Hives from Lifting?

[musclemilk]

Have you ever heard of someone getting hives from lifting heavy? It's happened twice to a client of mine, and she received tiny hives from her ankles to her knees on both legs, and from her wrists to her elbows. No where else on her body, very symmetrical looking. Both times it has happened roughly 6 hours after her workout, and both workouts included the deadlift.

She survived breast cancer 12 years ago, and was diagnosed with Lyme Disease about 4 years ago. She apparently has bizarre reactions to drugs in general - for instance she's told me she's receive an allergic reaction after a week of taking an antibiotic, instead of the allergy presenting itself in the typical time-frame.

Could it be an issue with her body's production/metabolism of cortisol in response to the heavy (relative to her) lifting that she is doing? I remember Jordan F mentioning that cortisol is only released during a workout if the stress is great enough to produce an overload event.

Could it be a response to heat? I know symptoms of MS are triggered from heat. Or just general hormonal fuckery that heavy lifting exacerbates?

Just throwing out ideas and wondering if you've ever seen anything like this.

Thanks in advance.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Never seen it. I get urticaria under the bar when I squat, but a generalized hives reaction I haven't seen.

[musclemilk]

Thanks for the response. I found this --

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholinergic_urticaria

Could be it, although I don't know why her case is always isolated/localized to forearms and lower legs. Only started happening once we got heavier with her deadlifts as well..

[spacediver]

Many years ago, I suffered absolutely an absolutely awful allergic reaction to something (ridiculously severe itching all over and swelling). It happened twice, and the second time was worse than the first, and included fever, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Turns out on both occasions I had had a spinach salad combined with a beer. Allergy tests showed I had a severe allergy to spinach, and the doc said that the reason I never noticed this before (I love spinach and have eaten a lot of it in my life) was probably because the alcohol acted as a catalyst of sorts. He also said that I would have probably gotten the same reaction if I went for a run instead of drinking alcohol, as the increased body temperature would catalyze the reaction.

He said that a third attack might be fatal. I seem to have outgrown that allergy, thank goodness. No clue if this is any way related to what's going on with your client, but it does have some similarity.

[perman]

I got mild hives on my stomach once when I wore the belt way too tight. I have this routine of using the squat rack to get my belt really tight, and normally for me I can wear it pretty tight, but I have discovered multiple times that there are levels of tightness that are too much for me.

Should be mentioned I am susceptible to contact allergy, have gotten it both from sports tape and from normal belts on pants.

The hives may have nothing to do with this though, but I do feel like my skin is susceptible to shit when pressure is applied.

[Paul1]

This is very well described from running. It's basically a mechanical effect on mast cells, causing them to release histamine. Life threatening anaphylaxis-type effects almost never happen, and usually it improves within a workout and between workouts.

I've got a related condition myself called symptomatic dermatographism, which is a different kind of annoying mast cell disorder. I take claritin 2 or 3 times a week and it seems to keep it under control. Worth a try if you're getting this from exercise a lot. Zyrtec (cetirizine) may be a bit better than claritin for this if you had to choose; I wouldn't use allegra for this. There are other drugs like cromolyn that stabilize mast cells if you need it, not sure how effective it would be for this (it's somewhere low down in the top 10 list for allergy and asthma drugs).

[Christopher Button]

Never seen it. I get urticaria under the bar when I squat, but a generalized hives reaction I haven't seen.

If you don't mind me asking, have you ever heard of superficial nerve damage as a result of the bar on the back? I have a rather uncomfortable numb patch on the left side of my shoulder which every so often burns like sunburn. It's in the very spot where the bar sits, but only on my left side. Search turned up nothing, so I suspect I'm an anomaly. Doctor diagnosed it as neurapraxia. Was just curious whether you are familiar with such a thing?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Never heard of it, but the mechanism is probably obvious.

[Beau Bryant]

This is very well described from running. It's basically a mechanical effect on mast cells, causing them to release histamine. Life threatening anaphylaxis-type effects almost never happen, and usually it improves within a workout and between workouts.

I've got a related condition myself called symptomatic dermatographism, which is a different kind of annoying mast cell disorder. I take claritin 2 or 3 times a week and it seems to keep it under control. Worth a try if you're getting this from exercise a lot. Zyrtec (cetirizine) may be a bit better than claritin for this if you had to choose; I wouldn't use allegra for this. There are other drugs like cromolyn that stabilize mast cells if you need it, not sure how effective it would be for this (it's somewhere low down in the top 10 list for allergy and asthma drugs).

I had this for about 2 years pretty bad. The lightest of pressure or touch to the skin would cause a hive. You could draw hives on my skin with a Qtip. I had to take a prescription which kept it under control. It resolved as fast as it started After a couple years.