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Urticaria is a very dangerous symptom of skin allergy. Almost every fourth Pole suffers from it. It is an itchy rash on the body. It comes in various forms. It may seem harmless, but it leads to serious diseases and is a symptom of dangerous phenomena occurring in the body.
Hives is a skin allergy that is characterized by blisters, itching, redness. It is very similar to the reaction we have on the body after touching stinging nettle. The vascular symptom develops very quickly because the sensitizing agent enters the blood through the blood vessels.
We distinguish the following types of hives:
Acute urticaria
It mainly affects children and young people. It lasts about 6 weeks. This is the so-called recurrent urticaria. Chronic urticaria. Its duration exceeds 6 weeks. It is most common in women over 40 years of age. Often it is impossible to determine the cause of its formation.
Idiopathic urticaria
This is the so-called idiopathic urticaria. As many as 70% of cases it is impossible to define the cause of its occurrence. It’s an autoimmune urticaria.
Serum urticaria
It occurs with proteinuria and fever, and even with joint pain. Medication is often the cause.
Contact urticaria
Occurs at the contact of the skin. It is a reaction to an allergen. The disease also occurs due to non-allergic factors, e.g. heat or cold.
Aspirin hives
It causes it, as the name says, aspirin and substances that contain this ingredient. These are, for example, glutamate, dyes, raspberries, cherries, lime, willow.
Cholinergic urticaria
It occurs most often in young men. Their culprits are sweat, physical exertion, strong emotions. It is caused by a substance called acetylcholine.
Food urticaria
They are responsible for its occurrence of foods that sensitize us. It coexists with abdominal pain, feeling of breakdown, vomiting.
Hives are caused by:
- food additives,
- anxieties,
- insect stings,
- infections: mononucleosis, viral hepatitis, parasitic diseases of the digestive tract,
- rarely, but perhaps in the course of serum sickness
Treating urticaria can be difficult. It depends on its type, degree of intensity and time from which it occurs. It should always be treated under the strict supervision of a doctor who selects the appropriate doses of the drug for the person’s body.
Drugs used in the treatment of urticaria include: Antihistamines – the most popular are: cetirizine, levocetirizine, loratadine, desloratadine, fexofenadine. Oral glucocorticosteroids – however, due to the large number of side effects, they are rarely used. Antileukotriene (mainly montelukast) – it is used only when the above measures do not work. When it comes to the recurrence of urticaria, unfortunately, it is always possible. be aware of it. You should always inform your doctor in case of health problems, what factor makes us allergic and what drugs we used to treat this dangerous disease urticaria.