Chronic Urticaria

I would advise anyone to get with your immunologist and ask about multiple drug therapies such as montelukast, tranexemic acid, ranitidine (yes i know this is for digestive issues but it also has properties that can reduce the production of histamine in the blood - it works on the H1 and H2 receptors).  There are so many drugs they can try that might help you.  In the 2.5 years that i have suffered they have also tried Azothipprine, cyclosporine, dapsone, danazol, hydroxychloroquine (yes its a malaria drug, but it is clinically proven to help urticaria as well ). and this list goes on.  There are many other drugs they have tried me on, high dose antihistamines was the first thing they tried.  They have even tried Full Body UV therapy through a dermatologist and although this didnt help me, it does usually help Urticaria as well. For those of you who have unhelpful GP's  please demand to be sent to an immunologist, there is so much they can do for you.

My next treatment will be a drug i can never spell or even say, but its given once a month by injection.  If this doesnt work then they will then be considering extremes like Intravenus Immunoglobin and plasmapheresis as all drug therapies will have been tried. 

All i can say to you fellow sufferers and your family who suffer is don't give up!! be insistant, dont let your gp fob you off or think you are just making a mountain out of a molehill. You dont have munchausens, you are not a hypochondriac and you most definitely are not making it up!!

Educate yourself on treatments that havent been tried. And above all, find a good immunologist, they are the best source of good treatments for this condition as it is an immunological condition, not a skin condition.  Good luck to you all, i hope they can help you!!

I have to tell you I can truly identify with your symptoms.  I've had exactly what you had but truly not as severe as you.  I was diagnosed last October and nothing helped me.  Then I watched Fat Sick and Nearly Dead.  He had the very same thing.  He was on a whole slew of meds and they weren't helping him.  He went on a juice fast and all of his symptoms went away. After trying everything else I started juicing and I didn't suffer from anymore symptoms.  I tried eating very healthy, lost weight and was taking immune boosters and supplements but truly nothing worked until I started drinking the vegetable and fruit juice every day.  When I quit drinking it and eat unhealthy my lips swell up and it doesn't go away for 2 days.  Please, if you want relief, trying doing the juicing.  You will see drastic improvement.  There are certain foods that I reacted to also and everyone is different so you have to be careful what you eat and pay attention so that you will discover what you're sensitive to. 

The thing that I remember that kicked off the symptoms were, I went hiking and got bit by an insect of some sort and the next day my lips started swelling up until the bottom of my whole face was a swollen mess.  They gave me steroids and antihistimine injections but they didn't work.  Then I started breaking out in the red, angry rashes all over my body and they made me miserable. 

Watch the video and learn how to take care of yourself because you aren't going to get any answers from your doctors.

Hope to hear from you.

Well, there's also the low histamine diet to consider.  That helped me for a while. The problem with all anecdotal reports is that one can't be sure the condition improved due to the implementation of the diet in question or whether it improved spontaneously.  Seems to me best to carefully monitor one's own food intake and see if there are any correlations.  There have been few scientific studies on diet in relation to urticaria.  The only general recommendations seem to be to avoid Nsaids (not only aspirin, but also ibuprofen and naproxen--note that only aspirin of these has salicylates), alcohol and probably highly fermented foods, as well as excessive heat, exercise, or pressure, if they provoke hives.  

In my own case, it was remedying my vitamin D deficiency that pretty much has cured me.  I also found the supplement Quercetin helpful (in moderation--up to 500 mg daily) or a combination of quercetin and bromelain (but the latter not for too long).  Quercetin apparently stabilizes mast cells.  Anyway, I learned of this from my US based allergist.  Not sure it's the whole story, but it sure has helped me.  Almost completely better, thank goodness!

Of course, besides vitamin D deficiency, there can be other causes that can be tested for and treated.  For the rest, they use the term idiopathic--i.e., they have no idea!

good news here. I had chronic ideopathic urticeria, like you my GP had no clue so I was referred to an allergy expert. I had a range of tests, the conclusion by the expert was that I was allergic to nothing in particular so my urticeria was ideopathic or unexplained. He said I would probably have it for the rset of my life. This is absolute rubbish. I began to research this issue tirlessly untill I became more knowledable on this than the experts.

To the point now, urticeria is caused by a massive immune system failure, the immune system is a reflection of the health of your intestines and the level of stress hormones in your system. Most people are attacking their gut wall with gluten and other grains, but they can just about cope into old age or untill they have an emotional hormonal serge. Do not underestimate the link between your emotional condition and your phyical health, this is the key to your recovery. In my case it was an unexpected berevement. The moment I realised the connection and began to practice meditation and just generally focus on happiness (positive hormonal state), my condition improved. I haven't had urticeria for years and almost forgot that episode. I am in the best shape of my life in fact. I randomly came across this article when researching something completely different, but felt I had to say this is completely reversable.      

My mother-in-low has Angeoedema and Urticaria.  Angeoedema (face, lip and throut wore swolen) came sudenly later . She was told in the hospital , it is side effects from Blood presure pills. Now is 10 month she is off untihistamines and other pills.The itching spots are gone. We visited a chinese Naturopath who gave blood purification pills  3 X 3 a day for 3 month, then 1 month break and repeat the same. After first month the symptoms improved , she is still taking time to time. The name is "Shi Du Quing" green lable (30 capsules) ~ $6.00 . Even if it does not not cure you, the cose could be different. It will clean your blood. Hope our expirience will help someone. I feel for you after seeing my mom suffering.

I have had my symptoms for about 18 months, on the background of lifelong eczema. Horrible uncontrollable itching worse after alcohol and some foods, worse at night. Worse on any bit that's touching anything-eg the side of my face on a pillow.It was giving me terrible sleep , night sweats for a few months .(hormones were normal and hrt didn't make any difference). Sometimes there were hives but mostly deep scratch marks.i was treated empirically for scabies even though it didn't look like that and used the stuff six times in my paranoia! It made no difference. It was put down to eczema but I knew it wasn't the same itch,it felt and feels as though something had gone wrong with my immune system somehow ant that my body was trying to fight something but couldn't. It was making me totally miserable. Bad sleep, self conscious about short sleeves or scratching in public.

So...

what has helped me?

steroid skin cream And emollient. Iwas already on this intermittently for eczema but use more of it now. 

Oral steroids occasionally when I have been at the end of my tether or ,eg,to get through christmas.

hydroxyzine-an old fashioned antihistamine was helpful for its knock out value at night and could give me a 3 hr stretch. Strangely I didn't find the modern antihistamines helped much , and at high doses made me feel worse.

getting rid of the foam mattress topper helped.

I too did lots of research on the Internet and did a six week trial of keeping a food diary and eating only low histamine foods. This did NOT help

Then one month ago I tried the 'anti inflammatory ' dietary approach which is no grains no dairy low sugar. Basically  v high on veg with some fruit , seeds and meat in there too. And no alcohol- which is a shame!It has transformed how I feel. I am not taking any supplements or tablets , but still using the creams. My skin is clear and I am having six hours plus of unbroken sleep which feels so good.I don't know if the leaky gut theory is correct. I can only say what worked for me.

i feel a bit overwhelmed that this is how it's going to be for ever diet wise as I am now having to try and explain it to people which feels awkward . However I know that there's no way I am going back to how things were so will just take one week at a time.

No coffee no milk. But did drink green tea every day with lemons.

I used 2 methods to calm the symptoms down

1- I would squeeze 2 organic lemons in a cup and drink it down. Then I would ....

2- to calm down the severe attacks during it by squeezing