Are you fed up of taking allergy pills which cause drowsiness all through the day for your itching
Has your doctor prescribed you steroids for urticaria and still it doesn’t prevent the relapse
Have you noticed that after eating certain foods, you get those itchy wheels on the skin
Have you spent thousands of rupees on allergy tests still struggle to find what causes hives on your skin
If your answer to above mentioned questions is yes, then you are suffering from skin allergy.
A 35-year lady with chronic urticaria approached me for the treatment. The day she visited me she had severe urticarial rashes all over her body and her lips were swollen. Before straight away putting her on treatment, I tried to extract from her what diet must have caused this. I put multiple questions what did she eat in the last 24 hours: if there was sour, salty food.
She said she had simple home-made food, Dal, rice, gobhi sabzi. I questioned what masalas were put in the cauliflower vegetable other than salt and turmeric. She told me the spices added and guess what one of which was Aamchur (dry mango powder) i.e sour in taste and I asked her to recall if the eruptions over skin started after she ate this vegetable to which affirmed Yes. Sour foods can immediately trigger urticaria in a patient.
Other foods to be recognized and identified if you are having urticaria are salty, spicy foods. Different kind of sauces, tomato ketchup, tamarind chutney is again potent enough to cause an allergic reaction on the skin. One of my urticaria patients developed severe rashes on the body within 15 minutes of having Raj Kachori at a famous outlet. Why would have this caused may be because it had curd, tamarind chutney, green chutney all making the dish a salty and sour in taste.
Sweet, heavy, oily food- Not only sour, salty foods are to be blamed for urticaria but even sweet food is known to trigger it. One of my patients was a 7-year small boy. He went to his friend’s birthday party in the neighbourhood and just 15 minutes after consuming the cake, he started scratching his body and in 40 minutes they were at the clinic with the skin swollen up badly. So, sometimes cakes, pastries, biscuits can also trigger urticaria.
A 50-year lady came to my clinic for the treatment of urticaria which she was suffering from past 10 years. From 10 years she was taking an anti-allergy pill daily. She came to me with a hope that she gets rid of anti-allergy pills which just suppress the symptoms in the body.
On asking her, what must have caused urticaria 10 years back, she told me an incident which she was not sure if that could cause skin allergy. She bathed in river Ganga and the water was very cold. She came out of the water and within minutes rashes developed over skin and that hasn’t subsided ever since. I explained her yes this is one of the causes mentioned in Ayurveda. It is mentioned as Sheet Marut Sparsh.
Avoid exposure to dust- I had a patient who developed urticarial rashes just after she swept the house with a broom. So, exposure to dust can also give you hives if you are allergic to it.
Reduce consumption of sour, spicy, hot food which are the potential triggers of urticaria. Avoid incompatible foods like hot and cold things together. Incompatible foods in Ayurveda are mentioned to be the prime cause of skin diseases.
Avoid fermented foods like, Idli, Dosa, Dhokla. Avoid consumption of mustard for example in pickles usually mustard is there. Pickles are a very formidable trigger of skin flare ups. Some people are this allergic to mustard that if they consume, they can develop swelling in the throat and can go unconscious.
Reduce intake of dairy products, sugar derivatives, alcohol, added fragrances in soaps, moisturizers, and shampoos can be the cause of your hives. So, stay alert if the fragrances have been causing skin allergies to you.
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