HeatHives.com-Cholinergic Urticaria and Hives

One thing is for certain, I apparently have some sort of food allergies. They are not the severe allergies that cause instant symptoms such as your throat swells, vomiting, or instant hives. But at this point I have learned that I definitely have a mild milk allergy with a slow inflammatory response.

This is evidenced by the fact that when I stop eating milk, these small itchy rashes I get will disappear. However, when I eat lots of milk (or products containing dairy), the marks come right back.  Plus, the cholinergic urticaria will increase in intensity, but I am not sure if they are related to the hives. My last diet attempt led me to believe that the hives and rashes were unrelated. But who knows?

Well I have now been trying a new diet with reduced sugar and milk, and already this diet is killer after only 1 day. I am already going through symptoms of addiction withdrawal. It is hard to focus on anything else, and my mind is constantly thinking of snacks, food, and more. Even when I fill myself up with a meal, the cravings may go away for an hour or so, but soon they come back. I get headaches, sometimes feel tired, depressed, and much more.

I am not talking about mild cravings such as, “gee it would be nice to have some pizza.” I am talking about cravings such as, “I am dying to have a bite of some junk food, followed by a headache, and stomach emptyness.”

Can Food Allergies or Candida Lead to Food Addiction?

People can have an addiction to all sorts of things. They can be addicted to gambling. They can be addicted to sex. They can be addicted to foods or drinks (alcohol). They can be addicted to drugs, and more. Let’s examine what happens during a drug addiction.

When a person uses drugs, it illicits a very powerful response in their bodies and mind. There are several chemical reactions that take place, and one important reaction is a large release of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a chemical that creates a feeling of “pleasure, satisfaction, happiness, or euphoria.”

Once a person uses drugs for a continued period of time, the body and brain becomes used to the large releases of dopamine. It produces the natural chemical in lower quantity in an attempt to stabilize the effect (much like the body attempts to reduce testosterone in males that take steroids by shrinking the testicles). So when a person stops using the drug that causes the huge “rush” of euphoria, they quickly begin having withdrawal symptoms. This is because the body is saying, “hey, we are used to this chemical and have changed things a bit to compensate for it, and now it is gone, and we need that chemical to balance everything.”

Some researchers and scientists are now discovering that a similar thing happens to people with food addictions. They speculate that these addictions can be caused , at least in some cases, by an underlying food intolerance or addiction. When a person has a food allergy or intolerance, the body senses an intense reaction to a particular food in the brain. This is due to a release of many different chemicals as the body tries to rid itself of the offending foods.

If a person with a food intolerance/allergy continues to eat the foods that are causing the problems, it can create a neurological effect on the brain, in the way any other drug (for example: cocaine) might create. 

Eventually, a person can actually become addicted to a food that they are allergic or intolerant to. So even though they shouldn’t eat a specific food, they have very intense cravings for it due to the reactions and release of chemicals in the body. This is also suggested to be a cause of food addiction in obese people.

Signs or Symptoms of Possible Food Addiction and Withdrawal:

• Strong thoughts about certain foods even though you aren’t hungry
• Continual eating of foods past the point of “feeling full” (i.e. continuing to eat for taste)
• Going on a food binge after a diet (I felt this one first hand!)
• Strong moodiness or Irritability when hungry
• Feeling tired, depressed, a headache,or sick when avoiding certain foods, but then the symptoms go away after eating the food you were avoiding
• Lacking self control in food choices, or the quantities of food you consume (I am guilty of this as well-I have been known to eat almost a half pint of ice cream, or bag of M&M’s at one time)
• Feeling of guilt after eating certain foods
• Eating to control anxiety, nervousness, or depression
• Feeling of intense pleasure, happiness, euphoria, or peace after eating certain foods
• Feeling of always being hungry when avoiding certain foods

Some articles I read also suggest that Candida could also lead to an increased risk for developing a food allergy or intolerance due to the overgrowth and release of toxins from the Candida and the effect the Candida can have on the immune system. Again, as I mentioned in another article about Candida, most all of us already have this bacteria in our intestines. However, sometimes it can become overgrown and infect parts of a person’s body (such as the case with thrush or a yeast infection).

So it also appears that if there is excessive Candida, it too can lead to food allergies, addictions, and more. At least, it is thought that it could have some role, but it is still unclear. I don’t really promote trying a “candida cleanse” product, however, at the same time I suppose that trying a natural “anti candida diet” by avoiding certain foods may be worth a shot if you have the time and proper nutrition plan in place.

One member on our forum has recently indicated that trying an anti-candida natural diet has helped to remove or lessen symptoms of their cholinergic urticaria.

Conclusion:

I apparently must have some sort of food allergy/addiction problem, since everytime I go on a very strict diet I crave foods so intensely. It is interesting to see that food addiction is a REAL thing, and food allergies and intolerances can lead to food addictions and severe cravings. Has anyone else had this problem? Anyone had any positive or negative experiences with an allergy elimination diet or anti-candida diet? Let us know in the forum.

Links/Resources:

http://www.springboard4health.com/notebook/health_food_addiction.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addiction

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/drug_substance_abuse_addiction_signs_effects_treatment.htm 

Hello everyone!

Well the diet is now officially over….YIPEE–junk food here I come. I wanted to make a post to let everyone know my full experience & thoughts on the results. As most of you already know, I did the diet to see if it would help not only the rashes, but mostly my cholinergic urticaria (heat hives).  I also had some other issues occasionally with my stomach/digestion. So here is a summary of the positives in the experience:

Stomach- My stomach actually felt much better on the diet. I do not feel near as bloated. I only had a couple of stomach upsets (from the gluten free pizza). But other than that it did help my digestion. It seems I can digest foods a little easier. I have less gas, and my stomach feels flatter.

Rashes- As you know, I had a small rash on my finger when I started. It completely went away on the diet. I also had a small rash on my face after eating the gluten free pizza. That also went away. I don’t have any type of rash or eczema on my body at the moment. So this was definitely a plus-and I think diet is defintely related to my skin problems that I occasionally get.

Cholinergic Urticaria- Although the diet didn’t cure the cholinergic urticaria, it does seem like it did help. For example, I was not as reactive, and had less breakouts. When I did have a reaction, it wasn’t quite as intense as it was previously before starting the diet. I now think diet isn’t a major factor causing cholinergic urticaria. However, I may use diet in the future to help manage both the rashes & CU.

Conclusion- The diet was a great experience so I could see whether or not the CU was related to my diet. I would have to believe that diet is not the only cause of CU (at least in my situation). The diet was definitely beneficial. It helped my rashes clear up, and my stomach felt great.

However, it is certainly not easy being on the diet, and the whole time I questioned whether or not it was even worth it. I craved foods so badly, that I though to myself, “Okay, I can handle the itching–just give me back my good foods.” So even if this extreme diet did cure the CU, I doubt I could stay on it for a long period of time.

Even though the diet didn’t CURE the cholinergic urticaria, it did seem to somewhat help it. Also, it helped clear up my rashes, which confirms that I do have some food intolerances & issues that I have to manage. For example, I can’t consume too much milk, and when I do consume dairy, I will have to take a lactose intolerance enzyme to help me digest it.

Future Diet Plans: First & foremost, I am going to enjoy some foods for a while. I am not going to restrict anything in my diet. I am going to consume gluten, wheat, and even milk. However, I am going to limit the amount of milk especially, because I can still get rashes & bad stomach upsets if I do not control my diet better than I have in the past.

As far as the future, I will know that if I start to get a rash, or if my CU intensifies, that I may be able to eliminate the rashes & calm down the CU by going on a short diet of just veggies and meat. As I said, I will eat a lactose pill anytime I do decide to consume milk/dairy.

As long as my long term diet, I plan to try to eat more healthier than I have in the past. This means reducing the amount of junk food I have eaten. For example, I may allow myself a lot of junk food for a couple of days, but then eat very healthy for a few days (with no junk food).  I also may go through periods of trying to avoid dairy & other allergens just for my health (no rashes).

I am still skeptical about the whole candida issue. It may be a possibility. I may try this diet later on, but at this point I am going to relax for a little while & enjoy foods. I may try this diet in the future.

I also plan on doing several more things to try to improve CU. I really hope to get a house within the next year, so I can move out of my extremely cramped 1 bedroom apartment, and actually live again. If/when I get a house, it will open up so many possibilities for me.

I feel I will actually be able to cure (or at least significantly help) my CU, because I will be able to do the following things:

• I will be able to grow my own produce in a garden (which means I will be eating way healthier)
• I will get probably quadruple the sun exposure (I get way to little sun exposure at the moment)
• I will get to sweat way more (which does seem to help CU a lot)
• I will be able to try water filtration (such as a water softener, chlorine filtration, etc. to see if it helps with the CU)
• And many other types of changes & experiments!!

So I can’t wait for those things. I still remain positive that one day we can all overcome this. One day, this will hopefully be a thing of the past. We can go outside again, and run & workout, etc. and not feel the tingle & pain of CU. We can walk into a building and not have to think “Gee I hope I don’t have a breakout.”  No more worrying about it. We can all live a relatively normal life again. Keep in mind, most people have this go away completely after a few years.  It sucks right now, but lets all hang in there!

Hello Everyone,

I have now been on the very strict allergy elimination diet for a little over a week now. I have been gluten-free/milk-free for almost a month. This has been very tough, and it is discouraging to see that even though the hives are not as severe, I am still having attacks when I get really hot. For example, today when driving I got a little itchy, but nothing major. So I decided to have a workout today. I did well up until I started getting really hot. At that point, I started getting the itchy/prickly feeling & had to slow down and cool off. Bummer.

I am going to continue this very strict diet until about August 14th. At that point, if I haven’t seen a significant difference, then I may call off the diet & go back to normal foods. Plus I have had several great comments & follow-ups by people (at least 3 people now) indicating that they have confirmed that their dad’s also have mentioned having this for a period of time, and that it eventually went away. Which seems to indicate that perhaps diet is not related (at least in my particular case).

So perhaps this is just a weird allergic type reaction that comes & goes at points in our life?? Who knows? But it gives me a lot of hope & motivation to keep on going and toughing out these itchy hives until one day they go away.

Also, I am really hoping at this point that diet is NOT related to cholinergic urticaria, because I am going to pig out here in a few days…

Hello Everyone,

Well I have now been on the VERY strict allergy elimination diet for 3 days. This diet is very hard (far more difficult than gluten & milk free diets)! Here is what I have eaten the past 3 days: Rice, sliced tomatoes (mixed in the rice), a couple of cucumbers, a green bell pepper and some raw garlic.  That is it! I eat as much rice as possible when I start to get hungry. No meat, no snacks, nothing. My cravings are so intense right now. I have never craved food in my life like I do right now.

However, the small rash spot on my face, has cleared up almost 100%. Also, my skin is feeling better. As far as my hives, it is still too early to tell if this elimination diet is having an effect. I have not had a breakout (but at the same time I haven’t been hot, so I can’t tell yet). I do feel a little better. Of course, my stomach feels fantastic with no gas, bloating, etc.

I am counting the days until this diet is over. If I haven’t seen some very positive results by the 2 week mark, I may consider adding more foods. Then, I will probably go back to my normal diet if I can positively rule out cholinergic urticaria. I will avoid milk a lot, but I will eat gluten again eventually. Of course, even if the diet doesn’t help the hives, I still have to watch what I eat due to rashes & stomach problems I get with certain foods.

Then I think to myself, if the diet does work, then I am not sure right now if it is worth it. It will literally be like making the following decision:

1. Have cholinergic urticaria but eat all the foods I want. 

–OR–

2. Don’t have cholinergic urticaria, but eat like monk!

That is a tough decision because I hate hives so much, and I just want my normal sweating life back again. But at the same time I have such strong cravings for food right now. So right now (with my intense cravings for pizza, doughnuts, chocolate, etc.), both of those options are looking like a win-lose situation. But of course, that is ONLY if the diet actually does work. That is still unclear whether or not there is a diet connection (at least in my case), but I should have an answer within a few weeks.