 6 minutes of being on a bike that I had to stop as the picklyness and itching was so bad, but perhaps I need to do a sauna first???
Thank you all for sharing your story!
Josh
Colin Amos says
December 17, 2017 at 2:20 pmI also tried exercise for sweat therapy, but I found it too unreliable. Like you experienced, sometimes I would warm up and start itching but wouldn’t get hot enough to sweat it out, so I would just be stuck in the painful itch temperature zone.
I’ve found my local gym’s sauna to be a reliable way to get sweating. I still itch once the heat starts penetrating my body, but after 3-5 minutes of itching I start to sweat and the itching starts to go away. After that, I have much less problem with itching for the rest of the day. I go every day that I can, and I’ve found that doing so lessens the severity of my itching.
I’m still looking for a more permanent treatment solution.
David says
December 20, 2017 at 6:29 pmIn cases where sweat therapy works for CU. I find that the (sauna/steam room/hot water running in shower) work best because you almost start sweating immediately because of the high temperature.
When I try doing cardio for sweat therapy, it’s always painful for the first 15-20 minutes and I end up stopping because the itch and burning is too intense.
David