Hey all, just thought I'd share my recent success story - in case anyone else may be suffering from urticaria/dermotographia combo. Keep in mind that before this testimony I was doing everything Peaty - low-ish fat diet, frequent liver and broth intake, lots of carbs/sugar/fruit, no nutrient deficiencies (I monitored it pretty closely).
I'll start with the tl;dr - Cured costochondritis and chronic urticaria/pruritis with the following treatments:
- 3 month trial of cyproheptadine
- 1 week trial of amytriptiline
- Short trial of curcumin, followed by more sporadic intake later on.
- Increased long-chain fat intake
- Supplemented with zinc, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, and B-Complex
In January 2016 I was admitted to the hospital because of chest pain, nothing was found and I was discharged. The chest pain continued, and in addition to that I began getting chronic urticaria, pruritis (itching), with some features of dermotographia. The rashes and hives would get burning hot to the touch, and would often start out of nowhere. They would spring up when I was cold, when I was in the sun, in the evenings, after I drank coffee, and often after I ate. In spring of 2016 I went on a PPI to treat the chest pain, suspecting that it may be acid reflux - it wasn't, and I quit the PPI a month later. But the PPI made my rashes and itching much worse.
After I went off the PPI they found small polyp-looking things in my gallbladder incidentally during an ultrasound of my abdomen. When I started reading about the gallbladder, I was unsurprised to find research showing that even a short stint of using a PPI in a healthy person without GERD could result in the gallbladder effectively shutting down, sometimes permanently. I began supplementing with curcumin, since it forces the gallbladder to contract, and after a week of taking it, one day while out for dinner with friends I felt a huge object pass right where my gallbladder was. I was talking at the time, and it stopped me mid-sentence and took the wind out of me. Once the object passed I felt an incredibly satisfying release in that area. I still take small doses of curcumin a couple of times per week just to make sure everything in my gallbladder is working well. I also noticed the rashes went down a bit in severity around that time.
In fall of 2016 I was diagnosed with costochondritis, but no diagnosis for the itching/rash/hives. My heart was fine, so that was a relief.
Afterwards, I tried out cyproheptadine, taking 1mg 3x per day. It worked very well at controlling both the skin/itching problems as well as the chest pain. It alleviated my anxiety over these issues as well. I gradually noticed a significant increase in body temperature while I was taking it. Overall I was on the mend.
Unfortunately, my pharmacy changed it's supplier of cyproheptadine and the new formulation caused significant dizziness and I was forced to stop the medication. The urticaria came back in early 2017 when I ran out of my old formulation.
In early 2017 I convinced my doctor to prescribe me low-dose amytriptaline for the chest pain. After one week on it the chest pain was gone. I quit taking it quickly because the anti-cholinergic effects are way too freaking strong. The pain only ever comes back when I do lots of chest exercises (I can never do push-ups or dips, but bench press and other things seem okay in moderation), and I find certain stretches really seem to help minimize it.
In the early spring of 2017, I found a case study where they used high dose zinc to control pruritis in a subset of dialysis patients. I added in zinc, and the frequency/severity of the rashes decreased.
Then I found research that certain dietary amines can contribute to pruritis/hives in certain individuals. Tons of food are high in dietary amines, so instead of cutting them out I looked into how I could enhance my bodies ability to deal with these amines. I found a paper showing that long chain fat intake (higher than 16 carbons) could enhance the secretion of diamine oxidase (breaks down dietary amines), as well as pepsin and HCl in the stomach (breaks down allergenic proteins). My fat intake had been chronically low for the last few years due to "Peating" (often around or below 50g/day, 5-6 days a week), so I increased it significantly mostly by consuming full-fat milk and eggs every day. This dramatically alleviated the urticaria after about a week.
But there were still some rashes developing, particularly when I'd get stressed. So I began supplementing with Vitamin A (retinol palmytate from Heatlh Natura), Vitamin D, and a B-complex. I found that, on top of consuming it orally, I could put the Vitamin A directly on rashes and it would help stop the itching and clear the rash much quicker than normal - the rash would rarely come back in the same area as well.
As of now, I've been free from any rashes/hives/dermotographia/pruritis for about a month straight.
Anyway, that's my story. Don't make the same mistake I did of assuming dietary fat was mostly useless. It really isn't. Even though it may not be ideal or essential in terms of promoting cellular metabolism, it's serves a more macro-level purpose as a stimulant of the digestive system (gallbladder, stomach, etc.). Sorry for the extra long read, I just wanted to be as thorough as possible.
I'll start with the tl;dr - Cured costochondritis and chronic urticaria/pruritis with the following treatments:
- 3 month trial of cyproheptadine
- 1 week trial of amytriptiline
- Short trial of curcumin, followed by more sporadic intake later on.
- Increased long-chain fat intake
- Supplemented with zinc, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, and B-Complex
In January 2016 I was admitted to the hospital because of chest pain, nothing was found and I was discharged. The chest pain continued, and in addition to that I began getting chronic urticaria, pruritis (itching), with some features of dermotographia. The rashes and hives would get burning hot to the touch, and would often start out of nowhere. They would spring up when I was cold, when I was in the sun, in the evenings, after I drank coffee, and often after I ate. In spring of 2016 I went on a PPI to treat the chest pain, suspecting that it may be acid reflux - it wasn't, and I quit the PPI a month later. But the PPI made my rashes and itching much worse.
After I went off the PPI they found small polyp-looking things in my gallbladder incidentally during an ultrasound of my abdomen. When I started reading about the gallbladder, I was unsurprised to find research showing that even a short stint of using a PPI in a healthy person without GERD could result in the gallbladder effectively shutting down, sometimes permanently. I began supplementing with curcumin, since it forces the gallbladder to contract, and after a week of taking it, one day while out for dinner with friends I felt a huge object pass right where my gallbladder was. I was talking at the time, and it stopped me mid-sentence and took the wind out of me. Once the object passed I felt an incredibly satisfying release in that area. I still take small doses of curcumin a couple of times per week just to make sure everything in my gallbladder is working well. I also noticed the rashes went down a bit in severity around that time.
In fall of 2016 I was diagnosed with costochondritis, but no diagnosis for the itching/rash/hives. My heart was fine, so that was a relief.
Afterwards, I tried out cyproheptadine, taking 1mg 3x per day. It worked very well at controlling both the skin/itching problems as well as the chest pain. It alleviated my anxiety over these issues as well. I gradually noticed a significant increase in body temperature while I was taking it. Overall I was on the mend.
Unfortunately, my pharmacy changed it's supplier of cyproheptadine and the new formulation caused significant dizziness and I was forced to stop the medication. The urticaria came back in early 2017 when I ran out of my old formulation.
In early 2017 I convinced my doctor to prescribe me low-dose amytriptaline for the chest pain. After one week on it the chest pain was gone. I quit taking it quickly because the anti-cholinergic effects are way too freaking strong. The pain only ever comes back when I do lots of chest exercises (I can never do push-ups or dips, but bench press and other things seem okay in moderation), and I find certain stretches really seem to help minimize it.
In the early spring of 2017, I found a case study where they used high dose zinc to control pruritis in a subset of dialysis patients. I added in zinc, and the frequency/severity of the rashes decreased.
Then I found research that certain dietary amines can contribute to pruritis/hives in certain individuals. Tons of food are high in dietary amines, so instead of cutting them out I looked into how I could enhance my bodies ability to deal with these amines. I found a paper showing that long chain fat intake (higher than 16 carbons) could enhance the secretion of diamine oxidase (breaks down dietary amines), as well as pepsin and HCl in the stomach (breaks down allergenic proteins). My fat intake had been chronically low for the last few years due to "Peating" (often around or below 50g/day, 5-6 days a week), so I increased it significantly mostly by consuming full-fat milk and eggs every day. This dramatically alleviated the urticaria after about a week.
But there were still some rashes developing, particularly when I'd get stressed. So I began supplementing with Vitamin A (retinol palmytate from Heatlh Natura), Vitamin D, and a B-complex. I found that, on top of consuming it orally, I could put the Vitamin A directly on rashes and it would help stop the itching and clear the rash much quicker than normal - the rash would rarely come back in the same area as well.
As of now, I've been free from any rashes/hives/dermotographia/pruritis for about a month straight.
Anyway, that's my story. Don't make the same mistake I did of assuming dietary fat was mostly useless. It really isn't. Even though it may not be ideal or essential in terms of promoting cellular metabolism, it's serves a more macro-level purpose as a stimulant of the digestive system (gallbladder, stomach, etc.). Sorry for the extra long read, I just wanted to be as thorough as possible.
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