Hives are usually caused by an allergic reaction although you can get them from an infection, physical irritations (such as heat, cold, light or friction), insect bites, chemical exposures or emotional reaction. (Yes, your hives can be a purely psychosomatic phenomena.)

Hives may also be referred to as urticaria, welts or wheals. They are characterized by a red, raised, itchy skin rash that tends to occur in round patches. Unlike an insect bite or sting, each hive can be as small as a few millimeters or as large as several inches. Hives usually occur in a batch, with several clustered on the face (those who have undergone a facelift, eyelid lift or forehead lift may be susceptible) or extremities such as arms, hands, legs or feet.

Hives are a result of the release of histamine in the body — this is their link to allergies. The release of histamine and other allergy-related chemicals cause both skin inflammation and fluid accumulation. This causes the distinctive round or oval shape to the patchy rash.

In many cases, hives are not treated because they don’t last long. If hives are stubborn, a physician may treat hives with antihistamines, corticosteroids …

I’m a mom who has been on a decade’s long journey to find healing for my family. I and both my children have food issues; our dietary restrictions could challenge a Mensa member.

Seems I’m not alone.

Colette Martin is also a mom who began the allergy journey in support of her son. He was diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis; his condition is triggered by wheat, milk, eggs, soy and peanuts – some of the most common food allergens. Having such a list of allergies in combination makes avoiding your allergens a real challenge. (Given my recent experience with the low oxalate diet in combination with the need to be gluten-free, I can totally relate.) Her site recounts her journey thus far, including products she likes and recipe substitutions that she uses.

With multiple allergies, the issue becomes complexity. Multiple allergies also ensure that the fast and easy convenience food that often helps make modern living a bit easier is off the table – literally.

Another site that I like for those of us with multiple allergies is Allergy Foodie. Anu Rao writes about her journey with her son, who was also diagnosed with multiple food allergies. Her …

Harvard researchers have shown that decreasing rates of vitamin D could have been a part of the increasing rates of asthma and allergies. Rates of allergy and asthma has directly increased in parallel with the decrease in vitamin D levels in the general population; the connection is so significant that it may actually be a cause behind these two chronic conditions.

This research was actually published in 2007. Why aren’t we hearing more about it?

Researchers actually looked at changes in the North American lifestyle in the past 50 years. We’ve gone from a culture where walking was common to a culture where even kids are shuttled everywhere by car. With the advent of air conditioning, less time is spent outdoors in the prime time periods where sun on our skin means vitamin D to our bodies.

Not only do we spend less time outdoors, we spend more time protecting our skin from the sun. Sunblock is now commonly recommended for everyone and for every outdoor exposure. This results in even greater deficiency because we aren’t making vitamin D when the sun shines.

It’s not just your vitamin D intake that makes a difference for you. If your mother was deficient …

I have never been so sick in my whole life. We got stranded in Europe because of the Icelandic volcano and I made a terrible decision. I figured we’d make do with the food that our airline provided for us because we’ve been gluten-free for a long time, and surely we’d done some healing, right?

After two days of cheese or meat sandwiches, I woke up covered in rash. Every inch of me ached. My gut felt like it had been turned into hamburger. I was so fatigued, I just wanted to lay on my airport-issued cot and berate myself for being so stupid.

We could have gotten gluten-free food – but we’d likely have had to put up a huge fuss. After all, in the event of a disaster, I don’t think there are too many organizations who would be ready to deal with allergies. Certainly, the airport and our airline did as much as they could – but catering to special food needs was not on the table.

Then there was my mistake. Just because allergies are not life-threatening does not mean that it’s “okay” to eat your allergen. There will be consequences. While I might have gotten away with …

I’m going on holidays, which has me doing a lot of thinking about cooking. You see, when you have an allergic family, it’s always much safer to cook your own food. But when you are traveling abroad, how can you know how to buy what is safe?

For most food allergies, your best bet is to shop the outside of the store. In other words, you stick to fresh, unprocessed fruits, veggies and meat. This saves you from having to know the words for “gluten-free” in Dutch (like I do). However, it also saves you from a well-meaning person who says that something is gluten-free, but who does not know the implications for your family if you have trace contamination.

That’s the thing with food allergies: if yours are mild, then you might be able to play a bit fast and loose. If yours are life-threatening, then that’s a whole other story.

So, buy simple, ordinary, unprocessed food. But also consider simple, ordinary local foods. For instance, if you’ve never had some of the local Mexican veggies, try Jicama. If you aren’t allergic to meat, butter or garlic, you’ve got to munch a few escargot when you’re in Paris. (Those are …