Welts or Hives
What Is Welts or Hives?
Hives (or urticaria) are red raised bumps or welts on the skin. They can appear anywhere on the body.
What do hives look like and how long do they last?
Hives can look like tiny little spots or large interconnected bumps. Individual hives can last anywhere from a few hours to a week (sometimes longer), and new ones might replace those that fade. It can be triggered by many substances or situations and usually starts as an itchy patch of skin that turns into swollen red welts.
Symptoms/Signs of Welts or Hives
Welt or hives symptoms include:
- A few millimeters to several inches across
- Intensely itchy
- Red or flesh-colored
- Roughly oval or shaped like a worm
What Triggers Welts or Hives?
- Some food (especially peanuts, eggs, nuts and shellfish)
- Medications, such as antibiotics (especially penicillin and sulfa), aspirin and ibuprofen
- Insect stings or bites
- Physical stimuli, such as pressure, cold, heat, exercise or sun exposure
- Latex
- Blood transfusions
- Bacterial infections, including urinary tract infections and strep throat
- Viral infections, including the common cold, infectious mononucleosis and hepatitis
- Pet dander
- Pollen
- Some plants, such as poison oak and poison ivy
Causes of Welts or Hives
The most common causes are:
- Foods
- Medications
- Infections
- Insect bites
- Internal disease may also be responsible.
- Nuts
- Chocolate
- Fish
- Tomatoes
- Eggs
- Fresh berries
- Milk
Hives are very common, and most often their cause is elusive.
Other Causes of Hives include:
- Anxiety or stress
- Contact with chemicals
- Exercise
- Exposure to the sun
- Exposure to cold, such as from diving into a cold pool
- Infections, including colds
- Putting pressure on the skin, such as from sitting too long or carrying a heavy backpack over a shoulder
- Scratching
Some Fact about Welts or Hives
- Hives are very common, and most often their cause is elusive.
- Hives can change size rapidly and move around, disappearing in one place and reappearing in other places, often in a matter of hours.
- Ordinary hives flare up suddenly.
- Occasionally hives are produced by direct physical stimulation by environmental forces like heat, cold, and sunlight.
How to diagnose Welts or Hives
Most of the time, a doctor can diagnose hives just by looking at the skin. If they want to find the cause, you may be asked some questions like
- Your medical history
- Recent exposure to allergic triggers
- Daily stressors
If your you have chronic and persisted hives, the doctor may ask you to keep a daily record of activities, such as what you eats, drinks, and where the hives tend to show up on the
- Diagnostic tests
- Blood tests
- Allergy tests
To check for physical hives, a doctor may put ice on your skin to see how it reacts to cold can also place a heavy object on the thighs to see if the pressure will cause hives to appear.
How to Prevent Welts or Hives
- Avoid eating nut if you are allergic to it.
- Avoid exposure to substances that give you allergic reactions.
- Do not wear tight-fitting clothing and do not take hot baths or showers just after having hives. These can cause hives to return.
Treatment for Welts or Hives
The best treatment is to identify and remove the trigger. But that’s not always easy.
Your doctor may prescribe antihistamines to ease your symptoms or help prevent them. If you have chronic hives, you may need antihistamines or a combination of medications, such as steroids or a biologic drug.
For severe hives or Welts or Hives, you may need an injection of epinephrine or a steroid medication.
Welts or Hives Home Remedies/Home Cure
- Applying a cold compress to the affected areas of skin can offer some relief from pain and itching. Cooling the skin can decrease the swelling and reduce the histamine content in the bloodstream. Avoid hot baths and showers during an attack of hives as this dilates blood vessels and increases the skin flare up. Stay away from direct sunlight as well as this can aggravate a hives attack.
- An easy natural cure for hives is to soak a ball of cotton wool in milk of magnesia and apply the lotion all over the rash. Milk of magnesia has alkaline properties that help in soothing the skin and reducing the pain as well. In place of milk of magnesia, you can apply vitamin E oil for the same results. Repeat this process at least twice to three times a day.
- Soak in a bath of lukewarm water with cornstarch and baking powder mixed in it. This combination offers the best hives relief and calms down irritated skin.
- The stress and anxiety bought on by an attack of hives can be countered with herbal teas such as peppermint or chamomile tea. These teas also have sedative properties and can help soothe the pain and itching symptoms of hives. Other stress busting activities like yoga and meditation can also help.
- Other natural remedies for hives include applying aloe vera gel on the affected skin or making a paste with oatmeal and cornstarch and coating the rash with it. Keep this paste on for thirty minutes before washing it off with water. Lotions containing aloe vera as an ingredient are also effective.
- Strangely, swimming in chlorinated water is said to be beneficial in the treatment of hives. As hives are not contagious, swimming in a public pool would not be an issue either.
- Mix a few drops of grapefruit seed extract with a cup of water and apply this infusion to the rash. This reduces itching and helps speed up recovery.
Complications may include not being able to identify and/or eliminate the causative agent, ineffective symptom relief from treatment, and the severity of the reaction. If the hives are associated with Welts or Hives, an anaphylactic reaction is possible. Anaphylaxis is a medical emergency.
