Heat and cold allergies / physical urticaria

Tyler James5 said:Please. 🤣

At least you actually know how to help yourself, even if it’s a massive pain (I totally feel you). Me? I still have no clue what triggers half my flare-ups. Isn't it just great when even the doctors look at you like, "Uh, wow, what actually caused that?" 😲 Just out here playing amateur toxicologist on the side ☕

p.s. Check out those tips on gluten-free eating, that Gastronomy, Food & Health PDF

right here

.

Thanks 🙂 I'll go take a look...

Do you play any sports in your downtime?

Sitting around is definitely not an option; staying active—you gotta work up a sweat—speeds up the metabolism and helps flush all that junk out of your system...
Check out how this guy basically beat MS

For me, running outdoors and doing yoga have been huge in helping me realize how much certain stuff affects my body; they really help me tune into what's going on deep inside my system 🙂

Hey everyone... just wanted to jump in here and see if anyone might have some advice or help to offer... I've been dealing with this allergy thing, and at first, it was just triggered by hot water... but now even cold water does it. It shows up on my legs—shins, knees, and a bit on my thighs—as red bumps and redness, kind of like a stinging nettle rash. It’s really irritating; sometimes it itches, but if I scratch it even a little, it starts burning intensely. The weird thing is, it only happens when the weather gets cold... it started back up in late November, and I guess it'll stick around until spring when things warm up again. If anyone knows what this could be or has ideas on how to deal with it, I'd really appreciate it because, honestly, it's becoming unbearable... I'm getting pretty frustrated, maybe even losing my mind over it... everything clears up once summer hits. I'm 50, and I never had anything like this happen until about two or three years ago...
And a quick shoutout to our pathetic healthcare system—honestly, when I went to my doctor to get a referral to a dermatologist while I was covered in these spots, they told me I'd have to wait 40 days for an appointment... by then, everything had cleared up, so there was no point in seeing them or doing any testing since they supposedly needed to take a skin biopsy. The whole system is just ridiculous... I don't even know what to say... anyway, thanks and take care, everyone...

Christian Fisher said:Hey everyone... just wanted to jump in here and see if anyone might have some advice or help to offer... I've been dealing with this allergy thing, and at first, it was just triggered by hot water... but now even cold water does it. It shows up on my legs—shins, knees, and a bit on my thighs—as red bumps and redness, kind of like a stinging nettle rash. It’s really irritating; sometimes it itches, but if I scratch it even a little, it starts burning intensely. The weird thing is, it only happens when the weather gets cold... it started back up in late November, and I guess it'll stick around until spring when things warm up again. If anyone knows what this could be or has ideas on how to deal with it, I'd really appreciate it because, honestly, it's becoming unbearable... I'm getting pretty frustrated, maybe even losing my mind over it... everything clears up once summer hits. I'm 50, and I never had anything like this happen until about two or three years ago...
And a quick shoutout to our pathetic healthcare system—honestly, when I went to my doctor to get a referral to a dermatologist while I was covered in these spots, they told me I'd have to wait 40 days for an appointment... by then, everything had cleared up, so there was no point in seeing them or doing any testing since they supposedly needed to take a skin biopsy. The whole system is just ridiculous... I don't even know what to say... anyway, thanks and take care, everyone...

That sounds a lot like my situation, except mine isn't triggered by the cold. Doctors call it physical urticaria. I did a little digging online and apparently, it's a real thing. I'm definitely not alone, even though people used to give me weird looks whenever I tried to explain it to them.

The worst part is trying to pinpoint exactly what triggers the reaction. For example, when it's warm in Washington, D.C., I don't really have these issues, or at least they're way less intense. But back when I lived in Savannah, it was a total nightmare. One doctor gave me some custom ointment that the pharmacists mix themselves. It didn't cure me, but it helped a ton. Whether it was a placebo or not, I know it made life a lot easier.

I deal with this cold allergy thing myself—if that’s even what you call it. It’s just like a few people mentioned here; whenever I spend time outside in the chill and then step back into a heated room, my ankles, knees, feet, and sometimes even my face or ears start breaking out in hives.
To make matters worse, it’s always accompanied by this intense stinging sensation, redness, and itching. On top of all that, I also have another type of physical urticaria called dermographism—basically, my skin gets raised welts if anything is even lightly scratched or rubbed against it.

Alright, I’ll weigh in with my own mess. This whole thing kicked off three years ago during the winter—every time I’d step from the freezing cold back into a heated room, these two massive patches would flare up on my face, right between my nose and cheeks. They sting like hell and itch constantly. Since I’ve always dealt with dry skin, I figured it was just a bad reaction to my moisturizer—especially since I wasn't taking my usual allergy meds because I was pregnant at the time. I spent months swapping out different creams thinking I could find the "safe" one, and eventually, things calmed down once spring hit. Last winter wasn't nearly as brutal, so the flare-ups were milder. But this year? As soon as the temperature plummeted toward that -19°F mark, everything came roaring back—and it hasn't let up since. Now that I'm back on my allergy medication, you'd think it would help, but it's useless. It gets better for a few days, then slams me again. It's a constant cycle. At the end of January, I applied some Afloderm for five days straight and it cleared up, but it keeps coming back. Given that we're talking about my face here, I have no idea how often it's even safe to use that stuff.

Dear fellow members,
I would like to share my experience with you all, and of course, I am eager to hear your thoughts, opinions, or perhaps advice from anyone who might find themselves in a similar situation. It would truly be a great help to me.
Seven years ago, I first encountered an outbreak of hives—urticaria—that appeared on my abdomen. I visited my primary care physician, received an injection (Dex, Synopen), and the symptoms subsided within about an hour. Initially, the rash manifested as small, itchy red spots. For a while after that, nothing happened. Then, a few months later, it returned. It progressed from tiny red dots to full-blown hives, eventually becoming wheals that looked almost blistered. The rash would cover me from head to toe, literally from my scalp down to my feet. I found myself visiting the Emergency Room constantly, where the outcome was always the same: an injection (Dex, Synopen, Solu-Medrol). Last summer, it even escalated to facial swelling, which was quite frightening, leading me right back to the ER for more injections. I began tracking the specific circumstances under which these flare-ups occur. Interestingly, I’ve noticed that food doesn't seem to be a trigger; nothing I eat causes a reaction. Instead, it seems tied to changes in my body temperature. As soon as my body warms up, the urticaria kicks in. It starts with mild red spots, progresses to larger patches, then moves to those raised welts, and finally leads to swelling. Any physical exertion triggers it; any slight increase in temperature triggers it; moving from a cold room into a warm one triggers it; even a quick run triggers it. Over these seven years, I have consulted numerous specialists, undergone extensive testing, and completed countless allergy panels. I feel as though I have exhausted every option, yet 99.9% of the doctors I see tell me there is absolutely nothing they can do. They claim they don't even know what it is, advising me to simply continue taking antihistamines or perhaps switching brands because they suspect I've built up a tolerance. However, none of these allergy medications have actually provided relief. Every time I seek a consultation, I receive the same professional opinion: they cannot help beyond managing symptoms with pills, and while medication might mitigate the severity, there is no "cure." In the last two months, I have also noticed that my breathing becomes labored when the rash appears, especially when I step out into the cold. I saw a pulmonologist, but all my respiratory tests came back perfectly normal.
I am reaching out to ask if anyone here has dealt with a similar situation or knows someone experiencing these kinds of symptoms. If so, please reach out to me in this thread; I would be incredibly grateful. Additionally, if you have any recommendations for a specialist who might actually have answers...
Thank you!

I suppose I should probably weigh in with my own experience regarding this whole thing too..

So, I dealt with something very similar to what everyone else has been describing here.. It would always flare up during those colder months—never once happened in the summer—and it usually showed up as this intense itching accompanied by bumps all over my body, mostly concentrated on my stomach, back, and neck.. To be more precise, it seemed to trigger whenever my body would start to "overheat," if that makes sense.. Basically, any heavy physical exertion acted like a switch, whether I was hiking up a steep hill after school or chopping wood (though back then, I think my old man just thought I was being lazy)..

It used to bother me quite a bit back in high school, though thankfully it didn't last forever.. I never actually went to see a doctor about it, nor did I ever take any medication for it... Eventually, it felt like the episodes started becoming less severe, and once that initial "burning" sensation passed, everything would settle down.. I imagine there might have been a psychological component to it as well... Even now, about 15 years later, it can still catch me off guard occasionally, but it's just a mild stinging sensation in one or two spots before it fades away.. It often happens during the winter months, maybe during sex (hehe) or even just in the bathroom while I'm bathing the kids and the space heater is blowing directly onto my back..

Jamie Nelson10 said:I suppose I should probably weigh in with my own experience regarding this whole thing too..

So, I dealt with something very similar to what everyone else has been describing here.. It would always flare up during those colder months—never once happened in the summer—and it usually showed up as this intense itching accompanied by bumps all over my body, mostly concentrated on my stomach, back, and neck.. To be more precise, it seemed to trigger whenever my body would start to "overheat," if that makes sense.. Basically, any heavy physical exertion acted like a switch, whether I was hiking up a steep hill after school or chopping wood (though back then, I think my old man just thought I was being lazy)..

It used to bother me quite a bit back in high school, though thankfully it didn't last forever.. I never actually went to see a doctor about it, nor did I ever take any medication for it... Eventually, it felt like the episodes started becoming less severe, and once that initial "burning" sensation passed, everything would settle down.. I imagine there might have been a psychological component to it as well... Even now, about 15 years later, it can still catch me off guard occasionally, but it's just a mild stinging sensation in one or two spots before it fades away.. It often happens during the winter months, maybe during sex (hehe) or even just in the bathroom while I'm bathing the kids and the space heater is blowing directly onto my back..

Same story here. Though, I haven't had a full-blown "attack" in at least 2 years. It’s brutal, you're totally right—your head plays tricks on you because you're already stressed wondering if it's gonna happen, which just makes the whole thing worse when it does.

Either way, it's incredibly awkward. When you try to explain what's happening to someone, they just give you this blank, judgmental stare. My doctor kept mumbling something about hives and gave me some antihistamine or allergy pill, but that stuff actually made the episodes feel more intense, so I stopped taking it after a few tries.

Sometimes it feels like it's building up, but it never quite reaches a full-scale attack.

It’s actually kind of interesting how much I read about sweat being a trigger, yet for me, it never really seems to happen during the summer when you’re sweating the most...

Back when I was in high school and things were at their worst, I used to make a point of going out to concerts just to see if anything would happen—you know, jumping around and getting all sweaty—but it never once triggered anything. I remember thinking to myself, "Well, damn, I'm sweating and jumping my head off, and still no seizure."

So, I honestly don't know what the definitive trigger is, but I do know that whenever one starts to come on, I get this sensation like I'm "boiling" from the inside... I guess that's just the easiest way I can describe it.

Like I mentioned in my first post, I haven't had any seizures lately; fortunately, they just seemed to stop on their own. Still, I imagine medical science has probably come up with some effective medications now, so if someone is in a truly critical situation, they could always go see a specialist.

Checking in again. Looking back at my February post, I honestly don't even recognize myself. 🙂

Winter hit, and man, the hives came roaring back with it. This isn't just a little itch—it’s one of the worst flare-ups I've ever dealt with. You forget how much this sucks until it hits you like a freight train. I've been scratching my head trying to figure out why it's happening now. My diet hasn't changed, and I'm still riding my bike all the time, so I'm stumped!

The only real change lately was switching from a liquid detergent to a more old-school powder version at home. I'm desperately clinging to the idea that the soap might be the culprit, so we switched back to our old liquid brand. Now I'm just waiting to see if things settle down after a laundry cycle. 🙂

Everything feels fine until I start warming up. It's hilarious because cycling actually helps since the wind keeps me cool while I'm moving! But the second I stop or—God forbid—walk into a heated room, it's game over. My skin feels like it's on fire from head to toe; it's absolutely revolting. Running my hands over my skin helps a tiny bit, but barely. It's such a nasty problem that's hard to explain to anyone else. Honestly, I can't even walk into a hot coffee shop without thinking about it—I have to cool down first. 😵

I'm thinking about seeing my doctor, though she wasn't much help last time. I might try to get a referral to a dermatologist or something similar. Has anyone else here figured anything new out lately? 🙂