Symptoms

Raised bumps that are light in color
Tightness in your throat
Difficulty Breathing
Wheezing
Swelling in the mouth, including the tongue or lips
Stomach Cramps
Vomiting
Diarrhoea

What To Expect

Within a few minutes to hours, nettle rash results in the formation of mostly red (rarely white), very itchy, slightly raised wheals. Initially, these elevations resemble mosquito bites and are often mistaken for them. The wheals can be a few millimeters in size or the size of the palm of the hand and can occur either locally or all over the body. Often, the wheals in hives are surrounded by a reddish border. Another typical sign of hives is marked itching, which is usually met with rubbing movements rather than scratching. Sometimes the symptoms of urticaria are so severe that the mucous membranes in the mouth and throat also swell up (danger of suffocation!) and this can lead to palpitations, dizziness, shortness of breath, fever, vomiting and circulatory disturbances up to collapse (so-called anaphylactic shock). In such cases, immediate medical attention is needed. Normally, nettle rash heals within a few hours, occasionally also within days or very rarely weeks, without consequences.

Made Worse By

Diet plays a central role in nettle rash: foods containing histamine or food additives often trigger the itchy skin rash. Many sufferers can avoid urticaria flare-ups by changing their diet. According to studies, in many cases a diet of six to 18 months helps to be completely free of urticaria. Intolerance to histamine-rich foods is quite often responsible for an acute course of urticaria. The histamine responsible for the development of urticaria is found in common foods. Affected individuals should consume fresh and unprocessed foods as much as possible. On the other hand, they should avoid products such as ripe cheese, smoked sausage, inadequately cooled fresh fish, nuts, legumes, certain fruits and alcoholic beverages.

How Common

Urticaria is one of the most common skin diseases, affecting about one in five people at least once in their lives.

Diagnosed By

If the triggering causes of urticaria are known in the affected person, these should be avoided or eliminated as much as possible. First of all, a thorough medical anamnesis is required, which takes into account all possible causes and triggering factors of urticaria. The second step is a physical examination of the patient. Further diagnostic measures depend on the type of urticaria. If necessary, significant other diseases should be excluded by laboratory tests and further investigations should be performed.