Chronic Hives?

[mla1209 7]

I think this is what I have. Since mid January this year I've had hives on and off. Went to a derma for it who confirmed it was hives due to the weather. It's been 3 months and it's still the same. Some days it's not so bad, sometimes no rashes at all, but most of the time I do. 

This is making me worried. I wasn't initially since my family (mom's side) has a strong  history of allergies and different sorts of rashes. My derma wasn't worried either and she just prescribed antihistamines and a certain lotion. 

BUT, I Googled and found this forum on healing well.com (I dread this site, I used to post here as well because I feared I had an autoimmune disease). Some posts said there could be an underlying medical condition to chronic hives, one example is digestive problems. Of course my #1 fear is anything related to my gut. IBS, IBD, colon cancer, polyps, etc. 

Has anyone ever had chronis hives? Dis you find out any underlying cause? I usually run to doctors whenever something seems wrong with my health. But I'm to scared I'll discover something. 

Please help. Thank you 

[olivet 37]

I have had chronic hive for five years and have never found the cause although they are worse with stress and hormones (before my period.)

i get them with pressure (like a purse strap) but also randomly.

they have gotten better and worse over the years but they showed the most improvement when I started therapy for anxiety so I do think there is an emotional component for me. My family also has sensitive skin and allergies.

i have googled and given myself anxiety about the what if’s ...but the thing is there are a lot of people with chronic hives who DONT have something’s serious wrong with them. I just keep up with my annual physical and do therapy for my health anxiety and try not to worry about it.

i am sorry you have them too. They really do suck but my allergist said not to worry much about them after my blood work came back normal.

[DeannaW 18]

Hello! Chronic hives sufferer here! I know way more than I'd like to know about hives, but unfortunately, the reason I had them isn't one of the things I know. I never found out what caused mine. They started in the beginning of 2016 and lasted until around November of 2017. Even though I was taking two Zyrtecs, a Singulair, and an Allegra every day, I still had them every day. I eventually did three rounds of Xolair injections, which definitely helped. It's typically used for asthma, but they've found it works for chronic hives too. I ended up seeing two allergists, a rheumatologist, a dermatologist, and a cancer doctor who, in addition to treating cancer, also treated a rare (non-cancerous) disease that I won't name on here, and no one ever figured out why I had them. All my blood tests came back normal, including the autoimmune ones that we did twice. My allergist said that we usually never figure out why we have them. I wasn't allergic to anything in the traditional sense, because they'd done allergy testing with blood work, and my IgG and IgE levels were normal. In October of last year, I finally started weening myself off the antihistamines, because I noticed I wasn't having them as badly as I was before, and by November, I'd stopped taking everything and **knock on wood* I haven't had a recurrence of them yet. During the day, I'd be mostly fine, but I'd start getting them at around 5PM and would have them into the next morning. I also started taking Vitamin C with Quercetin too. I really do think that helped a lot, because Vitamin C is a natural anti-inflammatory, and Quercetin has been shown to stabilize mast cells, which degranulate when we're allergic to something and release histamine, which causes allergy symptoms. You can find it in most vitamin stores. I think I took 1000 mg twice a day? You might give it a try to see if that helps. But so far, I don't have anything underlying that would've caused them. My allergist said they eventually just stop one day, just like they started. Most people's go away within 6 months, and the remaining people who go past 6 months I think go away within 1 to 2 years. You can definitely have them and not have anything else wrong. I do have a few theories on what might have caused mine though. Any infection can trigger hives, and I had a really bad sinus infection that cleared up right as my hives started. Found out two years later that I have chronic sinusitis and will eventually need surgery for it. It wouldn't surprise me if that's what triggered mine.

Did you have any allergy testing done? If not, maybe visit an allergist to see what they say. Hopefully yours will go away soon!

[mla1209 7]

2 hours ago, DeannaW said:

Hello! Chronic hives sufferer here! I know way more than I'd like to know about hives, but unfortunately, the reason I had them isn't one of the things I know. I never found out what caused mine. They started in the beginning of 2016 and lasted until around November of 2017. Even though I was taking two Zyrtecs, a Singulair, and an Allegra every day, I still had them every day. I eventually did three rounds of Xolair injections, which definitely helped. It's typically used for asthma, but they've found it works for chronic hives too. I ended up seeing two allergists, a rheumatologist, a dermatologist, and a cancer doctor who, in addition to treating cancer, also treated a rare (non-cancerous) disease that I won't name on here, and no one ever figured out why I had them. All my blood tests came back normal, including the autoimmune ones that we did twice. My allergist said that we usually never figure out why we have them. I wasn't allergic to anything in the traditional sense, because they'd done allergy testing with blood work, and my IgG and IgE levels were normal. In October of last year, I finally started weening myself off the antihistamines, because I noticed I wasn't having them as badly as I was before, and by November, I'd stopped taking everything and **knock on wood* I haven't had a recurrence of them yet. During the day, I'd be mostly fine, but I'd start getting them at around 5PM and would have them into the next morning. I also started taking Vitamin C with Quercetin too. I really do think that helped a lot, because Vitamin C is a natural anti-inflammatory, and Quercetin has been shown to stabilize mast cells, which degranulate when we're allergic to something and release histamine, which causes allergy symptoms. You can find it in most vitamin stores. I think I took 1000 mg twice a day? You might give it a try to see if that helps. But so far, I don't have anything underlying that would've caused them. My allergist said they eventually just stop one day, just like they started. Most people's go away within 6 months, and the remaining people who go past 6 months I think go away within 1 to 2 years. You can definitely have them and not have anything else wrong. I do have a few theories on what might have caused mine though. Any infection can trigger hives, and I had a really bad sinus infection that cleared up right as my hives started. Found out two years later that I have chronic sinusitis and will eventually need surgery for it. It wouldn't surprise me if that's what triggered mine.

Did you have any allergy testing done? If not, maybe visit an allergist to see what they say. Hopefully yours will go away soon!

 Hi Deanna,

Thanks for your reply. Wow, seeing rheumatologist on the list of doctors you visited kinda freaked me out. My mom died of lupus in '00 and when i Googled I saw lupus as one of the rare, possible causes of hives. I imagine that if I had lupus that I would see other symptoms, right?

I do remember in January - I was treated for gum infections and I had several visits to the dentist to cure it with some dental procedures, deep scaling and all. After that, my hives started. Interesting.  

I read about leaky guy syndrome.  Did your doctor look into that as well? I'm also concerned about this because i have IBS and I had a colon polyp (benign) before. 

I do hope this is nothing serious. I usually brushed it off because it appeared on areas not very visible to other people. But lately I'd have it on my face and neck and it bothers me a lot. 

Never had any allergy tests done. When I muster up the courage to visit a doctor/allergologist maybe I will. Hopefull this goes away before then. 

I may go back to taking vitamin c. I gave it up because I was afraid of developing kidney stones. 

Thanks for sharing. ?

[mla1209 7]

6 hours ago, olivet said:

I have had chronic hive for five years and have never found the cause although they are worse with stress and hormones (before my period.)

i get them with pressure (like a purse strap) but also randomly.

they have gotten better and worse over the years but they showed the most improvement when I started therapy for anxiety so I do think there is an emotional component for me. My family also has sensitive skin and allergies.

i have googled and given myself anxiety about the what if’s ...but the thing is there are a lot of people with chronic hives who DONT have something’s serious wrong with them. I just keep up with my annual physical and do therapy for my health anxiety and try not to worry about it.

i am sorry you have them too. They really do suck but my allergist said not to worry much about them after my blood work came back normal.

Thanks for your reply, olivet. I've only been to a derma and not allergy doctors but it puzzles me how I can be allergic to anything (besides my own known allergies like shrimps and crabs). Can someone suddenly develop an allergy to something they weren't allergic to before? It's really random, it appears on random places. This is why I'm thinking maybe this could be a problem internally, maybe with one of my organs. ?

My derma said it could be due to the weather or air but it's been 3 months already and our weather here has been consistently hot. I really hope mine is one of those cases where the cause is really not life threathening. 

[olivet 37]

Yes you can definitely develop new allergies at any time. I don’t really think mine is an allergy though because I have tried all sorts of elimination diets, changed products, etc with no change. I think mine is an overactive immune system, either from stress/anxiety or some sort of physical stress (I had been sick with a bad cold when they started...crazy to think just a cold could have triggered it but they truly don’t know.)

I understand your fear of something serious, I really do. But since this has been five years for me I really believe other symptoms would have shown up by now if it was something sinister. 

 

[DeannaW 18]

17 hours ago, mla1209 said:

Hi Deanna,

Thanks for your reply. Wow, seeing rheumatologist on the list of doctors you visited kinda freaked me out. My mom died of lupus in '00 and when i Googled I saw lupus as one of the rare, possible causes of hives. I imagine that if I had lupus that I would see other symptoms, right?

Hi mla1209! LOL Don't let that freak you out. Any time I have something weird going on, I always consult multiple doctors. No one referred me to a rheumatologist. I chose to go to one, which I've done several times over the years. There's strong history of autoimmune illnesses on both sides of my family, so my mind either goes to that or MS (for no logical reason) when something weird is going on. No rheumatologist has ever given me anything but normal test results, besides my vitamin D being low, though. In fact, the allergists I went to were also immunologists, so they ran all the autoimmune stuff too. If it makes you feel any better, my mother also has lupus, and she's never had hives as one of her symptoms, and if you had lupus, I imagine you'd have other symptoms as well as abnormal bloodwork.

17 hours ago, mla1209 said:

I do remember in January - I was treated for gum infections and I had several visits to the dentist to cure it with some dental procedures, deep scaling and all. After that, my hives started. Interesting.  

I read about leaky guy syndrome.  Did your doctor look into that as well? I'm also concerned about this because i have IBS and I had a colon polyp (benign) before.

Did you have medication or anything with the dental work? Maybe a reaction to that? I have a friend who had to do a test with contrast dye, and she got hives from that for a while. And NSAIDS! NSAIDs trigger hives in certain people. They're notorious for it. I had taken an Advil around the time when I got hives, and I feel like I had a bad reaction to them the last time I tried taking them, and I haven't tried it since. Really, any antibiotic can cause hives though, too. Have you been on any medication lately?

My doctors never mentioned leaky gut, but I know about it, because I did a lot of reading about it when I got hives. I feel like traditional doctors are slow to recognize leaky gut as a legitimate medical problem, so they usually don't mention it to me, but it probably wouldn't hurt to take a good probiotic, if you're concerned about that sort of thing. Of course, there's the theory that leaky gut is what causes allergies in the first place, so I tried going on an elimination diet and failed MISERABLY because it made me feel so awful. After that, I just abandoned it altogether. lol I feel like I'd need to see a holistic doctor to discuss something like leaky gut though. My regular doctors never brought it up.

17 hours ago, mla1209 said:

I do hope this is nothing serious. I usually brushed it off because it appeared on areas not very visible to other people. But lately I'd have it on my face and neck and it bothers me a lot. 

Never had any allergy tests done. When I muster up the courage to visit a doctor/allergologist maybe I will. Hopefull this goes away before then. 

Hives are rarely because of something serious, from what I understand. Mine were everywhere though. Face, back, arms, legs. It was terrible. And I also had swelling, so while I didn't usually get a lot of bumps on my face, I would wake up and my eyes or lips would be swollen. I was covered in them. It suuuuucked. 

It sounds like something bothered your immune system, and it went into overdrive, and it may just take some time for it to work itself out. You can definitely develop allergies to things you haven't been allergic to before, though. The night my hives started, I'd eaten shrimp, and I was terrified it was because of that, because I eat a LOT of shellfish, but it wasn't. Sometimes hives are just hives, and they're not symptoms of other underlying things. Don't drive yourself crazy trying to figure out what you're coming into contact with that's causing it. It took a long time and a lot of stress for me to finally believe my allergist when she said I wasn't actually allergic to anything, but I think she was right. And they did eventually go away, without me changing anything I was ingesting or coming into contact with, aside from the occasional NSAID.

I would suggest seeing an allergist, if you haven't already, though. You might have developed an allergy to something that you don't know about, and they'll do all the autoimmune tests to find out if your hives are because of something like that (which I doubt), and it would at least put your mind at ease that it's not something more serious. They'd also do bloodwork to check your organ function, if that's something you're worried about, but again, I'd be shocked if it was that, and hives were the ONLY symptom you had.

17 hours ago, mla1209 said:

I may go back to taking vitamin c. I gave it up because I was afraid of developing kidney stones. 

If you're worried about taking too much vitamin C, you can always get the Quercetin without the vitamin C. They sell it with and without, but to me, it's the Queretin that's the most effective part. People with mast cell issues recommend it on all of the forums where I read about hives, and I think it helped me a lot. 

Hopefully yours will go away soon, but try not to worry in the meantime. I know it's hard! 

[Tjlou 1]

Hi everyone. I was a chronic hive sufferer for 3 plus years. Was seeing my doctor, an allergist, dermatologist constantly. Blood tests once a month and so on. I changed my diet so many times with no comfort or change in my hives. I constantly was looking up different things it could possibly be. Till one day... I took a 7 day cleanse and after 2 days my hives reduced to pea size then after the 7 days they were no more. I was actually hive free for the first time in what felt like forever!!! About a year and a half they started up again, I was devastated. But I noticed one thing, I was getting really bad heartburn... just like I did last time I had hives. So I started reading up on heartburn and hive relation. Come to find out that this is a sign of an histamine intolerance. The antibiotics, steroids, NSAIDs, and a lot of other medications have destroyed good enzymes in your gut creating a reaction to histamine rich foods. i.e. Tomatoes, vinegar, acidic fruits, junk foods, sodas, dairy...etc.. Not to say this could be wrong for you but I figure I’d tell you my story and see if it helps. 

I take a cleanse every 6 months. Seeing it’s hard for me to cut tomato out of my diet.