Urticaria is a skin condition that can afflict people for many months (to years) at a time. Itchy lumps appear out of nowhere & move from one area to another, causing havoc with work, sleep and social activities. It's not a condition aesthetic doctors deal with, but a topic dear to my heart as I have suffered on & off with this for decades! So when the opportunity arose this week for me to attend a lecture by a world expert from Germany, I jumped at the chance!
Turns out, there can be many causes of chronic urticaria, from infections (teeth, tonsils, gut), to environmental factors (hot, cold, exercise, etc), food intolerances and an inherent tendency towards the condition. And to complicate matters, an affected individual may have 2 causes, or require 2 sets of conditions to co-exist before developing urticaria!
I know I had food intolerance issues: the ALCAT test proved my excessive ingestion of tomatoes caused my incessant itching two years ago. The latest bout seems to have settled down, and I have yet to find a trigger other than "stress".
Which really brings me to treatment. Stopping the cause is ideal, but locating the cause may not be easy. The aim ultimately is for cure and/or stopping all symptoms. Without the cause, we are left with a series of pharmacological interventions. Starting with a non-sedating antihistamine at standard dose, then quadrupling it to maximum dose for another month. If this is insufficient, then other fancy drugs get added.
Anyway, the anti-histamines have been ordered. I'm desperately awaiting their arrival. Not so much for the skin now as for my allergic rhinitis. The joys of being atopic (tendency to allergic rhinitis, urticaria, eczema & asthma)...
How this is related to standard aesthetic practice? By controlling urticaria, we stop skin trauma from excessive scratching. And scratches can cause severe post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH). PIH is relatively easy to treat on the face (eg after acne), but seems much more stubborn on the body, particularly legs.
Turns out, there can be many causes of chronic urticaria, from infections (teeth, tonsils, gut), to environmental factors (hot, cold, exercise, etc), food intolerances and an inherent tendency towards the condition. And to complicate matters, an affected individual may have 2 causes, or require 2 sets of conditions to co-exist before developing urticaria!
I know I had food intolerance issues: the ALCAT test proved my excessive ingestion of tomatoes caused my incessant itching two years ago. The latest bout seems to have settled down, and I have yet to find a trigger other than "stress".
Which really brings me to treatment. Stopping the cause is ideal, but locating the cause may not be easy. The aim ultimately is for cure and/or stopping all symptoms. Without the cause, we are left with a series of pharmacological interventions. Starting with a non-sedating antihistamine at standard dose, then quadrupling it to maximum dose for another month. If this is insufficient, then other fancy drugs get added.
Anyway, the anti-histamines have been ordered. I'm desperately awaiting their arrival. Not so much for the skin now as for my allergic rhinitis. The joys of being atopic (tendency to allergic rhinitis, urticaria, eczema & asthma)...
How this is related to standard aesthetic practice? By controlling urticaria, we stop skin trauma from excessive scratching. And scratches can cause severe post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH). PIH is relatively easy to treat on the face (eg after acne), but seems much more stubborn on the body, particularly legs.
