nettle rash

Urticaria (urticaria)

Urticaria (urticaria) is one of the most common skin diseases, about one in ten should be affected at least once in life. It can be acute or chronic and is caused by an immune reaction associated with skin rash and itching on the skin. Nettle fever, also known as hives, takes its name from the fact that contact with the nettle plant (lat. Urtica) is a trigger for wheals. In addition to skin contact with plants and animals, allergic and non-allergic forms are known. In many cases, the trigger is not discovered at all. Therapeutically, the main aim is to avoid contact with the trigger and combined with symptom-reducing and cause-related treatments.

Contents:
nettle rash
Synonyms
Nettle fever symptoms
Wheals in nettle fever
Eye swelling and dyspnea in nettle fever
Allergic shock in nettle fever
Shapes and triggers
Nettle fever by nettle poisons
Nettle fever as an allergy and pseudoallergy
Conventional diagnostics
Diagnosis of nettle fever in natural healing practice
Conventional treatment for nettle fever
Naturopathy therapy
Homeopathy and Bach flowers

Synonyms

Urticaria, urticaria, hives, wheals, allergy type 1, immediate allergy, chronic recurrent urticaria.

The symptoms of nettle fever are the formation of wheals and redness of the skin. (Image: Jürgen Fälchle / fotolia.com)

Nettle fever symptoms

The symptoms of nettle fever mainly affect the skin, where they usually appear as a localized skin condition associated with severe itching. Especially with allergic involvement, it can also lead to diarrhea, other gastrointestinal complaints or fever. Sometimes, swelling of the face or larynx can be the cause of severe respiratory distress in the worst case. Rarely, nettle fever leads to allergic shock, which is then life-threatening and a case for the ambulance.

Wheals in nettle fever

Irrespective of the trigger, the symptoms of nettle fever typically include one or more wheals of different sizes in a circumscribed skin area. All parts of the body come into question, even behind itchy nipples and vaginal itches can hide. Frequently, many small wheals join together to form an irregularly shaped, large-area quad area. The skin symptoms are accompanied by severe itching, which is preferably tried by rubbing (not scratching) to quench. The fresh wheals are slightly raised and appear in the fresh state either white or reddish and fringed by a white border. In acute urticaria, the wheals that appear in a very short time regress within minutes to days, while chronic urticaria can last for weeks to even months.

Eye swelling and dyspnea in nettle fever

Although usually the reaction remains localized, in addition to wheals also eye swelling and respiratory distress in nettle fever may develop. If deeper skin layers are involved in the symptoms, it can sometimes lead to extensive swelling in different parts of the body. Typical are edema on hands and feet as well as in the facial area. Swelling of the eyelids and lips are medically referred to as Quincke's edema. It becomes dangerous when the glottis in the larynx, so it comes to shortness of breath and lack of oxygen. If this symptom, which is also called glottic edema, occurs, immediate emergency medical treatment is indicated, because of danger of suffocation.

Allergic shock in nettle fever

If the cause is an allergy of the immediate type, a dangerous complication may be an allergic shock in nettle fever. Signs include circulatory problems with nausea, facial blemishes and cold sweats on the forehead, which can result in massive drops in blood pressure and respiratory arrest. The shock reaction can develop within minutes and must be immediately treated by the ambulance with adrenaline or glucocorticoids.

Shapes and triggers

The list of triggers that can cause nettle fever is long. It ranges from the poisons of various animals and plants to physical stimuli and even foods and stimulants. Physical stimuli include cold, heat, light or pressure. As a special form of physically induced hives the cholinergic urticaria is known, which is caused by stimulation of the sweat glands. Stress and hormonal changes can also trigger nettle fever. Many pregnant women suffer from wheals and itching during pregnancy, which regress after delivery. In more than half of chronic urticaria courses, the trigger can not be determined.

In all forms, histamine from mast cells and basophilic granulocytes (these are "white" blood cells involved in the immune system) are released by contact with the specific triggers.

Nettle fever by nettle poisons

Nettle fever can be triggered by skin contact with animals or plants. The so-called caterpillar dermatitis, for example, occurs when it comes into contact with the nettle song moths of the oak processionary moth, which are discarded at a certain developmental stage of the larvae and can accidentally get into the skin and mucous membrane of humans. On the other hand, the jellyfish shoots their nettle cells out of the jellyfish tentacles with every touch and ensures wheals and "burns" on the human skin..
From the plant world, the itchy skin symptoms are mainly due to the contact with nettle plants known, to which our native stinging nettle belongs as well as a variety of tropical plants whose leaves have stinging hairs.

Nettle fever as an allergy and pseudoallergy

If the nettle fever is caused by an allergy or pseudoallergy, the most different triggers come into consideration. Thus, allergic skin reactions by animal hair are just as possible as by eating certain fruits or vegetables, shellfish and crustaceans. In pollen allergy, for example, a picnic in the grass can lead to acute hives. While allergic reactions may be triggered by even the tiniest traces of the allergen, pseudoallergies, which may include food intolerance or drug intolerance, require a certain amount of the substance before it becomes symptomatic. Although allergies and pseudoallergies occur with the same symptoms, in allergic reactions in the blood certain immunoglobulins (IgE) are detectable, which are missing in pseudoallergies and intolerances.

Conventional diagnostics

Whether for university doctors or representatives of natural medicine: To relieve the affected person, the search for the trigger for nettle fever is in the foreground first. If you have been diagnosed with urticaria after an examination and anamnesis, further tests will follow to determine the trigger. Conventionally, skin tests are used to search for allergens, to provoke a reaction by administering small amounts of suspicious foods and medicines, and to conduct blood tests for specific antibodies (IgE).

Diagnosis of nettle fever in natural healing practice

In the naturopathic practice one uses in the search for the trigger kinesiologischer test methods, the electro-acupuncture or Bioresonanzverfahren. Stool examinations provide information about the condition of the intestinal flora, especially if indigestion occurs. Especially for recurring complaints methods are used for interference field diagnosis. With the dark field diagnosis allergy readiness and possible functional weaknesses of important detoxification organs can be recognized, the iris diagnosis also provides information about the general constitution of the affected person.

Conventional treatment for nettle fever

Once the triggers have been found, avoid them to clear the symptoms and relieve the body. To suppress histamine release, antihistamines are injected, given orally or applied topically to treat symptoms (against the itching). In more severe cases or shortness of breath, glucocorticoids (cortisone) are administered and adrenaline is injected in case of allergic shock. If the symptom-suppressing methods of university medicine are indispensable in complicated cases of nettle fever and especially in an emergency, then insufficient concepts are available for the causative treatment of chronic complaints.

Naturopathy therapy

In the case of nettle fever, naturopathic therapists, who are primarily confronted with chronic nettle fever, assume a malfunction of certain organs or organ systems that affects the entire immune system. In addition to avoiding presumed triggers, central attention is given to the treatment of the digestive system and especially the intestinal mucosa, which to a considerable extent belongs directly to the immune system. A naturopathic treatment is therefore often to stimulate digestion, to regulate a spillage of the intestinal flora and thus the immune action. Rashes are considered in naturopathy as a detoxification measure of the body. To support them, it may also be necessary to detoxify the liver with appropriate measures. In many cases, a self-blood therapy tries to "re-vote" the organism so that it can give up the excessive defensive reaction to innocuous substances.

Homeopathy and Bach flowers

Numerous remedies from homeopathy are used individually or are obtained in complex remedies. In accordance with the principle of homoeopathic similarity, self-treatment is used, for example. Apis mellifica (honeybee) or Urtica urens (stinging nettle) in low potencies in question. Mental-spiritual reasons or an emotional involvement can be included in a careful homeopathic medical history, which should serve to identify a profound constitutional remedy.

From the arsenal of Bach flower remedies, the emergency drops in psychologically triggered urticaria can calm the nervous system and the skin reaction. For longer-term use further Bach flowers are found in a detailed conversation or with bioenergetic test procedures, which should compensate for the emotional correlations of intolerance of the immune system and the heat of the physical reaction. (Jvs)

Proof: CFalk