Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Chronic Hives..What to do?

I had a raging case of hives years ago and pretty much nailed it down to Tide laundry soap, Haven't touched it since and no more itchy's.

Tea tree oil, and others worth a try.

http://www.tbyil.com/Hives.htm

charlee

LMAO you need to chill out and leave politics to those that can understand what's up ...

One of my friends got them from stress, finally shot himself.

Probably not the solution he was looking for.

So, you laugh at someone who has a medical problem and indicate that should keep them out of politics? Hypocrite bullschitt.

Stay away from the predisone.For me it caused more problems than it fixed.You might try Tide Free for laundry.

Well, there are side effects to steroids, but steroids may well prevent more suffering and save more lives than most miracle drugs.

Forget all the harmful drugs and archaic allergy shots, SRT works and is non-invasive. Find a doctor who uses it.

Description of SRT

I encourage my patients to seek alternative therapies whenever they feel they should, and have done so for many years. I have come to hold acupuncture and traditional Chinese herbal therapy in very high regard in this manner. Likewise acupressure and Asian massage techniques.

Homeopathy has been shown time and again, both in my experience and in the literature, to be hogwash at best, and criminal negligence at worst. Same with Naturopathy and a host of others.

Most of the modern hodge-podge therapies which seek to blend several older alternative modalities and then package them in some fancy high-gloss package with a modern-sounding name ("SRT", for example) have proven themselves to be 1) very lucrative for the practitioner, and 2) objectively ineffective. I'd never heard of "SRT" before I opened the link you posted, but it has all the usual earmarks: its proponents attack allopathic (Western) medicine in general, laud alternative medicine of all types, and roll together a bunch of therapies that individually haven't got a very good track record. Sorry, I'm very skeptical about "SRT"; but that doesn't mean I am rejecting it... I will look into it in more depth and detail.

Urticaria, or "hives", is a nonspecific dermal reaction to inflammatory mediators in the skin. It can be triggered by allergies (most common) and specific drugs, but also by emotional/psychiatric factors. The cause is often multifactorial. This is why it's sometimes hard to treat. You need to find the allergens causing the reaction and eliminate them, which is challenge. I've ceased to be amazed at how many people with serious allergies to cats, for example, refuse to get rid of their cats; you have to clean up your house and yard and your truck. Etc, etc, etc. And because there is almost always some level of emotional/psychiatric component to these sorts of skin reactions, anything that relieves stress will improve symptoms... so a quack remedy that YOU BELIEVE IN will often give you temporary relief.

So, to cut to the chase: 95% of people I have seen with urticaria respond to a basic regimen involving lifestyle modification, reduced exposure to allergens, and basic drug therapy like OTC antihistamines and low-dose steroids. If that is ineffective, consultation with an allergist is the FASTEST way to get to the bottom of the problem and fix it. Targeted desensitization injection therapy is an amazingly effective and inexpensive way of reducing or even eliminating allergies, and it is only available through a board certified allergist.

Of course, if you want to spend more money and time and suffer for a longer period, by all means explore every cockamamie "alternative" therapy you wish. It's your body, your money, your time, and your suffering, NOT mine.

But if you truly want to get better, get thee to an allergist.

logcutter... BTW, my rant (above) against quack therapies for your problem was in no way directed at you or any other 24HCF member in particular, and I am concerned about your problem to some degree.

Urticaria that doesn't respond to basic therapy may be simply a bad allergy, in which case an allergist can help you a LOT; but it may also be a symptom of a more serious illness. I don't say this to alarm you, but many of the serious rheumatic diseases like Lupus, Sjogren's syndrome, and others can manifest with urticaria. Likewise, there are many hormonal disorders that may manifest with skin problems, including urticaria. And some cancers may manifest with bizarre skin disorders, as well. In other words, this isn't something you can afford to blow off with home remedies.

Bottom line, this could be a sign of something more serious and you should get it looked into pronto.

Three visits to your GP in a week isn't a good sign, to me. You might do well to get to a good general Internal Medicine man for a more thorough evaluation. You'll probably get in to see an internist right away, whereas an allergist might take a few weeks.

Good luck, and keep us posted on your progress.

Doc

Well, Doc, I don't know what to say to that except that SRT has worked very well for me and my entire family. I used to be sick with allergies of one sort or another 9 months out of the year. That was in spite of getting allergy shots every 2 weeks for over a dozen years. 10 years after I gave up on that, I took Enzyme Potentiated Desensitization treatments, which gave me about 75% relief. About 5 years later I started on sporadic SRT treatments. Now I hardly ever have any problems with allergies and when I do, it only lasts a couple days as opposed to months.

Elimination/avoidance is fine if you are only allergic to a couple things, but if you have hives like the OP is talking about, you are allergic to life!

Traditional allergy shots are a hoax and only "treat" what you've been tested for.

Have you ever tried SRT?

That's a very narrow view of it, BarryC. I've had a lot of experience with allergy desensitization thereapy, both personal and professional. The research evidence is very, very solid on this. I have had hundreds of patients whose allergies were eliminated by this therapy. Your unfortunate experience is the exception rather than the rule.

I'm glad SRT has worked for you, my friend. I did not mean to impugn SRT as a therapeutic modality, as I obviously haven't evaluated it... it fits a "type" of therapy, though, that as I said, tends to be quackery 90% of the time. I have edited my earlier post to clarify on this: I am skeptical about alternatives, but before I reject them, I look at them carefully. I intend to look into SRT to see if it might benefit my patients. Again, if I gave offense, I apologize.

NONETHELESS, I must say this: I have a nephew who is, as you put it, "alllergic to life". He's 19. I am going to email the link you posted to his mother, and see if they can find some relief for him through this. Lord knows they've tried everything else. So thanks for posting the link.

As I said before, I had no knowledge of SRT before you posted the link, and I have encouraged my patients to seek alternative therapies when all the mainstream medical therapies failed. Some have worked, as I said. IF an alternative therapy works for ONE patient, I am happy for that patient, but it doesn't mean I'll recommend it to others.

In any event, I am resonding to logcutter, whose symptoms are reportedly of recent duration and fairly high severity. Serious acute illness as a cause for these symptoms must be ruled out before alternative therapies for symptom relief should be explored.

Hard to do when you are a graduate student in Political Science...lol

That's pretty funny.

You need to pay attention to when people are saying something with a sense of humor, you're wrapped a bit too tight.

The person I said that to seemed to take it like I meant it.

Otherwise I have offered helpful and serious advice.

You have my sympathy. I had them for more years than I care to think about. The worse ones were the ones under the palms and soles of the feet. I would get them so bad I could not control my body temperature.

Steroids were a dangerous mix for me. They knocked the hives down, but were less effective with each does. I came so close to uncontrolled rage. I wanted to through my 6 year old son out the window and then go outside to stomp him some more...because he went to the bathroom , started playing and forgot to bring a washclothe for his little brother... I still shudder over that one. Bad business.

I do not have hives now and have not had them for many years. I made trips to Drs and Dermatologists and was universally told "We do not know what causes them."

I quit mainstream meat. I lived rurally and raised hogs, rabbits and chickens, with no antibiotic feed. Supplemented the freezer with bear and venison. I do not know if that is what caused them to go away or was it coincidence, I do know they are gone. I wish them never to return.

It is far easier to live with pain than with itching. You will learn to live with the itch, and the palm pain, and the fevers.

I am so sorry for your predicament.

I am allergic to a wide range of inhalants, foods, medicines and molds. In fact, I was so consistent in my reactions that my allergist, the late Vincent A. Marinkovich M.D., Certified Allergist & Immunologist Clinical Professor, Stanford University, used me as a test subject for various studies. Specimens of my blood was used, among others, to develop the Mast blood test. In my case hives are caused by drug reactions and exposure to ammonia such as cleaning solutions and decoppering solvents. My suggestion is not to guess about what is going on, but to consult with an allergist as soon as possible. These things can become serious, such as when I'd hemorrhage after consuming a bowl of milk and cereal.

yoop, WranglerJohn, thanks for posting your experiences.

Hives ain't no joke, as you've pointed out. They can be a terribly life-disrupting problem. The underlying immune system dysfunction is often a sign that something more serious is going on, or that drastic lifestyle changes are necessary. Switching to organic foods isn't easy, but is probably the most commonly effective solution to severe allergy problems I've encountered in 25 years of medical practice. IMHO our current "factory farm" food production system is responsible for a host of medical maladies.

I have been pm-ing with logcutter and he's headed to the ER this morning for worsening symptoms. Let's all keep a good thought for him today.

I'm bumping this thread to keep the ideas coming. I've been battling phoning hives something fierce this last week and trying to find answers.

I think Logcutter ended up being full of schit, but I could be wrong. Regardless, these things suck balls.