Hives

Hives, also known as Urticaria are when the skin breaks out in red bumps all of a sudden. They can be various shapes and sizes and generally only last for 6-12 hours. It is thought that women suffer with hives more than men do. If you suffer with hives, you will notice that they can disappear from one part of your body and appear on another part. It is the only skin disease that can disappear as quickly as they appear which often confuses people.
It is unknown what the main cause of hives is but factors that contribute can be certain foods, certain medications, exposure to sunlight as well as insect stings. The most common foods that are associated with causing hives are nuts, chocolate, fish, tomatoes, eggs and milk.

SYMPTOMS OF HIVES

The most common symptom of hives is a break-out on your skin of red bumps which can appear anywhere on your body. Severe itching is also linked with hives and swelling, especially on the lips and eyelids. You can identify if it is hives when you press the centre of the red bump and it turns white. Depending on whether you have acute hives or chronic hives, the swelling and itchiness can be mild or very severe.

Treatments

The treatment for hives tends to be to relieve the symptoms of them while they go away by themselves. It also helps to identify and remove the trigger of the hives so it doesn’t cause a flare up again. Your doctor will most likely recommend antihistamines, steroids or topical therapies.

Antihistamines

Antihistamines help to oppose the effects of the histamine that leaks through masked cells in order to diminish the skins reactions.

Over-the-counter — most antihistamines can be found over-the-counter such as diphenhydramine (Benadryl), chlorpheniramine (Chlor-Trimeton), hydroxyzine (Atarax, Vistaril) and certirizine (Zyrtec). You can take these ones up to three times are day, however they can cause drowsiness so are recommended to take before bed. Other over-the-counter antihistamines include loratadine (Claritin) and fexofenadine (Allegra). These are less likely to cause drowsiness.
Prescription — these antihistamines include cyproheptadine (Periactin) and levocetirizine (Xyzal), the former cause more downiness than the latter. It could be that your doctor decides to combine these antihistamines with others called H2 blockers like ranitidine (Zantac) or cimetidine (Tagamet). Your doctor will come up with a treatment plan to suit you specifically.

Other Treatments

Oral steroids — these can help with serious cases of hives but only in the short term. The problem with steroids is that hives tend to last longer than the time period in which it’s safe to take steroids. If you are recommended them you might be given prednisone (Medrol).
Montelukast (Singulair) — this medication blocks the binding of leukotrienes to other cells which cause inflammation, effectively stopping the symptoms of allergies.
Ultraviolet radiation — this is the exposure of the skin to controlled amounts of sunlight alongside the use of medication.
Anti-fungal antibiotics — these will reduce the likelihood of developing infection in the hives and include amphotericin, flucytosine, itraconazole, voriconazole, anidulafungin, caspofingin, and micafungin.
Tricyclic antidepressants — these antidepressants can help with the pain that might come from hives both during and after the occurrence. They include drugs such as amitriptyline (Elavil, Endep), nortriptyline (Pamelor, Aventyl) and doxepin (Sinequan, Adapin).
Injection — this new medication can be used for severe hives. It consists of an injection of a monoclonal antibody called omalizumab (Xolair) and is administered monthly. It is directed against the IGE receptor on human mast cells.
Topical therapies — you can find creams, ointments and other topical therapies over-the-counter and these might include corticosteroids that are applied to the skin after moisturizing.

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