It is easy to define what urticaria is and what prompts those raised and itchy splotches on the skin. But urticaria causes and treatment is not the same matter. Urticaria, or hives is, in short words, a hypersensitive reaction in the skin to a release of histamine. But what exactly are the urticaria causes and treatment.
Acute urticaria causes
Acute urticaria is simply an outbreak of hives that happens only once or twice, and in no case reoccurs over a period exceeding six weeks. Acute urticaria causes and treatment are the hardest to pin down. The outbreak often comes and goes before the patient ever gets to the doctor to look at it, therefore a cause cannot be anything other than a guess. And honestly, if you only have a short outbreak, the acute urticaria causes and treatment don’t even really matter, because treatment isn’t really needed for a condition that no longer exists and doesn’t come back.
Causes of chronic urticaria
What causes urticaria in chronic cases is much more difficult to answer than the chemical action that make the symptoms appear. There are both allergic and non-allergic causes. Some of the non-allergic chronic urticaria causes include:
- Autoimmune related
- Hormone triggers
- Anxiety triggers
- Exercise-related triggers
- Temperature extremes
- Solar exposure
Some urticaria is allergy related. Some of these may be:
- Alcohol, codeine, cocaine, and other illicit drugs
- Prescription and OTC drugs like NSAIDS, antihistamines, antibiotics, and vaccinations
- Food allergies like dairy, wheat, shellfish, food additives, and proteins
- Insect bites and/or infections
- Certain perfumes and deodorants, and body powders
Urticaria causes and treatments are easy in the above examples. The causes are usually something the patient has just used or come in contact with and the treatment is to avoid those agents.
Urticaria causes and treatment in the homeopathy field
It is best to not start using antihistamines or cortisones if you can avoid it. They become almost habit forming in the sense that once started, if you stop using them the hives come back almost inevitably.
The alternative treatments attempt to treat urticaria at the immunological level. The idea is that treating the hives at the immunological level will take care of the underlying causes of urticaria instead of just treating the symptoms. When you do this, the symptoms never appear and in effect you are dealing with the urticaria causes and treatment at the same time without becoming the slave to a prescription or OTC medicine. The problem, whatever the cause, is an immunological problem and that is the way you should try to treat it.
