Hello, my name is Brandon and I have been suffering from, what I think is, cholinergic urticaria. I am currently a senior in high school, and I first encountered this in 2014, during winter vacation.
At first it was a burst of itchiness, red color, and bumps all over my body. The second encounter was when I was doing Dry land, aka physical training, when I was in the water polo team. Usually I got this when we ran, and I couldn’t explain what I felt.
I decided to search up what I had and at first, I thought I had Miliaria Rubra, aka prickly heat rash. Until now, I have found out that I had cholinergic urticaria after seeing pictures of what my skin looked like. After doing more research I found that my emotional stress, exercise, and nervousness were all inline with cholinergic urticaria.
I have recently dressed up for a school event and I knew that I would flush up, turn red, and start itching all over my body. However, I don’t know what I did but the day before I was sitting and playing games and somehow I started to sweat a little on my back. Months before that I wasn’t able to. On the day, I had a slight itchiness but it was controllable and I did not explode.
Also, I believe the reason for this was because I sat in the shower for 20-30 in the extremely hot water trying to fight through the pain. I’m not sure if this helped my go through the day but after that one day, it began to come back.
Now I’m wondering if forcing yourself to sweat a lot would help. So I have a question, should I go to the sauna and try to sweat like crazy. The only reason why I haven’t given this a try is because I thought I had Miliaria Rubra and it said going to the sauna was a bad idea.
Thanks,
Brandon
Hivesguy says
June 12, 2017 at 4:43 amHello, Brandon. Welcome to the forum.
You might want to use the search function of this site to read articles about “sweat therapy.” Some people with cholinergic urticaria find that sweating regularly can help minimize (or temporarily eliminate) symptoms. They do this via workouts, hot showers, or even personal sauna/steam capsules.
Is sweat therapy safe or appropriate for all people with cholinergic urticaria? No, it isn’t. Some people have a history of anaphylaxis. Some people have the inability to sweat at all (anhidrosis), so prolonged exposure to intense heat could lead to heat stroke or other issues. Some people have other disorders alongside cholinergic urticaria, such as exercise-induced anaphylaxis. However, sweat therapy is helpful for many people with this condition, especially those without other issues.
My advice would be to read the articles on sweat therapy and then talk to a doctor familiar with the physical urticaria types to see if this is something that is safe for you to try (based on your health history/medication you might be taking). It would be a good idea to have an Epi-Pen on hand, along with a person to assist you in the event that you have an adverse reaction.
I hope that helps. There are many ways to overcome or manage this disorder, and sweat therapy is one of many tactics people use. Some see great benefits from this strategy alone.