Allergies, seasonal? Or something else like stress:(

Fitnessgirl0913 wrote: »

I know this is probably not what you want to hear but when I had chronic hives a few years back that came on suddenly it was because we had bed bugs and I was allergic to their bites. I would wake up in the middle of the scratching myself and there were blood stains all over my sheets from the bites. I know this is gross but you might want to inspect your home. Also bed bugs tend to bite on your extremities so most all of my hives were on my legs and arms.

ETA: I know this is a worst case scenario and probably not the culprit but I think it is worth looking into.

shaumom wrote: »

In my life, I had multiple periods of daily hives that would last months, or in one case over a year, since I was 16 (I'm in my forties now). Aa few years back I finally discovered I have a rare disorder that causes me to have allergic reactions to a tremendous number of things, and as a result, I have had to do a lot of research into what you can react to. Like a lot. It's unreal...so hopefully it can be of use to you. :-)

Apologies, because this is gonna be long. >_<

So, first off - to check if it's bugs you are reacting to at night, I highly recommend sleeping somewhere else. Sleep in a different room, like the living room on the couch a few days, or at someone else's house who will let you, or a hotel if you can afford it. If the hives go away, then it was likely either bugs, or something that only exists in your home (the latter seems unlikely since you mention you get hives at various times.).

Second - here's some info. to hopefully to help you figure out what's going on (you may already know this, but figure I'll put it out there, just in case). The body uses histamine for a large number of regular bodily processes, so there is always histamine hanging around your body. You can kind of think of it like a 'bucket' of histamine in your body. Everything is just fine, unless the histamine level starts rising too high and when it hits a threshold, your bucket essentially overflows and that is the point where you get allergy symptoms like hives and rashes, or worse.

So if you are having allergic reactions, that can make the histamine levels rise too high.

If you are reacting to certain chemicals that you are sensitive to for some reason(which is actually not an allergic reaction, but solely because IgE is not involved- histamine is released, just the same, so you can treat the symptoms the exact same way), histamine levels can rise.

If you react to certain chemicals that naturally exist in numerous foods, it can make histamine levels rise (like salicylates.)

And one last thing, if your body stops producing enough of the enzyme (DAO) that is required to break histamine DOWN, it can cause histamine levels to rise because the histamine isn't being eliminated like it should. This last one is called histamine intolerance, and you can find some information on it various places online. DAO is actually available online from certain sellers and can be of use to some folks who have this issue.


If you have any of the above issues, every time your body runs those natural processes that release histamine, it can ALSO make you react, because it makes the already high histamine bucket overflow. Exercise is one of these processes. So are strong emotions, including stress (histamine elevates the heart rate, so most things that involve an increase in heart rate involve histamine). So if you are having hives, trying to avoid a huge amount of stress, and DEFINITELY avoiding exercise, is better for you.


For tracking down allergic reactions to foods, chemicals, etc... some bad news: it's probably going to be harder than you imagine. Because you can react to literally all foods (some reactions are rarer, but it still happens), and all food in stores come into contact with, and remain contaminated by, many other things.

So many chemicals are used in the fields, and to clean equipment used to harvest, ship, and process foods, and to preserve and ripen foods, that it can be very tricky to figure out what chemicals you may be ingesting (and reacting to). And so many foods are harvested, shipped, and processed on the same equipment that it can be tricky to track down cross contamination. And so many foods have 'processing agents' used on them, which usually aren't on the label, that it can be tricky to find the connection between many foods, if you react. Or they are derived from foods that it can be a right pain to track down.

Basically, you cannot exclude ANYTHING you ingest as a possible for a reaction.

Literally anything. Me? I ended up reacting to my salt. A bleaching agent (sulfite) is commonly used to bleach white salt (and to bleach pistachios shells, and used as a preservative in wine and in dried fruit). I react to that bleaching agent. You can imagine how long it took before I figured out it was my salt I was reacting to! 0.0

In the end, I had to go to farmer's markets and start interviewing farmers, then seeing what was used on and touched their food, and what I reacted to, and keep track with a food journal. Later on was when I was able to slowly piece together what the connections were, and test whether I was correct with my theories.

I mention all this because you gotta prepare yourself for the challenge that it is to track down potential ingested allergens or chemicals. Many people I know who were just utterly stymied ended up dropping all but one food per food group (barring dairy) and seeing if that did the trick. Then slowly building up from there while they kept a food diary. Like, one I know that seems common is white rice, sweet potatoes, buffalo meat, and pears - people seem to react to these less, so it's a common starting point.

It has been successful in many cases, although the diet is boring as heck. Especially if you have to be careful of your salt or oils, because they, too, may have substances you react to in them, or contaminating them.


All that said, however...if you are reacting to a food, all this work, the elimination diet and food journaling and research, is TOTALLY WORTH IT to get those hives to stop.


And now for home remedies that may help. These are things that I, or other people with my allergy disorder, often use to help with high levels of histamine. :-)

A low histamine diet can be helpful to keep histamine levels down - This one is commonly used:
https://www.jillcarnahan.com/downloads/HistamineRestrictedDiet.pdf

DAO enzyme supplement, mentioned above, can be found online.

Mast cell stabilizers - Mast cells are the cells that degranulate and release histamine. So sometimes, substances that act as natural mast cell stabilizers can lower the amount of histamine released.

Some of these include the bioflavonoids quercetin, luteolin, and ruin. Quercetin is recognized enough that you can find supplements of it. It can also be found, along with luteolin, in guava leaf tea, and olive leaf tea. Olive leaf extract is supposed to be more potent, but I have not tried the last one.

There is a gal who makes something called the low histamine cookbook, i believe - she sells it at healinghistamine.com (the site looks kind of awful, but she's legit. She has the same disorder I do, so many of her recipes help keep histamine levels low, and contain anti-inflammatory agents).

There are not perfect solutions or anything, but they can sometimes keep reactions down, or make them less intense. :-)

wishing you good luck.

kshama2001 wrote: »

abbynormal52 wrote: »

Fitnessgirl0913 wrote: »

I know this is probably not what you want to hear but when I had chronic hives a few years back that came on suddenly it was because we had bed bugs and I was allergic to their bites. I would wake up in the middle of the scratching myself and there were blood stains all over my sheets from the bites. I know this is gross but you might want to inspect your home. Also bed bugs tend to bite on your extremities so most all of my hives were on my legs and arms.

ETA: I know this is a worst case scenario and probably not the culprit but I think it is worth looking into.

You know, I thought of this. I don't know how I would have got them with a brand new bed, all parts of it. But, anything is possible. I appreciate you telling me a lot fg because I need to make sure that isn't it. I don't have any lingering bumps, like bites. Like today, I'm sitting here and I would feel an itch in kind of a large area. If I forgot and scratched it (which only makes it worse) I get strings of hives. They show up only after I scratch, and looks like trails from my finger-nails.

Did that happen with bedbug bites or do they look like a regular bug bite? Ick, it is horrible to think about but hey, again I appreciate you bringing it up;) Denise

Did the hives start shortly after you got the new bed? I also recommend you try spending a few nights off of it. I'm sensitive to chemicals and when I buy my next mattress will get one that hasn't been treated with fire retardant chemicals.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/03/should-you-ditch-your-chemical-mattress/

COGypsy wrote: »

I get hives during pollen season just about every year. My sister gets hives if you look at her cross-eyed. Her allergist put her on a combination of Prilosec and Zyrtec that she stays on year round. Both are antihistamines actually, and the combo has been really effective for her. Zyrtec knocks me out worse even than Benadryl, so I just suffer through with Prilosec and Claritin when my allergies are acting up. Not as effective, but at least it's some help and I'm still functional.