I/experienced/the/same/in/my/teens/20′s/30′s-about/4X/in/my/life.Was/due/to/bouts/of/adrenal/exhaustion.
Treatment/was/a/graduated/dose/of/cortisonepills/identical/to/
graduated/dose/given/for/poison/oak/ivy.Permanent/dietary/
correction/included/making/sure/diet/includes/adrenal/support/
nutrients;foods/and/proper/rest.Have/not/had/problem/since.I/
am/now/51.Please/pass/this/info/on/to/Jaylyn/Rogers.My/mother/
was/an/RN/and/we/figured/this/out/together.She/passed/in/’05/
but/her/medical/wisdom/lives/on. Thank you. Janet Leemhuis

I have suffered from this condition of cold uticaria like Jaylynn Rodgers. I suddenly broke out in hives to temp. changes especially cold while pregnant with my third child. I was told this would go away within at least 5 years. It has now been over 13 years. I am now 38 years old. I can control it with a daily antihistamine.If I miss a day or two of medicine I itch terrible and devlope hives. Mostly my hands feet and legs. I also have had problems swimming and during exersize. I would be interested to know more about this condition and other treatments available. Also I wonder about why it began and what other medical issues can be underlying.

I have been allergic to cold my whole life. It had always sort of scared me that no one really knew what it was when I was growing up. Later I just got used to the idea that if I got cold, especially a moist cold, I had to get warmed up fast. I hated the intense itchy feeling and how when you are trying to warm up how it feels warm and even gets more irritating and sometimes painful. I also hated how huge I would swell up and how embarrasing it was at public places. My mother was told by a doctor when I was a child that I was allergic to cold, but nothing could be taken to help it and I’d probably grow out of it when I got older, but I didn’t. It wasn’t until I was twenty-eight that my doctor happened to see my hives and sent me to a specialist. The specialist asked me questions about when I go swimming if I see lights and get a loss of breath. I answered by saying, “Doesn’t everybody when they get tired swimming. Isn’t that normal?”. I didn’t know any differece, because I was always like this. I was happy to hear that you could take Reactine or Claratine for it. I feel it does help a bit in the delay before I get my hives, but I still do get them. I was also perscribed an epi pen. The problem with the epi pen is that I don’t think I will ever know when I should take it, because I don’t want to waste them for a allergic reaction that isn’t death threatening. If I injected myself with it every time I got short of breath from a more severe reaction I could go through at least fifty a year. I have never used one, because I always feel I’ll get through it fine, since I have before. I don’t know if this is the right way of looking at it, but it is saving me $100.00 a shot, when I might not of needed it. I would love more information on this since I have never been given a lot of info on this before. I am so happy to see that more people are understanding more about my condition.

@ Janet, Tanya and Trena – These are great stories that you’ve shared. It’s a very challenging type of allergy – which is why I don’t think there is more information on it. Given the interest this story has generated though, I’ll do some additional research and post a blog on the topic soon. Stay tuned!

My first breakout was during the first hours of my life. There is a family history of this disease that I know goes back to my grandfather. My mother, aunt, cousins and one son also had it. However, I don’t itch and neither did they. It can become very painful and I break out in a rash from my head to my feet. The ice cube test only produced pain for some two hours, after that then the whelp came up. I also have trouble exercising, doing house work, or anything that will cause me to sweat. Going into a grocery store that has open cold cases for food brings on breathing problems as does cold weather. The only help I have found is in a daily (5mg) dose of prednisone and sometimes that has to be increased during the fall of the year to get things back into control. I have also tried different benadryl type meds with no result. I don’t know if this is what your discussion is about, bur it is nice to know there is some research going on in a related field.

I’m surprised (but then again not really) that more men haven’t spoken out about this condition. My allergy to the cold started suddenly in 2002 during an especially cold Halloween night. I was 31 at the time. It must have been about 30 degrees and I was not wearing gloves. My hands started to itch and then the ends my fingers swelled up. I also noticed that other parts of my body, eventhough they were covered, developed hives. And that’s the way it has been for the past 8 years. Although, this condition has not ruined my life by any stretch of the imagination, it sure is annoying. Interestingly, there is a cold allergy study going on as we speak at the University of Utah. It’s good to know that there are other poeple who know what this feels like. Thanks for posting.