I. What is hives? Is it contagious?
Urticaria is commonly known as a windstorm, which is simply a skin allergy. It is a restrictive edema reaction due to the dilation and increased permeability of small blood vessels in the skin and mucous membranes. The clinical manifestation is a rash block of varying size, which occurs suddenly, fades, goes away quickly, itches intensely, and leaves no trace after healing. The disease is not contagious and is not transmitted to others. According to the course of the disease is divided into acute and chronic, the course of the disease within 6 weeks is called acute urticaria, more than 6 weeks is called chronic urticaria, the former can be cured after a few days or weeks, the latter is recurrent attacks last for months or even longer. Chronic urticaria accounts for about 2/3 of all urticaria, with recurring clusters, sometimes more and sometimes less, often over the years, for months or more. In the process, the condition is sometimes light and sometimes heavy, such as morning or before bedtime aggravation, some do not have a certain pattern, systemic symptoms are generally light, most patients can not find the cause of the disease.
Second, I did not eat anything, how can I be allergic?
This is the most confusing question for hives patients, and it is also a doubt that every patient must tell me. The cause of hives is complex, and about 3/4 of patients cannot find the cause, especially chronic urticaria, which always flares up without notice and is confusing. The common causes of the onset of urticaria are.
1, food groups such as seafood (sea fish, shrimp, crab, squid, shellfish, etc.); eggs, milk and other high-protein substances; followed by meat and certain plant foods, such as strawberries, cocoa, tomatoes. In addition spoilage foods break down into peptides, and alkaline peptides are histamine releasers. Protein foods are absorbed in the form of peptones or peptides before they are thoroughly digested, which can cause urticaria, which is more common in children and may also be due to the different permeability of the digestive tract mucosa in children compared to adults. In addition, the addition of food coloring, flavoring, preservatives, natural or synthetic substances in food can also cause urticaria.
2, inhalants such as pollen, dust, animal dander, smoke, feathers, fungal spores, volatile chemicals (such as formaldehyde, acrolein, pyrethrum, cosmetics, etc.) and other airborne allergens.
3.Contacts such as paint, animals (such as cats, dogs, wool, etc.).
4, drugs can be divided into two categories, one is the drugs that can form antigens, such as penicillin, serum, vaccines, sulfonamide, furazolidone, etc., and the other is histamine releasing agents, such as aspirin, morphine, codeine, pethidine, polymyxin, vitamin B, quinine, hydrazidazine, etc.
5, physical factors such as cold, heat, sunlight, friction and pressure and other physical and mechanical stimuli.
6, infection various infection factors can cause the disease. The most common are viruses and Staphylococcus aureus, followed by hepatitis, infectious mononucleosis and coxsackievirus; parasitic infections, such as roundworms, hookworms, schistosomes, filarial worms, amoebas and malaria parasites; bacterial infections such as acute tonsillitis, alveolar abscess, sinusitis, impetigo, sepsis, etc.
7, mental factors mental tension or excitement, after exercise caused by acetylcholine release. This belongs to the cholinergic urticaria, clinical less such patients.
8, genetic factors certain types of urticaria and genetic related, such as familial cold urticaria, hereditary familial urticaria syndrome, etc.
9, certain types of visceral and systemic diseases such as rheumatic fever, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, malignant tumors, hyperthyroidism, hyperlipidemia, endocrine changes (menstruation, pregnancy, menopause), infectious mononucleosis and chronic diseases such as cholecystitis, nephritis, diabetes mellitus, etc.
Third, can we do allergen testing to see if we are allergic to those things?
Personally, I do not recommend spending this money, allergen testing itself there are many controversies, reliability to be examined. In addition, most of the allergen test results have no practical significance, or even the opposite of the actual situation of the patient’s life. Allergen detection depends on the patient’s careful digging in life, for example, every time you eat shrimp, it is obvious that shrimp should be included in the list of allergens. This method should be used to find allergens, which is more accurate and reliable than doing the so-called allergen testing. Of course some people are not bad money is the exception.
Fourth, see a lot of doctors, eat a lot of drugs, including Western medicine, Chinese medicine, or old recurring, can not cure the root.
The actual fact is that many patients who have gotten hives have visited old Chinese doctors from all walks of life, seeking for remedies for the root of the problem all over the motherland, and ultimately, the people and money have been wasted. The ultimate is to be misled by the phrase “Western medicine treats the symptoms, Chinese medicine treats the root”. The occurrence of each disease has its own specific etiology and regular characteristics, the occurrence of urticaria can be simply understood as follows: the human body is exposed to allergens (ingestion, inhalation or skin contact), resulting in an allergic reaction. Case in point: a patient is allergic to shrimp every time he eats it, but not if he doesn’t eat it. It is obvious that shrimp is an allergen for this patient, so he can avoid shrimp in his diet after he is cured. The patient’s feedback from the old Chinese medicine doctor was due to “damp heat and dampness”, and the herbal medicine to remove dampness did not work, and the patient did not have an allergic reaction to some damp heat food, which means that the view that “damp heat and dampness” is the cause of hives is not correct. This means that the idea that “damp heat and damp toxicity” is the cause of urticaria is not correct, and this vague terminology can easily mislead patients and delay their illness. It should be stated here that this is not to deny the effectiveness of Chinese medicine, but to remind people to be realistic and objective about the disease, not to blindly promote it, to do specific analysis of specific problems, so as to choose the right treatment plan, less detours, and early recovery. The Chinese medicine conditioning in the treatment of acute and chronic urticaria is more of an auxiliary role, through conditioning to improve the individual physique, equivalent to the Western medicine to improve the immune system, the body’s resistance to disease naturally enhanced, conducive to the control of the disease, so it is recommended to use anti-allergic drugs as the main, Chinese medicine as a supplement to the treatment plan.
How should I treat hives in order to be cured?
For urticaria, finding out the causative factors is the key, both in terms of prevention and treatment. Acute urticaria can often be cured quickly after treatment because of the rapid onset and short duration of the disease, and the cause can often be found and the causative factors removed. In the case of chronic urticaria, the cause is unknown, so prevention and treatment cannot be targeted, and therefore the results are not ideal.
The treatment of urticaria mainly uses anti-allergic drugs orally, and in severe cases, injections, combined with Chinese medicine to regulate the body and the corresponding topical drug treatment, the general effect of the first use of acute urticaria patients is very obvious, the condition can be quickly controlled, a few days or a week or so can be cured. But often many patients are misled by the idea that “medicine is three parts toxic” and “Western medicine treats the symptoms, Chinese medicine treats the root”, and are afraid to take continuous medication, eating and stopping, stopping and eating. Most patients instinctively choose to “stop taking the medicine when it works and take it again” or refuse to use anti-allergy drugs, preferring to choose the “slow-acting but root cause” of traditional Chinese medicine conditioning, not knowing that the hives are in the right place, the disease is not only not cured, but dragging on longer and longer, gradually turning into chronic urticaria This is a typical smart mistake, losing your wife and losing your army, the money spent on the disease is not cured.
The actual fact is that you can find a lot of people who are not able to get a good deal on a lot of things. The actual fact is that you can choose one or several anti-allergy drugs in combination according to the severity of the disease to achieve the purpose of controlling the disease; continuous that is, in the process of medication to continuously adhere to the medication, even if the disease can be controlled to adhere to the medication. Generally, anti-allergy drugs are effective in half an hour and are valid for about 24h. During this period, hives can be suppressed because of the role of drugs, but do not be fooled by this illusion and start to flare up again after the effect of drugs, so be sure to adhere to continuous medication; decreasing that is, after a period of stable disease control, reduce the amount of medication without affecting the effectiveness of the premise, so bad until the disease is cured. Unfortunately, the majority of patients cannot find the allergen, which makes the treatment of urticaria much more difficult because there are thousands of species that can lead to human allergy, involving every area of life, and each person’s allergen is also different and related to autoimmunity, so the allergen can only rely on the patient’s own careful digging. The use of Chinese medicine requires evidence-based treatment, so do not blindly use the so-called “prescriptions”.