Those blasted Hives!!

[Guest]

Hello shelley and all those reading this post, I have been suffering from hives for quite a while, I can't pin point exactly how long but 6-12 months and its taken me sooo long to finally figure that it is hives and not acne (thanks to your help shelley), i know this because theyre mostly left side dominant and a few months ago I started using a hydrocortisone cream and it worked great...for 3 weeks and then the state of my skin gradually declined and the cream dosent seem to work anymore! Anyhoo, Im trying to do an elimination diet to work out what causes the hives but I was wondering if you had any advice as to what would most likely be causing it..as in deficiencies or diet or both...At the moment Im recovering from a huge outbreak which was mostly right side dominant which is unusual for me, but generally the spots are quite small reddish dots, some of them are inflamed like little whiteheads which caused me to think they were pimples and that I had acne but they disappeared with the hydrocortisone cream so Id say they were hives also and they dont look like normal pimples, theyre smaller and less red. Its a rash-like outbreak that appears on my back; upper and lower, upper arms, neck (at times) collar bone, shoulders and chest. Quite annoying! Also...they dont dissapear quickly, they stick around and Im not sure if they appear quickly after eating food because they seem to be always there but Id be inclined to say that they take a while to appear but as Im not sure whats causing them exactly its hard to say. Also theyre not itchy or irritating in that sense and they look worse after I shower, I guess due to the hot water? ALso with the elimination diet im confused about what foods to eliminate, some sources say avoid all grains including rice and others say its ok to have rice?

[shelley]

Rice is usually okay. Best to have basmati brown rice, or basmati brown rice, or jasmine, in that order.

First step with chronic skin eruptions (besides cutting out obvious baddies like sodas, corn syrup, white potatoes, tomatoes, MSG, nitrates) is to do the stomach acid self-test. Increase stomach acids at every meal, and take digestive enzymes.

Second step is to drink a bottle of kefir. Drink 1/2 a cup a day until gone.

Third step is to address the deficiencies that cause chronic hives so that you can be sure that any from then on are food related. Hives are caused by: Low Vitamin C, low Vit A, low biotin, low Vit B6, low chromium, low magnesium, low calcium, low copper. The kefir may take care of the calcium, but Cal-Mag Fizz for a week couldn't hurt. Chromium is essential, we deplete our reserves when we eat sugar. For the A just eat the cleansing carrot salad several times a week. Emergen-C is a great source of C that comes with B vits.

THEN do the rotation diet and test your resting heart rate before and after eating, see if it increases, note any symptoms.

Hope that helps!

[Guest]

ok is just normal brown rice ok? thats what most of the elimination diets available on the net say. ive tried taking digestive enzymes with every meal, it helps but dosent clear them up. obviously im still eating foods that im sensitive to. i have no idea what kefir is and its not something ive seen in health food stores in australia, but ive taken live acidophilus supplements for a few weeks and cant say that i noticed any improvement in the hives because of this. the funny thing is it dosent affect my face at all, my face isnt 100% clear but theres only a few blemishes and it has cleared in the past when ive been on a good diet and that occured pretty quickly aswell.

[shelley]

no, "normal" brown rice usually means short-grain, which is very hard to digest and pass. It causes constipation,which causes acne.

Kefir is better than live acidophilus, live acidophilus is second best. Good to take it if you can't find kefir. Kefir has more strains than most pills do, and 1/2 a cup of kefir is worth an entire bottle of pills. Kefir is just fermented milk, it's like yogurt but very liquid and much better for you. It's easy to make yourself.