Sudden full body skin rash and hives

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Hi, this is my first post ever on a health forum as luckily I'm quite a healthy guy. I'm 20, 5'7", and 145lbs, run, play rugby and go to the gym several days a week. My only unhealthy habit is my drinking - probably consume 35-50 units in a week, which I know is far too much. My New Years resolution was to cut down but after the death of my best friend in January, I've found this difficult. I guess it's been a (totally stupid, I know) coping mechanism. I also really struggle to get out of bed in the mornings which could be depression. I've also been drinking on and off since 14 years of age, sometimes very, ludicrously heavily at parties. Anyway, 4 weeks ago I drank a bottle of wine and had a couple of beers, a full meal late on and went to bed. I woke up the next day in severe abdominal pain - alcohol induced gastritis, I think, due to frequent heavy drinking and sleeping horizontally on a stomach full of wine and alcohol. Had a week off alcohol and restarted drinking, a little more sensibly, a few hours after which, in bed, I suffered upper heartburn and belching which felt like acid reflux. Fast forward 3 weeks and I have a bottle of wine or maybe slightly more, wake up and am fine for a few hours, until suddenly, out of nowhere, my scalp is furiously itchy, then my ears, then my neck and upper back then torso. After an hour, the backs of my knees start itching and my groin. Before I know it, I'm itching on my face, torso, all down my legs, the only place which escapes widespread rash and hives is my genitals and arms. I took a shower, washed myself thoroughly and took an anti histamine (centrizine hydrochloride), guessing it was an allergic reaction. Then I took a sleeping pill (diphenhydramine hydrochloride) another antihistamine, which I take regularly. The rash stops. Then today, I've been fine all day, I go to the gym, go to uni, go to the pub and only half a pint of beer over a game of pool, that was at 10pm. At 11:30pm the rash comes back but not as bad, I took another centrizine to try to stop it, it did very little. So my main questions are:

1) are the stomach pain and the rash linked?

2) could depression of losing my friend be causing stress, causing the rash, and if so, why didn't it happen at first?

3) could the rash and burning pain be signs of liver damage through alcohol abuse, coming after alcohol due to my liver's inability to properly breakdown alcohol anymore? (No jaundice, nor right sided abdominal pain)

4) could regular use of an antihistamine sleeping pill mean when it is no longer in my system, I am now hypersensitive to my own histamine levels which I'm used to being suppressed? 

5) are the tiredness, stomach pain AND fatigue linked and am I suffering something viral or bacterial (idk, glandular fever?)?

6) what do I do over the near future??

Many thanks to any responses and sorry for the lengthy post, I thought all details could be related so I didn't leave anything out. 

Itchy regards, 

Bill

0 likes, 2 replies

2 Replies

  • Posted

    Update, today, I found that my palms have turned redder than usual
  • Posted

    Hey Bill,

    I hope you have found a solution by now!

    If not I can just offer some anecdotal info.

    2 years ago I got the problem of getting hives and other typical allergic reaction symptoms after getting sore muscles. It would usually take 24-36 hours after exercising to kick in.

    Alcohol made it worse, I even ended up in the hospital for a while after drinking too much post workout.

    The docotors couldn't find what was wrong with me, but after a lot of my own research I found a solution for it. Glutamine!

    I'd have have to take at least 10g a day, sometimes up to 30g, but it made it go away completely and I could train as hard as I want to.

    Oh yea and antihistamines were just slightly effective.

    Maybe this bit of information actually ends up being helpful for you.

    Good luck with your problems!

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