06 Apr
06Apr

This article is unfinished.

No,don`t. 

Allergy shots,  physicians call it immunotherapy,  come with some risks, even serious ones.  And they have a 80% chance of not being effective in this case. Because this isn`t usually an allergic but an immune condition.

Chronic urticaria or hives can be a very distressing condition.

It can start in early childhood, teenage or adult age, mostly between ages 20 to 50.  One out of 40 people will get it in their lifetime.

And once it starts it can go on for weeks, it can also go on for one year, and in some cases even for 5 years. But it will eventually wane and disappear.

Some experience it without any trigger, physicians then call it spontaneous idiopathic urticaria. Other see it happening only after some trigger, like exposure to heat or to cold. We then call it inducible urticaria.

Typically it involves itching, which can be severe, red spots or plaques, some of them markedly elevated (wheals). They can appeasr anywhere on the body, from head to feet. The attacks usually resolve within 24 hours.

Antihistamines are very effective, we prescribe the ones that won`t make you drowsy during daytime, and the older generation ones before bedtime. In many cases we raise the dosage up to four tablets a day, sometimes for a few years in a row.

This works very well. So there is no need for an allergic workup or treatment against a specific wrongdoer in almost all of the cases.

So why do hives happen ? 

We have a very central actor in our immune system which we neglect most of the time, it`s called the mast cells.

We find them everywhere, in every organ or system, but especially where our body is in contact with the outside world: the skin, the respiratory system and the digestive tract.

Or if you want to put it shirtly, everything we touch, breathe, eat or drink.




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