Am I diagnosed with CIU? (Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria)

Hi Martin, had same as you for two years now.and I firmly believe it starts with your immune system being challenged - illness, stress etc but carries on as you now have your immune system making up for lost time and kind of fighting your body. Since first having this problem I have discovered I break out when having alcohol, sweets, nuts, cows milk even coconut water leaves me with a toxic headache in the morning as if I've had alcohol. Try to find some way of totally relaxing, self help CDs etc and purify your diet as I found this helps. Antibiotics will have you hooked.

A particular cream works when all the great tubs of poo the doctors prescribed usually aggravate it. If I say the name it might get deleted but Jennifer Aniston advertises it!

Definitely go back to see your doctor and tell them the shots aren't working.

  Hi Martin...here is my post.  For 2 days now...NO ITCH!!!!!    EVERYONE READ....THIS WORKS!!!! Hello all, I am new to the site as far as contributing but have been reading posts for a few months now. I have had hives for almost 6 months now and as all of you know, it is worse than horrible. I have been to my GP, Dermatologist, Urgent care twice and 1 trip to ER in search of answers or at least some relief. I have been unable to sleep during this entire thing except for an hour or 2 here and there. Until last night. A few days ago I read a post from "hives and thyroid" about her cocktail which she swears works. Yesterday I go to the Allergist still looking for answers and my main concern I will be off my 5th round of steroids since January, and I know it will come back very strong. After talking a while she changed my antihistamine to Doxepin. Hmmm, that sounds familiar...I went home and read the post again and yes, it is one of the drugs that worked for her. Singular I am already on. Thats 2 of the 3!!! The other is Zantac..over the counter. I picked up a box and went home and made my cocktail....Singulair 10 mg. Doxepin 25mg. and Zantac 150 mg. I KID YOU NOT GUYS...MY ITCHING STOPPED WITHIN AN HOUR. TODAY ALMOST 24 HOURS LATER, STILL NO ITCH!!!! The hives are slowly fading as well but they dont itch!! It seems that the combination of these drugs hits all the H1/H2 receptor sites to stop the histamine from being released into the body. The Zantac hits the receptor site H2 which it seems the other antihistamines do not. Zantac, who knew??? I feel like a new person. What a relief. Talk to your doctors and get these 3 meds!!!!! I will keep you posted on my progress...Now to find the cause of it   .btw...Zantac (ranitidine) was first developed to be a histamine antagonist, hence it's use, along with other antihistamines, for hives. Good luck everyone, I know you are all as desperate as I am

This looks exactly like CIU I have the wame and it looks the same but you have to give it time i read in the book that it could take up to two to three shots before it works and some people it works almost right away I'm getting mine next thursday I'm just afraid of the side effects.  Can't wait as I have a hart time living with this .  I've had it for three yrs and pretty fed up and me to only prednisone that works but it's gotten to a point that i need 50 mg for it to work i'm prob getting ammune to it. 

hi guys, have suffered with CIU for years now but managed to get relief. it's not perfect but by comparison to what I've tried in the past, it works for me. my daily pill intake is 1000mg beef kidney pills every 12 hours, 400mg ibuprofen and 20mg cetirizine hydrochloride; 3 times daily.

Back story:

before introducing the beef kidney pills, i was taking 800mg ibuprofen and the 20mg cetrizine three times daily with improved results from what i had before. xolair did work for me but insurance cost increased and that was no longer an option. after xolair, couldn't find much relief. hands swollen everytime i used them, feet, or any area of constant pressure. if i dare itch anything, swelling.

i believe the CIU came on from years of taking pills for pain management for my fused back. constant pain killers and muscle relaxers, then moved to ibuprofen and cetrizine when the prescriptions felt like they were causing CIU flare ups. didn't give up, kept looking.

read somewhere that we digest histamines. the thing that digests them or helps that process is called DAO. not going to spell it out, but if our guts are jacked and can't digest the histamines, we get overloaded on them and swelling. one of the problems i was having was boating and my gut feeling out of sorts. found out that beef and pig kidney helps put DAO in our systems so we can digest histamines. was going to buy and cook some kidney but it's a process and the pills are easier.

i work with my hands for a living and the swelling from CIU have been splitting my skin on my fingers where the skin folds. i get little cuts on my hands as well, and with the swelling, the cuts keep opening and wouldn't heal.

i have now been taking beef kidney pills for a week. the night i got them after work, i took 1000mg. wasn't the best idea since they are an energy boost and i didn't sleep well. farted a lot for about an hour. hands were pulsing from work, swelling and cuts. woke up from a little sleep, got ready for work, hands still swollen, took 1000mg more kidney and other pills. got to work, hands no longer pulsing, swelling gone. felt a bit off but pushed through. got home, figured I'd wait to take them with other pills before bed. bad idea again, forgot energy boost. started taking the kidney with dinner to avoid lack of sleep. second day and the off feeling was gone, hands were usable and my cuts are now healing.

my hands were swollen for so long. now that they are not, my skin is very wrinkly. while looking at the customer reviews for the pills, a lady said that it fixed her husband's swelling, that gave me hope and i took the plunge. it paid off. i can now itch myself without fear. i also reduced my high histamine intake. the hardest one for me was coffee. i drank the crap out of it. changed it to tea.

after a month, I'm going to try and reduce the antihistamine and reintroduce some histamine foods, like coffee, but for right now, in doing better than i have in years. the beef kidney pill i take is manufactured by ancestral supplements and bought off Amazon. i hope this helps at least one person. take care my CIU brethren.

This does look like urticaria...I was diagnosed with chronic idiopathic urticaria back in July. After being on steroids for 5 days they disappeared, however re occurred every evening with severe flare ups followed by itchy and burning sensation. Here is what I tried to get rid of them completely . For a month I eliminated the following from my diet

NO ::

Peas

Wheat

Eggplant

Mushrooms

meat/Fish/Chicken/ Eggs

caffeine

Nuts

In addition, every evening, I soaked organic black raisins for 1hr in water and consumed that water without fail.

Take baby steps with the drug to slowly take less of the drug and then soon before you know it, you will not be taking the medication.