Will my Cold Hives ever go away?

Hi Dan,

Yes, it’s posable that you will outgrow them. That’s a good thing that they don’t itch. Good luck to you! 

I can only speak from the experience of a friend who also has cold induced hives.  Even when she goes shopping, she has to take benedryl to avoid a break out.  From what I have learned all hives have the possibility of eventually going away on their own...but I'm still fighting mine, so I cannot speak from experience.  Good luck - take your antihistamine! 

Hi,I also have chronic cold urtivaria. Mine is much worse than yours, I take 9 antihistamine's a day and an antacid med to enhance the effects of the antihistamines. I have to carry an epipen at all times as I have developed Anapylaxis twice,once caused by walking barefoot on a cold tiled floor and once from sitting on a cold toilet seat! Both times I've needed hospital admissions via the emergency services, once overseas so very scary. Each year as winter draws near I hope it will be the year my symptoms get less or hopefully dissapear. I've been this way for 5 years now and it's awful. I add that I am 51 with other health issues so maybe that's why mine is dragging itself out. All I can advise is stick with any meds you find that help and fingers crossed it gets better in time.

I know this post was a little while ago, but I wanted to say that you’re not alone. My case is a little more severe than yours, but definitely not life-threatening. I’ll go swimming and have a sunburn-appearance rash on my whole torso, but it’ll go away within 30 minutes. I haven’t had this problem until recently, but I went swimming two weeks ago and got a pretty bad rash on my back and torso, and I’ve been itchy ever since. (I also went swimming last Friday). I don’t really know what to do to stop it, so I’m just hoping that it’ll stop itching on it’s own.

I, like you, can still eat and drink cold things and be in the cold, but I can’t be out for longer than 20-30 minutes without breaking out in hives. I don’t exactly remember when I first found out about it, but I think it might have been over a year-and-a-half ago. I’m 14 years old.

I haven’t gone to the doctors or was officially diagnosed, but I’m most definitely sure I have it. Whenever I first told others, they thought I was joking and laughed it off, but they’ve become more convinced from pictures and seeing me in the process of breaking out. I’m hoping that this will eventually go away on it’s own, because I certainly miss life without it.

Hello all, I see this is an old forum but I would like to add as well. I was diagnosed with cold urticaria at 25 while in the military, there years later and 3 hospital trips I was discharged from the military because I'm a liability. I'm 31 now, it's had it's time to run its course but I'm still afflicted. In total I have been to the hospital 5 times for it, and only once it wasn't anaphalaxis. It's a serious medical issue that doesn't seem to have allot of research on. Over the years I found that it changed from just a little itchy and red to large welts, intense itching, and my soon to feel like it's on fire. Also, now days if I eat/drink anything cold I have to follow up with a hot beverage almost immediately. I went anaphalactic once from drinking a smoothie whilst on my way to work. Overall, becareful, it's a serious issue that people tend to not believe is real and will bow off. The younger you are the better chances you have of it going away. I grew up in Louisiana and never noticed it, if I had it from a young age. My doctor in SLC, where I lived, told me to change my diet and move. He said the winter is going to kill me at the current rate. So now I love in Las Vegas, Nv and take Zyrtec, singulair, and ranitidine(heartburn meds) three times daily and still have mild break outs. It seems now days it goes straight to tightening my airflow first instead of giving the rash. Sorry to drag on,but please be careful carry your epipens and be wary of telling your job or boss about the issue. I havent been hired for being a liability before. Thanks for the vent!!

Signed up on these forums just for this.  I first started breaking out in cold hives and at first thought it was some sort of food allergy.  I kept trying to isolate the source since I'd never heard of cold hives.

To keep a long story short:

During the NYC winters, I kept it 100% at bay with quercetin dihydrate.  Read that it was a pretty strong mast cell stabilizer and my experience has been in line with that.  Not a hint of any hives while I was taking quercetin and a VERY noticeable breakout on days I forgot to take it in the morning

After a while, again I wondered if I might be deficient in something.  This is probably not the best advice, but I did not go for any bloodwork and just tried to find a vitamin that would cover all the bases with the best sources (ie.  magnesium glycinate v. magnesium sulfate).  I ended up with pure encapsulations nutrient 950 w/ k, but there are so many others out there like douglas labs, vital etc.  My cold hives went away completely after starting vitamins, so I was obviously lacking something.

Not saying that the cause for you may be similar, but at the least I think that the quercetin will help a great deal.  It allowed me to walk around without any real concern.  The worst is being outside and suddenly realizing you look like will smith in hitch.

I must have signed up for this forum months ago and just saw recent comments in my inbox. I developed cold urticaria, 5 months after a severe strep infection. It lasted about 10 weeks or so. My doctor told me to take standard doses of Loratadine and Ranitidine (Claritin and Zantac) and day 1 on them, the symptoms were much much more at bay. Manageable even. 2 weeks later I came off them for 4 days to reassess and was it was like 95% gone. I went back on them for 2 more weeks, reassessed again, and nothing. I haven't taken anything for them in several months now. I live in Chicago and it is summer, but I tested myself at a spa recently and submerged myself in a cold bath. Amazing. I'm 42 years old, in athletic shape, my diet has always been on point, and I take vitamins daily. I'm a bit of a health nut. I'm also a researcher (albeit not a medical one), so I spent many many weeks researching cold urticaria, trying to understand it. The research confirms taking H1 and H2 blockers together is much much more effective than taking even a high dose of just one. I think the largest lesson out of this that I learned from looking at the research is that the numbers often cited online and even by doctors saying it lasts on average 5 years for half the people, 10 years for 20% etc. are way overstated. Those numbers came from studies where the samples only included those who showed up to the doctor and were diagnosed with cold urticaria. A large percentage of people have this for a very short time (several weeks or several months), but never learn the source of their hives, never go to a doctor, live in a warm climate (so have it for a bit but are never exposed to cold long enough to know they have it), etc. In short, the studies really examine chronic cases of cold urticaria. Most sites treat cold urticaria as if all cases are chronic and that's not the case. I say all this to say that there's hope. If you've had this for less than a year, there's a really good chance it'll go away on its own in the ensuing months. If you've had it for a few years, most likely it'll still go away within a few years. Only a small percentage of people have this for decades and they usually have a host of related ailments as well.