Hi Sailorvic
I am a new user to this forum and I have
the same symptoms as you. I'm not a
medical practitioner but here's what I
have so far.
I believe the medical term for our
condition is: Cholinergic Urticaria.
Cholinergic urticaria is a physical
allergy characterized by the development
of punctate (1 to 3 mm diameter) intensely
pruritic wheals with erythematous flaring
after an increase in core body temperature
or stress.
In particular, our case seems to be of the
sub-category of Exercise-induced
Anaphylaxis.
http:
//www.jcaai.org/pp/anaph_23_exercise.asp#a
naph_XXIII_
Essentially, a raise in core body
temperature or stress level can trigger an
attack. No obvious sign/rash on skin to
suggest anything wrong.
Like you, I get an attack in the following
situations:
1) When I know I'm about to sweat, brief
walk/exercise etc
2) When I'm nervous/stressed (happens a
lot in my job)
3) After a hot shower (I've stopped having
them since)
I've been having this since the start of
this year. I'm 29 yrs old.
Bad news is I don't have any definite
answer for you. I've relatively new to
trying to cure this so I don't have a lot
of suggestions. Below is what I suggest:
1) All literature agrees that the
itchiness/pricking sensation is caused by
the release of histamine in your body.
Hence, anti-histaimine should help to
minimize or at least lessen the attack.
However, there are many different
formulaes ofr anti-histaimine, including
first-generation and second-generation
types, H1 vs H2 etc. I am not a medical
person so I don't know the difference. I
hope to do more research on this in the
coming weeks and find out what is best for
me.
2) You mentioned Zrytec didn't work for
you. How often were you taking it? What
was your dosage? I've read that in some
case you might need to keep taking it
regularly to build up sufficient dosage in
your body.
http://www.jcaai.org/pp/u
r_part_1.asp. My doctor said I can
take up to 3 tablets a day.
3) Some literature also suggest H1 and H2
anti-histamine is required together to be
effective
4) Other medicines that have reported to
be effective on similar sitautions,
Benedryl, Ketotifen, Cimitidine Magicul
800, ephinephrine. I have no idea what
these are but am simply collecting what
other people said has helped in the past.
Don't use them without medical advise.
5) Some poster on this board reported
Acupunture or Homeopathic Medicine to be
useful. Again, not sure whether this is
applicable for us but something to keep in
mind.
I saw a dermotologist last week but he
wasn't very useful. Apart from giving me
the above medical term he essentially gave
me 3 types of drugs (Claratyne, Zyrtec and
Telfast) and told me to go try it out. I'm
also trying to see whether there is a
Cholinergic Urticaria specialist in
Melbourne that can help with this.
For the next few weeks I'm going to take
regular dosage of Zyrtec (3 times a day)
and will test out the effects during that
period. I'll report back to let you know
how I go.
We're both in Melbourne so what works for
you might work for me. Please keep in
touch. Would love to hear how you go. Feel
free to PM me for more detailed
discussions.
Dwarfer
