Chronic Urticaria and Angioedema
Although Urticaria, more commonly known as hives is often though of as a simple allergy, the truth is the condition can and often does pose more of a problem for many sufferers. In it’s most common form urticaria symptoms, such as little bumps or urticarial wheals may come and go within a matter of just hours, this is the condition most people think of when urticaria, skin allergies or hives are mentioned.
This condition is unsurprisingly very common indeed, this common form of allergic reaction is called ‘Acute Urticaria’ (Hives). They say that at some time in everybody’s life they will experience an allergic outbreak associated with uticaria, I couldn’t comment on that as I’m sure it’s pure speculation, but I guess that gives a good indication of just how common the condition actually is.
Chronic Urticaria-Not a Simple Allergy
Chronic urticaria is a completely different story however, & throughout the following article I’ll cover the fundamentals of this variance of the condition, I’ll also talk about a closely linked condition called Angioedema, which is often found to manifest along with urticarial wheals..
Urticaria & Angioedema in their chronic guise are normally categorized as autoimmune disease’s much like Rheumatoid arthritis in addition to just becoming labelled as allergies, although the symptoms of the condition could in affect still be seen as an allergy or an allergic reaction.
Autoimmune Urticaria
Autoimmune disorder is is a term used to describe a condition in which the body’s own defence system or even immune cells attack the body’s own tissues, mussels even bones. Autoimmune disease is also systemic, what this means is the condition can travel via and effect any part of or in many cases the entire body, although autoimmune is more commonly linked to conditions such as arthritis & diabetes, research now indicates it may be responsible for many more conditions, & in this case chronic urticaria & angioedema.
Chronic Angioedema, Common In Chronic Urticaria Sufferers:
As mentioned previously the causes of Angioedema, & Urticaria, are normally labelled as being due to allergic reactions, hereditary, or idiopathic, Idiopathic meaning there isn’t any apparent reason for the urticaria condition or the angioedema attacks, remarkably this is very common especially amongst those of us who have suffered with the chronic version of the illness, and in many cases including my own, both Urticaria & Angioedema.
Recent studies have found that there are many more factors thought to be the underlying reason or cause of Angioedema, & Urticaria, this is especially important for chronic suffers when compared to what was previously believed, factors such as environmental toxins, from heavy metal obtained through drinking tap water, numerous parasitical infections & bacterial problems all seem to have a bearing on the conditions,although it is still not certain whether these factors are the cause of effect of autoimmune disease, it pretty obvious that Chronic Urticaria as well as chronic angioedema are the symptoms of some kind of toxic overload in the body.