I was diagnosed recently with exercise-induced urticaria, after about two years of symptoms. I initially just thought it was heat-rash, as it only seemed to happen in the summer, but once I got a gym membership a few months ago and it started happening there, I knew something was wrong.


The doctor I saw told me that exercise was not life-threatening, and that I could continue to go to the gym. I know anaphylaxis seems to be specific to exercise, and I do break out in hives in other situations (heat, hot food, anxiety), but something that happened at the gym recently made me think that it was more than uticaria.

I worked out for about thirty minutes, which resulted in a minor rash on my arms and chest. Then, all of a sudden, I started to feel nauseous. I ran to the locker room and started to become dizzy and light-headed. I felt as if I needed to puke, so I ran to the stall. I found that if I stayed in one position, with my head on my lap, the urge to puke subsided. I started to sweat profusely-- just tons and tons of sweat pouring from my forehead and arm-pits. I tried to stand-up but I immediately felt as if I was going to blackout, so I sat back down. This went on for about thirty minutes and then died down.

The one thing that didn't happen, though: I never felt short of breath, or as if my throat was closing up. I've actually never had much of that as a symptom, or anything that feels out of the ordinary, anyway (i'm a smoker). But its still unclear to me what caused this reaction I had the last time, and it seems like these are more symptoms of anaphylaxis than uticaria.

I've also had these other reactions lately, that have nothing to do with the uticaria. When I go to sleep at night, sometimes, weird things have been happening. I'll come to the brink of sleep and then burst out of bed, feeling as if i'm going to have a heart attack. Usually, my chest will hurt, and if there is no actual pain in the chest, there is at least pressure there. Sometimes i'll struggle to breath; I feel some light symptom (a cramp, or a prickly sensation somewhere) and then i'll have this rush of panic, and i'll start to lose my breath, and then feel as if i'm somehow losing control over it. It sounded all like a panic attack to me, but a few professionals have said that it doesn't for various reasons (ie, i'm usually not in a state of fear at the onset of any of this). Are these symptoms of allergies too? Could exposure to something i'm allergic to- like, say, dust- cause this to happen when i'm about to sleep? The chest pain and shortness of breath would make me think its a possibility. However, I havent been able to find what these are symptoms to, outside of, possibly, panic disorder.


Any help that anybody could give me would be greatly appreciated. The more effort I throw towards trying to become healthy, the more the obstacles get thrown in my way. It's becoming pretty disillusioning, but i'm sure I can make due. Thanks.