What causes hives on the face is not always apparent to doctors. This is just one similarity between facial hives and those on other parts of the body. On those occasions when it is possible to determine what causes hives on the face, the triggers are likely to vary greatly from situation to situation. They may include physical stimuli such as excessive cold or heat, exposure to too much sun and exposure to water.

Allergies to foods like fish, shellfish, berries, eggs, milk and peanuts can also trigger facial hives. Various drug allergies, seasonal allergies, allergies to certain fabrics, insect stings and bites and cosmetic products are notorious too. In some people, illnesses like lupus, cellulitis, sinusitis, some forms of cancer and morbid obesity are associated with facial hives. In other people, trauma to the face, for instance surgery or injury, is the trigger. The hormonal changes characteristic to menopause and pregnancy have also been associated with facial hives.

Determining What Causes Hives on the Face

Because the face is the most readily visible part of the body, facial hives are likely to garner a lot of attention. Not only do the tell-tale swollen areas, wheals and reddish skin cause intense itching and the sensation of burning, they also cause self-consciousness on the part of the person suffering from them. He or she is likely to be anxious to determine what causes hives on the face. Consulting an allergy specialist would be a good way to try to do this. The specialist would run numerous tests and, by eliminating a number of possibilities, would hopefully arrive at the “culprit.”

Knowing what causes hives on the face is a good thing for the sufferer of hives because it empowers him or her to avoid the substance or minimize exposure to it. Eliminating the item from one’s routine tends to ease the symptoms. However, it is not always possible for an individual to avoid the factors that trigger hives. This is the case for those whose hives are triggered by physical stimuli like heat, cold or pressure. As they cannot control their physical environment at all times, they have to be able to adjust to different situations. Hence, many of them use antihistamines to treat their symptoms. Yet others use corticosteroids. It is not unheard of for them to have an epinephrine autoinjector handy just in case they get stung by a bee or accidentally ingest peanuts and react adversely.

Parents with young children are interested in understanding what causes hives in kids because this kind of knowledge puts them in a good position to address their children’s health issues as they arise. Viral infections happen to be among the frequent triggers of acute hives in children. Many of these viral infections are ultimately harmless and are resolved quickly, especially if the child has a healthy immune system. However, some of them are potentially serious infections when left untreated.

Some of the viral infections that have been associated with hives include rubella, infectious mononucleosis, herpes, hepatitis, the common cold and influenza. When the hives appear, they tend to be an indication that the immune system has begun to overcome the viral infection. They can often be read as a sign that the child is getting better.

Hives constitute a complex condition about which much remains unknown. Thus, even if it is widely accepted that viral infections can play a role in the development of hives, the mechanism by which this happens is not always clear. With this in mind, one might want to consider whether it is more appropriate to speak of the factors that trigger hives in kids than to speak of what causes hives in kids.

Further Consideration of What Causes Hives in Kids

Further consideration of what causes hives in kids reveals a host of other triggers. These factors include bacterial infections, various forms of medication and insect bites and stings. Food allergies are also notorious for triggering hives. In some cases, the allergens in question are a regular part of the diet, like peanuts or fish. This makes them particularly dangerous because it is not always possible to control the child’s environment and ensure that he or she will not accidentally ingest the allergen.

Unlike the localized hives that usually result when a child comes into direct physical contact with an allergen like pollen or the venom in an insect bite, the hives that are associated with viral infections tend to be spread out all over the body. When allergies are the triggering factor for a child’s hives, angioedema sometimes coincides with the child’s other symptoms. In its most extreme forms, this can result in the child’s suffocation. Treating the symptoms of hives and removing their trigger from the child’s environment is of paramount importance. This is one instance where knowing what causes hives in kids can help ensure the prompt and appropriate treatment of a child.

Sufferers of hives have an interest in understanding what causes hives on the body because doing so is the first step towards finding an appropriate form of treatment. Hives are triggered by a number of different factors. Additionally, they manifest on the body in a variety of different ways. In some cases, the hives are localized, affecting only the immediate area to which the triggering factor was exposed. In other cases, they are generalized, affecting even those parts of the body to which the factor was not directly exposed.

In many cases, the hives present as itchy skin with reddish welts that appear on certain parts of the body. These eventually disappear then reappear elsewhere on the body. The body parts on which they appear tend to be the limbs and trunk. When the hives are particularly severe, they can appear on the face, together with angioedema. Sometimes, because of the rapidity with which hives occur and then disappear, a patient may be symptomless by the time she consults a doctor. Taking pictures of the hives before they disappear would help the doctor make a diagnosis.

What Causes Hives On The Body: Considering Cold, Stress And Solar Triggers.

Rather than limiting oneself to an exploration of what causes hives on the body, it might do to also look at the presentation of specific types of hives. One might consider hives that are triggered by exposure to the cold, for instance. The common variety of these hives tends to appear on those parts of the body that have been exposed to the cold. Thus, somebody who left only his legs exposed to the cold would likely have hives on the legs alone. On the other hand, somebody who had the hereditary form of these hives would develop them all over his body after exposure to the cold.

Cholinergic urticaria tends to manifest as small hives on the arms and upper trunk. Sometimes they extend upwards to the neck and downwards to the thighs. What causes hives on the body in this instance is the person’s involvement in activities that raise the body temperature.

In the case of solar urticaria, what causes hives on the body is the exposure of the skin to certain wavelengths of light in the sun’s rays. Typically, it is the parts of the body that have been most highly exposed to the sun that present with hives. The hives do not last very long. Often, they are no longer visible 24 hours after one has stopped exposure to the wavelengths of light in question.

Urticaria or hives can develop as a result of various types of allergy. Hives’ causes include various medications, foods, preservatives and additives, the venom from insect bites and other allergens. These allergens trigger the body’s mast cells to release histamine and other chemicals. The chemicals cause the leakage of fluid from the capillaries into the upper layers of the skin. As a result, the skin breaks out in swellings known as hives.

Sometimes people go about their lives oblivious to the fact that they have an allergy. Hives causes them much discomfort and frustration when, one day, they are exposed to the allergen. This is often how they find out that they have a particular allergy. Typically, those who have allergies to foods like eggs and peanuts learn about them early in their lives because these foods or products made from them are part and parcel of the regular person’s diet. Those who have allergies to less frequently eaten food items might not find out about them until later in their lives.

Sometimes, When One Is Diagnosing an Allergy, Hives Causes Confusion.

In many cases, people will break out in hives each time they are exposed to an allergen. Unfortunately, because the allergen in question is a preservative or additive that is “hidden” in a variety of products they use, they may have a hard time determining what exactly it is they are reacting to. This may be the case for somebody who has an allergy to a chemical like the synthetic food dye, FD&C Red No. 40. The food dye is used in candy, baked goods, ketchup, breakfast cereals, soft drinks, yoghurt and other food products. A person who regularly eats these items may develop hives again and again without realizing that it is the same allergen each time. Only an allergist would be able to diagnose him or her as having an FD&C Red No. 40 allergy. Hives causes much confusion to patients and doctors alike until such diagnoses are made.

When one has an allergy to medication, it usually does not manifest when the medication is first used. It tends to take a bit of time before the body is fully primed to react strongly to the allergen. Thus, it might take one or two weeks before the medication starts to trigger the symptoms associated with an allergy. Hives causes confusion in such cases because one cannot tie the development of the symptoms to the day he or she began using the medication.

For the treatment of hives, herbs can often be effective. They can be applied topically to the skin affected with urticaria. Herbs can also be ingested to treat the condition from within.

Treating Hives: Herbs That Work

A wide variety of herbs have helped to provide patients with relief from the discomfort, itching and stinging associated with hives. One of them is aloe vera, a succulent plant that is known for its wide applications in medicinal and cosmetic use. Aloe vera can be applied to the skin as a topical remedy. Its immediate effect is to reduce itching and irritation and to bring down inflammation. It can also be taken as a beverage for the treatment of hives. Herbs such as aloe vera are especially versatile as, in addition to acting on already existing hives, they help to prevent future episodes of hives. This they achieve by enhancing bodily immunity to allergens.

Curcumin is the bright yellow active ingredient in turmeric powder, which comes from the preparation of parts of the turmeric plant. When it is ingested, curcumin helps to reduce the body’s histamine levels. In this way, it helps to resolve the characteristic wheals of urticaria. Herbs like turmeric are easy to use as they work well whether they are ingested or made into a paste and applied to the skin topically.

Bromelain is an active ingredient that is found in the stem and juice of the pineapple plant. It consists of proteolytic enzymes, which essentially digest proteins. Bromelain is especially popular for its anti-inflammatory properties. When used, it minimizes the inflammation and irritation associated with hives. It can be applied topically to the wheals, or it can be taken by mouth. However, for maximum effect, it is advisable to use it topically.

The leaves and bark of the red alder tree also make an effective remedy for hives. One should make them into a tea and subsequently use the tea topically and take it orally as well. The hives will clear quickly.

As for the leaves of the black nightshade, they are used differently. One must not ingest the preparation made from them, nor should it be allowed to get into contact with the eyes. The leaves should, instead, be made into a poultice, which can then be applied to the hives. The poultice provides relief from the inflammation and irritation of urticaria.

In the Treatment of Urticaria, Herbs Should Be Used With Caution

Care must be taken when using herbs to treat hives. Herbs can be as potent as pharmaceutical drugs. Some of them should not be used by patients who have conditions like high blood pressure. Yet others may have negative side effects if used for too long or may prove poisonous if used the wrong way. Thus, in the treatment of urticaria, herbs should be used under the supervision of a qualified professional.

Over years, the field of medicine has been able to determine what some of the common causes of hives or urticaria are. It is important to note that many of these factors do not ordinarily provoke hives in most people. Hence, it is implied that the people who develop hives when exposed to them are often already hypersensitized.

This article does not look into what causes the hypersensitization in the first place but, rather, at the factors that trigger the hypersensitized person to develop hives. The factors in question vary significantly, but they ultimately provoke similar processes within the body: they trigger the release of the chemical histamine in the skin by special cells called mast cells. This, in turn, causes plasma to leak from the tiny blood vessels nearby, resulting in the development of the characteristic swelling in the skin.

Common Causes of Hives and the Associated Varieties of Urticaria

Each of the common causes of hives is typically associated with a particular variety of hives or urticaria. Acute urticaria, named thus because it lasts less than 6 weeks, typically develops as a response to various substances, including foods, medicines and the toxins from insect bites. Some infections, for instance underlying viral infections, also trigger acute urticaria.

Fresh foods like milk, nuts, shellfish, eggs, berries and tomatoes are common causes of hives in those who are allergic to them. Cooked foods do the same to a lesser extent. Processed food products, including chocolate, preservatives and additives can also trigger hives. As for medications, these can also trigger hives when they are relatively new additions to the patient’s regimen. They are typically medications that provoke the mast cells to release histamine. Examples include ACE inhibitors (for high blood pressure), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (like ibuprofen, aspirin and naproxen) and opiates (like codeine and morphine).

Chronic urticaria, which lasts longer than 6 weeks, is mostly “idiopathic”. This is to say medical practitioners are unable to determine what caused it even after they have considered all the common causes of hives to which the patient has been exposed. Sometimes they eventually determine the cause. When that happens, the urticaria can no longer be considered idiopathic. In a minority of cases, chronic urticaria has readily determinable causes. These include cases of physical urticaria, which is triggered by physical stimuli like pressure, water, cold, sweat, heat, sunlight and exercise. Dermatographism is the form of physical urticaria that results wherever one exerts pressure on the skin.

At least one study has demonstrated the existence of a link between hives and thyroid disease. Some examples of thyroid diseases are Grave’s disease and Hashimoto’s disease (which is a form of hypothyroidism). These conditions are autoimmune diseases. Hence, as they progress, they influence the body to produce antibodies that attack the body’s own organs.

The study mentioned above was focused on 99 patients who had chronic hives. The control group in this study consisted of healthy individuals who were hives-free. The aim of the study was to determine the frequency with which the patients who had hives tested positive for thyroid autoantibodies (that is antibodies that the body produced against itself) when compared to the control group of hives-free people.

The results were unambiguous. They showed that the association between chronic hives and thyroid disease was statistically significant. In other words, the study supported the idea that some cases of hives were triggered by thyroid disease. For the study, testing for autoantibodies was a more reliable indicator of thyroid disease than thyroid function tests would have been.

Thyroid Disease, Hives and the Connection between Them

Thyroid disease is a term that refers to a range of disorders that affect the thyroid gland. The thyroid gland is one of the largest endocrine glands; it plays a key role in many metabolic processes by virtue of the thyroid hormones that it produces and secretes. These hormones, triiodothyronine and thyroxine, influence the speed with which the body uses up energy and manufactures proteins, and also impact the body’s ability to respond to other hormones. Thus, it should not be surprising that disorders of the thyroid gland have the capacity to affect many different organ systems and organs, including the skin.

In addition to the study mentioned at the beginning of this article, a number of studies have been done on the association between chronic hives and thyroid disease. The results of these studies confirm the existence of a significant association between hives and thyroid disease. Furthermore, they suggest a stronger association between Hashimoto’s disease and hives than between Grave’s disease and hives.

The patients in these studies who tested positive for autoantibodies also had severe chronic hives, but they often had no other symptoms that could be associated with thyroid disease. When these patients’ were treated for thyroid disease, their hives improved; when the thyroid disease treatment was interrupted, their hives resumed. This simple intervention made it clear that their thyroid disease and hives symptoms were directly related.

Getting treatment for one’s hives illness can be easier said than done. This is because, while hives are sometimes triggered by identifiable factors, other times they are idiopathic in nature. This is to say that the factors that trigger these latter cases of hives are indeterminable. For this reason, patients who experience them can continue to expose themselves to the “anonymous” triggers and, thus, keep developing bouts of hives.

Sometimes a bacterial infection can trigger the development of hives. Illness of this form can be alarming because it combines the symptoms of the bacterial infection with the ugly wheals characteristic of hives. If the patient has no prior experience of hives, then the combination of the symptoms can be frightening. For such a patient, it would be a relief to learn that the hives constituted a temporary condition that would clear up as soon as the bacterial infection was dealt with. Antibiotic treatment would leave this patient feeling as good as new.

Why Hives Illness Is Likely To Recur In Some People

Patients whose hives were regularly triggered by allergens in the food they ate or by pet dander or insect bites could learn to stave off the development of hives illness by taking antihistamines whenever they presented with urticaria. Of course it would be far better for them to avoid developing the hives in the first place, and this they could do by steering clear of those allergens. However, it is not always possible to account for the ingredients that go into the food one eats: sometimes, the ingredient information given for pre-packaged foods is not completely accurate.

As for insect bites, one cannot always prevent them from happening; after all, insects have minds of their own. Pet dander can only be avoided by those who don’t leave their own homes. Given the ubiquity of many allergens, some sufferers of hives will be exposed to their hives triggers on a regular basis. Thus, any hopes for an absolute end to their hives illness will not come to fruition.

Treating hives can be difficult for additional reasons. One of these is the ineffectiveness of some of the medications typically used to treat hives. Corticosteroids, for instance, appear to work well when first taken. But one week after the treatment is stopped, the hives often resurface. It is not possible to resume the corticosteroid treatment every time this happens as these medications have negative side effects when used for a long time.

In a significant number of cases, medical professionals have shown the development of hives and viruses to be linked. Acute hives are thought to frequently be indicative of viral infection, predominantly in children, and to a certain extent in adults. In children, the infections in question are typically benign viral infections of the digestive system and of the upper respiratory system.

It is no accident that, in certain seasons, the incidence of both hives and viruses in the population rises: this is the case with viral infections like influenza, rhinoviruses and adenoviruses. Not surprisingly, the incidence of hives falls with the successful treatment of such viral infections. Flu vaccinations, which essentially contain weakened forms of the flu virus, have been known to trigger hives. Viruses are, thus, clearly an important part of the hives story.

Some of the other viruses that cause hives include Hepatitis A and B, various enteroviruses, parvovirus B19 and norovirus. Making sense of the immunological mechanisms that viral infections set into motion would greatly advance our present understanding of urticaria and its manifestations.

Cold urticaria is one form of acute urticaria. Most instances of cold urticaria are characterized as idiopathic but a connection has been established between 5% of the instances of this form of hives and viruses. The viral infections that have been associated with cold urticaria include measles, hepatitis, HIV, mononucleosis and varicella. As for chronic urticaria, its incidence has been tied to gastrointestinal infections as well as dental and ENT (ear, nose and throat) infections.

The Combined Impact of Hives and Viruses

Some of the viral infections that trigger hives are benign. Thus the body’s immune system is able to overcome them. The hives are a manifestation of the immune system’s efforts to combat the infection. In such cases, the most prominent symptom of the infection might be a mild fever, which passes quickly enough. The infection can be so mild that the individual experiencing it does not bother consulting a medical professional for it. However, he or she might seek medical assistance for the hives. Once the hives are over, the individual can go back to life as usual.

Some of the viruses that trigger hives are life-threatening, though. These demand sustained medical attention, especially since they can wreak havoc on the immune system. One such viral infection is HIV. In the cases characterized by this kind of infection, the hives and viruses together can exact a heavy toll on the individual’s body.

Hives information is relatively easy to get hold of on the internet. In addition, one can readily find other sources of urticaria information offline. Thus, there is no shortage of resources for sufferers of hives who want to learn more about their condition.

When searching for information on hives, it is important to determine the credibility of the different sources at one’s disposal. The most credible sources tend to be those authored or at least reviewed by medical professionals. Thus, medical textbooks are ideal, as are peer-reviewed medical journals. On the internet, sites authored or reviewed by medical professionals are also of good quality.

A good number of hives resources approach urticaria from the standpoint of alternative medicine. It would be problematic to dismiss these simply because they were based on a different medical philosophy from conventional Western medicine. One would be better off trying to determine their credibility by seeing how they were rated by hives patients and by practitioners of alternative medicine. Information about hives is not the preserve of Western science. Keeping an open mind and considering what other medical traditions had to offer would likely expose one to a wealth of hives information.

Understanding Hives: Information Is Power

There is no guarantee that all urticaria information encountered in credible sources online and offline will lead to a cure. This is because hives is a complex condition whose progression can vary considerably from person to person.

The triggers of hives can be drastically different in two people. Hives’ triggers can include food items like milk, shellfish, berries, and chocolate, as well as food additives and preservatives. They can also include medications like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, opiates and ACE inhibitors and physical stimuli like water, sweat, heat, exercise, sunlight, pressure and cold.

The durations of hives episodes also vary considerably from person to person. For instance, hives can be a short-lived condition that is quickly resolved without the need for medical intervention. Alternatively, it can be a chronic condition that persists for years with little relief.

All of the above possibilities make it clear just how complex a condition hives is, even when one has access to volumes of medical information. Hives sufferers are advised to learn as much as they can about the condition as doing so empowers them to be more involved in their own treatment. They feel less intimidated in interactions with their doctors and are able to make medical decisions from informed positions.