Hi Everyone,
This has been so helpful reading about all of your symptoms and findings. I first started noticing very small and localized urticaria about 3 months ago. I didn’t think much of it as I thought it was just the changing seasons. Then it started getting worse to the point that my whole body was covered with hives from my neck to the bottoms of my feet.
I’m not really sure if I can confidently label it as cholinergic urticaria just yet. I have been to an allergist and was able to rule out the initial 60 scratch tests as not being the cause. Still waiting on the blood work. After a really bad episode where my hands ended up completely swelling I decided to try changing up my diet.
I have cut out all dairy, wheat, gluten and processed sugars. I have found that the full body reactions have stopped and now I’m only really experiencing the hives and itching after a workout or in stressful situations (for example when I was being observed at work). I’m not sure exactly what my question is but wanted to share my experience and get some feedback if this does sound like what everyone else has experienced.
Thanks!
-Stefanie
John says
Stefanie,
Your observations are very relevant and fit with the suggestions of the book etc. I had scratch tests 30 years ago and they revealed nothing useful. They are costly and notoriously inaccurate which makes them worse than useless since it distracts from the facts about the food allergies which you later explored in the best way with the elimination diet. You definitely were smart in chucking the 4 food items you mentioned first, and it is great to hear you got positive results. You set a good example for anyone going down the path of investigation into the cause of their suffering. Naturally, it can take a while for the antigens lodged in tissues all over you body to clear out or perhaps for certain problematic microbes to die off that had been sustained by the environment and nutrients provided by certain food that we are not adapted to digest very well, but as long as you are not adding any more then the process will make things better and better. Thanks for sharing. It reinforces an important aspect of the healing method.
John