Wow this late 30's mark seems to be it for a lot of the posters. I like most of you have my first bout with Hives at the age of 37. A LOT of trial and errors to try and get it under control. I had your run of the mill childhood allergies growing up. (pet dander, pollen's, dust, etc) None of these caused hives in me, just congestion and watery eyes. This cleared easily with antihistamines. I outgrew these for the most part by my early 20's and was pretty much allergy free until last year. I got on a plane for a work conference and thought I had been bitten by a spider as I had what I now know is a hive on the back of my neck. I struggled through more of these over the next week and when i can home went to see the walk in clinic. The doctor there told me she had seen a lot of these cases that spring, more so than in previous years and sent me for a blood test. This came back with histamine levels almost 4 times normal in my system and showed that I may be suffering from liver issues (I didn't want to tell her I had just come through a week of cocktail receptions and it was probably alcohol related). She sent me to an internist who put me on prescription reactine, zantac and prednisone and 10 days later had me visit an allergist. By this time the hives which had grown to cover about 80% of my body had started to scale back with the steroid prednisone and I received back an allergy chart that made me want to bang my head against the wall. WOW a full NEW allergy set and not a pretty one. To start out the worst items on my chart were CORN, TOMATOES, BAKERS YEAST, ALL POLLENS, GRASSES, TREES and lesser so were now Beef, Chicken, Pork, Lamb (all animals that are mass grain fed), rice, wheat, beans and still to lesser numbers, nuts and shellfish. Honestly if it were not for my children and wife, I may have just packed it all in right there.
Now as the summer went on, I found a lot of things were better or worse than others but the two worst being CORN and TOMATOES seem to be the drivers of my reactions. Not sure if anyone has started to read EVERY label of the food they consume but let me tell you that CORN is almost impossible in this day and age to escape. It wasn't until months later that I learned CORN (corn starch, corn syup, FRUCTOSE, GLUCOSE, DEXTROSE, corn meal, etc) are used in a lot of things you may not realize or know about. Let's start with them being fillers in ALMOST every medication that is not a caplet. So the anithistimines, asperin, zantac, ibuprofin, etc that I had been taking to help the matter were all compounding the problem and making it a 100% worse. BTW if corn is on your chart beware of hospitals - corn is used in the GLUCOSE DRIPS and as a part of the preservative ingrediants into almost every drip and medication. I fully encourage everyone to research this more. That genetically modified corn they (scientists, government and large corporations) have been working to perfect over the last 30 years may just be starting to show it's side effects.
As I have worked hard to eliminate as best I can the things that cause my hives, I had another serious outbreak last night. SO as I always do I went back over my day to see what I may have eaten to cause this horrendous outbreak. WELL, I believe it was the NOT freshly squeezed orange juice I had at a restaurant which likely had High Fructose Corn Syrup as a sweetener. As I itched into the afternoon I went to my Ju Jit Su class yesterday and seriously sweated my way through it. Dinner came before a shower but it was hot enough that my GI dried up after class and so I had not changed out of it. I am starting to think that I may be allergic to my own sweat. This is simply because, where ever I sweat seems to be the locations of my hives. My scalp, my lower legs (covered by socks), feet (covered by shoes and socks, around my lower abdomen (waist band on my underwear and pants), shoulders and upper torso (tend to be the tighter fitting areas of my shirts) and I have a gottee which tends to attract them beneath. As I went down to bed last night I took a benadryl (last hope as this does not have corn byproducts) and woke up this morning about 60% covered in very painful and itchy hives. My wife said I never stopped itching in my sleep but due to the benadryl knocking me out, I still slept through the itchy night. Given that I slept hard, I did not change position much if at all over the night and my upper cheek and area around my eye where pressed into my pillow. For the first time I woke up with my face swollen on that side and barely to open my eye.
I longer I have to live with this, the more I research, log and correct my daily behaviors to give me the best chance of a hive free life. I would encourage everyone to again have their allergy charts done every 6 months or so and watch some of the worst allergens. I too believe I am allergic to antihistimine's but areas of warmth and dampness (due to sweat) tend to me the worst areas of outbreak.
I HAVE TRIED EVERY ALLERGIC AND DOCTOR AND NO ONE SEEN TO KELP WITH THE HIVES. I JUST START PRAYING AND ASK THE LORD TO HEAL MY BODY FROM THE HIVES. SOMETIME, I GET SO UP SET, BECAUSE I BREAK OUT FOR NO REASON AT ALL. GIVE IT TO THE LORD AND TRUST IN THE LORD THAT HE IS GOING TO HEAL YOUR BODY FROM THE HIVES.
I am no doctor or in any way medically inclined, but if pregnancies halted the hives and you assumed it has something to do with hormones, I wonder if you have tried going on birth control pills. Don't these pills affect and control hormone levels? I'd be curious to see if this helped to control or reduce the hives. Has anyone tried this?
hi......i am suffering frm this disaster wen i ws 17..nw i am 25...same proccedures ws being followed by my doctors as u..finally i decided to ignore this BS, no medications,no ayurveda ,no homeopathy..and wonder i didn,t get automatic itching since 3-4 years...only wen my skin got scratched,rubbed only then redness appeared....
bt here demon arrived back...i went for a power yoga session 2 weeks ago..jst after 2 days i got severe/terrible itching ..cause??? my muscles got swored ,secreted some lactic acid which caused hisatmine flow back in blood,,,,,,horrible man.....nw i am crying lyk hell again... :( ....
i dont want to go back under those horrible antihistamine medications which damaged my liver and increased my weight to 80 kgs frm 45...
i read about nettle leaf tea..which gives relief...bt unable to found it in india....does it really cures??? i mean either does it relief hives??? i know there is no cure....may b i could get sm relief frm burning..
I have suffered with hives for nearly 6 months. I tried everything possible, stopped all my medication, tried different foods, different soap and shampoo, had 2 shots and also prednisone for 30 days, nothing worked. It was so horrible that i stayed in my house all day because i did not want people to see me like that. Finally after searching the internet, i came accross a post in a different forum from soneone who said that he went into a health store and they suggested he try Thistle Milk and it worked, it stopped his hives. I was at a point where i was ready to try anything, so i ordered online and started taking the capsules 5 days ago and have been hives free for 4 days now.
Try prition to bad it is not sold in the USA.
I know this was written some time ago,but was curious as to whether you had ever found any results. I too have had trouble with hives,pressure hives and heat hives(seems to be the case).Upon taking Benadryl and trying Aerius,my hives also went 100 times worse. It was quite scary! I am waiting to get allergic testing done but my doctor said sometimes you never narrow down the allergy for sure. It seems to be heat 'activated' for lack of a better word.Do you have any advice? Lawna Sullivan NS Canada
Sorry to hear of your plight. A year ago I suddenly came out with huge hives. To cut a very long story shorter I am going back and forth to the specialist who want to try a drug for Malaria and Leprosy on me. I am still thinking about it.
I have a slow Thyroid, take 100mg of Thyroxine for 20 years now. But what appears to be happening to me is the ingestion of Histamine in various foods make things worse. I have also had an on going phlegm problem in my throat no anti biotics have cleared it up. So on the recommendation of friends overseas [I am in Australia] I started once again to have a mixture of Manuka New Zealand honey I sometimes mix this on a cracker with ground cinnamon. After a week the phlegm has gone and the burning sensation in my stomach with it. I know there is research being done at Cardiff University in the UK on this Manuka Honey as some bacteria are not affected by the present day anti biotics. I found that two hours after eating the honey for the first three applications I had the 'runs'
so do not do this if you are about to go out. I think it clears the gut but I can only tell you what has been my experience.
The hives are less severe so I am keeping up with the honey! I also found the sting in the hives die down if I go on my exercise bike for 3klms at around 35 - 40 klms per hour. So the heart rate gets going. This problem I feel is also affected by the digesting of food which is loaded with histamines. Keeping away from this type of food and the hives nearly vanish, which I can live with. Histamines are in all types of food, but if you do a search on the net you will find the answers. For instance warmed up food 'left overs' is very high in Histamines. so that is a big no no for me now.
Even a home cooked chicken, I tried the cold meat for a sandwich and within two hours came out with the hives.
The problem is an autoimmune occurrence and each individual's make up is different so I think the answer to this is listen to our own bodies, they tell us something. I just try to manage the situation by diet and regular exercise now.
Also humidity plays a big part for me, our weather patterns are changing and I am finding where I live in this part of Australia it is becoming more humid. So I do less gardening and stay in the air conditioning more now.
Good luck.
Scott I understand what you have experienced, been there myself.
Find a list of foods that contain histamines and stick to that diet you will be surprised at the results.
Even left over meats are a big NO NO. The older the meat is the more histamines it produces.
So from now on only freshly cooked meats.
Tomatoes I love, but now I am not going to let them go anywhere near my lips, they bring me out in Hives.
I love Bananas too, they have no Histamine in them, but their chemical make up releases the histamine.
So I still eat banana but have limited my intake.
You will find a humid climate is torture for the body and makes the hives worse.
I have doubled my intake of water, have gone off all tea and coffee and feel much better for it.
I have not drunk any form of alchohol for over 30 years now, I am in my 60s and have stopped coffee 25 years ago
and today I drink a mild weak tea with no milk. I find that Tea has histamine in too. So the tea I drink is about two mugs a day at most but it is very very weak.
I found out about 3 years ago to keep of Corn Syrup, that is a bit no no!
Only good old pure cane sugar for me in limitations.
I have also found that if I want to eat fruit it has to be one type at a time.
The sugar in the various fruits seem to annoy my digestive system.
Hope that helps you.
Good luck!
Are you still reading this? i have the EXACT scenario. It was food dye. NO hives during pregnancy. It has something to do with hormones ...... and one more thing. Stress and anxiety.
it is a relief to find others with this same problem. my doctor almost laughed at me when I suggested that antihistamines made my hives worse and told me there isn't a way to be allergic to allergy medicine. guess it is time to change doctors. weird thing is I've been on allegra for years and it was just 2 months ago this started. To the person doing the H Pylori breath test - I've had it and been treated for it and still have hives (not to be a downer). My hives don't itch - they feel like acid burning my skin when they flare up and a sunburn after the redness goes away. Please keep posing if anyone does find a "cure".
I started having hives scattered over my body and sometimes my eyes swell as does my lips and occasionally my nose. about 12 years ago.......I too have been to many docs....and in the end I was told since I had had them for years, I could expect to live with them I am thankful that they appear while sleeping and I wake up with them and most of them are gone by 2pm.... I tune them out the best I can and just life with them and quit seeing docs. Once after 8 years of hives they went away for a whole year...then retuned...sometimes they miss a day now and then but mostly I have them each day......and as the one doc said I will learn to live with them" I have great compassion for those that have allergies and hives.
I went of the medicine cold turkey, and ended up in the emergency room. My lips and eyes swelled. I got cortisone and Benadryl and Epi-Pens. All of the doctors have not helped. I am going to a naturopathic doctor and going to do an extreme body cleanse. Hives can be caused by anything, but I'm told a lot of it is candida (yeast), which is caused by taking antibiotics and eating too much sugar/carbs or drinking alcohol. I, too, hope that we all find relief soon. I will keep you posted!
I agree with you. It can be any number of things including hormones. Of course your stress and anxiety go up when you have the hives, but they can also bring them on. It can be so many things, and even good allergist doctors cannot or will not be open to all possibilities.
Have you tried to use Stinging Nettle Tea, Bromelain and N acetyl Cysteine NAC.
You are also able to control the hives via hypnotic training. You have experienced the state of being free of hives during both pregnancies. You can program yourself into that state and be free of allergies for a week or longer then you repeat it. it takes 2 to 3 sessions usually and you will be able to do it yourself. It is faster , easier, healthier, cheaper than any other treatment . good luck