Any help or advice appreciated
Hey everyone,
I’ve been dealing with what seems like cholinergic urticaria for the last couple years and wanted to see if anyone has had a similar experience or found anything that actually helps.
For some background, I grew up on the East Coast, went to college in Texas, then moved back to the East Coast for my master’s. I’ve always had seasonal allergies, but never hives or anything like that growing up.
Toward the end of grad school, I noticed that if I pushed myself insanely hard during soccer, I’d sometimes get these tiny red dots on my legs. They weren’t itchy and would disappear pretty quickly. It only happened a handful of times, and weirdly it never happened during lifting, climbing, or other workouts.
Then I moved to Washington State and within weeks things got way worse. I started getting really itchy hives on my forearms whenever I worked out or lifted. Over the last two years it’s progressively spread, and now I can break out basically head to toe anytime my body heats up. Exercise is the biggest trigger, especially hiking or tennis, but even stress/anxiety or sometimes just taking my dog on a short walk can set it off.
At its worst my whole body gets red, itchy, and puffy.
I’ve tried a few elimination diets with no success. I’ve had a bunch of blood tests done over the last two years and everything always comes back normal. Allergy testing showed I’m allergic to pretty much every tree and grass in the PNW but nothing specifically tied to this.
Xyzal has helped the most out of everything I’ve tried. Taking it daily used to reduce the itching a lot, although the hives would still appear. Lately though, even that seems less effective and the itchiness is coming through more and more.
The weird thing is it doesn’t seem connected to weather or seasons at all. Hot or cold, summer or winter, doesn’t matter. If my body temperature rises, I react. I’m also confused by the people that say to sweat or to exercise more. The more I exercise the worse I break out :(
At this point I’m mostly just frustrated and curious if anybody has found a fix. Ideally would be natural, non-medicine fix, but I know that’s easier than done.