any advice for chronic hives

I have had chronic hives for 9 months now.  I work at a medical clinic and have been working with a PA that has a background in dermatology and an md that specializes in allergies.  I have been taking 400mg tagament 4 times a day and an allegra once a day.  I have tried zyrtec, but it makes me too tired at work.  I have tried singular, claratin and doxepin as well.  They keep telling me that they will probably never be able to find out what is causing my hives.  This morning I started prednisone, which I am supposed to take for 10 days.  I am very weary about taking prednisone b/c off all of the s/e.  I have been walking outside in the evenings and after walking 40 mins, my legs get covered with hives and they slowly spread to my arms and sometimes my face.  By morning, they are pretty much gone.  I went to a tanning bed and got burnt on the back of my legs and that night, the hives were the worst they had been---I have been going to tanning beds on and off for 10 yrs.  I need help!!!!

I was supposed to take 60 mg a day, but when I went to get the script filled, the Pharmacist said that was a high does, so I have only been taking 40 mg.  It makes me feel real groggy and out of it and am feeling very swollen, especially my tongue.  I have tried using sun block in the sun and it does not help.  The prednisone had helped a lot with being out in the sun and walking outside, but am afraid the hives will come back as soon as I am done with the script.  I started getting break through hives yesterday with being on the prednisone, so I am about to give up

Thanks for your response and suggestions.  I have had my thyroid checked, probably about a year ago before all of this started happening.  I actually found out I am lactose intolerant and cut back my dairy while using lactaid pills.  For awhile, I actually thought maybe I had grown to be allergic to milk, but then started getting them without milk too.  I am not liking the prednisone at all, and like you said, it is not a good long term plan.  I guess I need to just wait it out and hope they go away, but it gets so frusterating, especially when they go away for a couple of days and you think you are in the clear!  I am going to see if the PA I work with will do a complete blood work-up, and if everything comes back normal, just go witht he flow.  Thanks again!

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I had chronic hives for about 10 months. At first, I tried calamine lotion which did nothing. I started taking a few benadryl tablets/capsules every day and generally just kept my skin from irritation. They finally went away during my freshman year of college. I'm not sure if it was the benadryl or getting out of high school that helped me, I never knew the cause of my hives. I'm probably not much help, but just hang in there and eventually they'll probably go away.

Hi, I had hives about a year ago for about 1 and a half years after using a topical medicated acne solution. Hives limited me on doing many daily things and also things like cleaning up a fish tank or sweating while playing sports can be really hard and itchy. I know bad hives are so I wish this solution will help. When I had hives my doctor prescribed Hydroxyzine and I took it for about 10 months and increase in dosage. It went away everytime the MG of the medicine was increased but later came back so I decided to take allegra and claritin-D but later it still came back. After that I thought there was no hope in relieving hives so I decided to do a little research on what hives does and what scratching will do. Finishing my research, I found out that hives target your blood causing inflations on your skin caused by histamines so I decided to buy vitamins that help blood, immune, and skin and this is what helped me and im hive free for a year now but just sometimes with itchy skin in a couple of months but almost back to normal. The vitamins I bought was vitamin A, D,and E, which helps the skin, C which helped the immune fight bacteria, Iron to produce more red blood cells, Alfalfa tablets to help clean the blood, B to keep me motivated and energized, and Zinc to help fight skin problems and immune. I took these for about 6 months everyday and it helped me until now so I continued to keep taking vitamins. Taking high consumptions of water will also help. I hope this will help because it helped me.

Hello, I'm a new member....I've been suffering from chronic urticaria for 8months....can dust mites cause or aggrivate it?

Hello Everyone,

The postings on this site seem very similar to the problem I experienced during the past year. I am now making every effort to share my story with the hope that I can help others. Here it goes:

I lost the ability to sweat during the summer of 2005.  It all started after I had a sinus infection. I was given a Z-Pack and Zyrtec-D, which got rid of the sinus infection. However, my feet began to itch shortly thereafter. I visited several doctors,  all of whom prescribed different antihistamines (Allegra, Hydroxizine, and Zyrtec) to treat the itching.

After a while, the itching spread, and I eventually stopped sweating. Instead of sweating, my entire body was covered with a painful “prickly” sensation, as if my skin were being pierced with thousands of pins.  The pain was most intense whenever I tried to exercise, and I frequently broke out in hives. 

Giving up all hope, I stopped taking all antihistamines in October of 2005, but the pain continued for several months thereafter.  At one point, I was investigating the use of steroids to improve my condition.  After considering my options, I decided to wait it out.  I am very pleased to report the wait has paid off.  With every passing month, my body has slowly been healing itself.  I can now exercise and sweat profusely with only the slightest “prickly” sensation, which quickly disappears after my workout begins.  I am confident that this, too, will disappear in time.  I am even more confident that an allergic reaction to Zyrtec was the cause of my problem.  I am now taking steps to share this information with the FDA.

I have done some research and discovered that in October 2005, a medical journal published an article called "Adverse Cutaneous Reactions of Systemic Antihistamines" (Current Medicinal Chemistry - Anti-Inflammatory & Anti-Allergy Agents, Volume 4, Number 5, October 2005, pp. 521-529(9).  I would love to read this article. It seems the medical community is just beginning to realize that their prized antihistamines may be causing much of the trouble they are supposed to be curing.

During the course of my affliction I consulted with three allergists, and they all refused to consider that I was having an allergic reaction to a drug they so frequently prescribe (even when I suggested the possibility). I only wish one of them had advised me to stop taking everything, rather than prescribing the alternative antihistamines which worsened my condition. It is my hope that my experience will assist those who have similar symptoms.

I wish everyone a healthy recovery!

-- B

Post Edited By Moderator (Red_34) : 7/27/2006 8:49:33 AM (GMT-6)

My doctor, an allergist, told me the hardest thing to accept about Chronic Hives is that nothing I do causes it. I am not allergic to anything, I am not stressed out at all. I have finally come to accept that hives are just part of my life and there is nothing I can do to stop them and that has helped me most of all. Everyone always asks what are you allergic to or you must be really stressed out. I just laugh and say I wish it was true because then I could control it somewhat! Like I said in the previous post I have suffered with this for 30 years. I take comfort in knowing they will disapear eventually and I always sleep really well because of all the Doxepin I take at night! I realize that many of the people who post here are having hives because of something going on with medicine or stress, but I thought I would share my thoughts about just having an illness I can't control.

Mine usually get worse in the evening and through the night. I usually just have have red splotches in the morning and then they disapear and get worse in the evening. My episodes usually last about 6-8 weeks. Sometimes the hives leave bruises too.

Hi Taylor, welcome to Healingwell :) Care to share the name of this liquid supplement? It wasn't Goji Juice or Monavie was it?

Hi Slate1,
I have hives very similar to last years post LexusZoe- mine started this all with hives waking up in the morning.. (so I went thinking it was fleas.. or allergies to my cat - since I am allergic and also to dustmites- but never to this degree)... well no one else in my family ever got any and more so I started getting them at night and woke up sometimes at 6 am itching for an hr. trying to go back to sleep.
I would scratch all morning they would start to disappear and then finally come back in the evening to restart the round. I would get bruises too. I thought it was from the pressure of itching them but maybe it could be the blood vessels leaking slightly on their own, maybe. Thats how the histamine leaks out so.. I am not sure. Funny thing is I really don't get that anymore but it constantly changes in its own way and travels also.
I am not working and actually it is keeping me from getting a job so I don't have tips for you there. I was going to take a job in construction with my hub just to be able to not show up if it is horrible or not care what people think about the looks. I get angioedema where your face, lip.... swells up so it is a little more disfiguring then just my hives. I actually do better when I am out and about. Keep your skin from being dry.. less wanting to itch. But when I am at home I itch alot more and it makes it worse.. just because I can itch. Being at work maybe good for you because it'll force you not to itch which like I said makes it worse by making you itch even more. So how was work?
I don't understand though, you've only had hives for the last 5 days and have been on steroids for those 5 days??? Most doctors won't treat you with those until some time has gone by. Have you had these before? When I took the steroids (prednisolone) it didn't get worse after, in fact mine have been slightly better. Although, I am on Claritin, Zantac, and Doxepin also. But still annoying as heck. And I did have one big flare up where it added 1/4' at least to my back/neck area.

Does anyone know how monavie will affect hives?  I have had hives and angioedema now for 6 years.  I am at a point of complete frustration and feel like the docs could care less that I

swell and itch on a daily basis.  I've even asked for a referral from my dr to be told I should research and see who I might want to go to.