Is there a link between hives & crohns

[leioforchids]

is there a link between hives & crohns

I have a weird question. I have always had sinus infections since i was a kid. At least 2 or 3 times a year. In december i felt sick & stated on biaxin which has always worked wonders for me. I started getting hives really bad so i went to the er because on top of the hives, i had a choking non productive cough. The er doc took me off the biaxin, gave me pred, hives went away. my family dr (who i no longer have) swore up & down it had to be something i was doing. even though nothing new was introduced to me (foods, detergents, etc)

So on & off for months now i have had the hives come & go. I got sent home from work because i looked like a burn victim & this last time i looked like a spotted leppard. i ended up with another sinus infection in april that landed me in the er again, because when i get on the pred & antibiotic it loosens the junk in my lungs but it won't cough out. Did 3 breathing treatments in the er & it finally started coming out. Now i'm sick again but the hives are gone because i'm on the pred & biaxin. taking mucinex but it still don't want to cough out. The allergist has said he's seen hives related to lung infections. this last time i had the hive outbreak i was on 2 benadryl 3 times a day. to do allergy testing i have to be off all antihistimes 5 days prior, isn't that crazy? i understand why but if i'm having hives on 3 times a day benadryl, where am i going on none...the er?

I was wandering around the net & found somewhere that there's a link between crohns & upper respiratory infections. If that's true, could my hives be crohns related due to the link between uri's & crohns? also i have to do allergy testing, how would one test for the link between the 2?

 

[soupdragon69]

Yep there are links between crohns and other areas/organs in the body, they have proven it in research.

You will see at the bottom of my post my main problems.

I was talking to my GI tues last week about the connections between my asthma, skin problems, arthritis and crohns. He said there is a strong link between crohns and lung problems, he knows I suffer boils and abcesses and they are linked to my crohns, my arthritis is difficult to control and when my gut flares all of the above flare.

If I am on pred I have perfect skin, my gut improves, my joints and pain improve to minimal and my asthma settles. I stop the pred and it all flares badly. My skin so bad I cannot lie on my back with the eczema.

I am on high dose anti histamines 120mg telfast in the morning and 180mg at night. Without them I itch 24/7 to the point I end up bleeding from scratching no matter what I try. I have hives intermittently even with the anti histamines. I have a restricted diet due to food intolerances.

My GI, Derms, Asthma/allergy consultants and Rheums all tell me that remicade is the answer and they are ALL researching it for each of the problems I have so as you can imagine they are all watching me!

Remicade has made a huge difference to the intensity of each of the diseases/problems I have and has made them more "manageable" overall.

On the allergy tests front...

They can skin prick you or do blood tests. Either way you need to be off antihistamines so your response isnt dampened and they get a true reaction and not a false positive or false negative for instance.

Thing about these tests is: they can only show an allergic reaction at some level IF that is the tissue involved. They cannot show intolerances either.

As an example I am not outright allergic to bananas because I can eat green ones BUT if someone in the room (they can sit on the far side of the room) peels and eats a RIPE banana, I eat something with banana flavouring like a sweet or ice cream THEN my asthma is triggered, I become wheezy etc. The reason? Allergy UK worked out that it was the histamine given off by the ripe banana that triggers me. My asthma/allergy cons did a breathing test called a bronchial histamine challenge and I had a huge asthma attack. So for me its the histamine hitting my lung tissue on inhalation that is one of my triggers.

On the crohns connection to this my GI tells me that once inflammation occurs in the gut with crohns it can be transmitted to the lungs via the bloodstream and cause inflammation there. He said crohns also impacts because the immune cells live close to the ends of the nerves and things are transmitted that way also so its a double whammy.

I too have suffered sinus infections since my teens and my asthma developed from there and in connection to true allergies I have.

There isnt a specific test to prove the connection between crohns and lung problems unfortunately. Mine has been proven due to the domino like effect I seem to go through once my gut flares everything else follows suit. My GP at times doesnt know how to treat me and ends up putting me on steroids or antibiotics in the knowledge that one or other sorts me out and its usually the steroids.

It is also possible to have a reaction to any drug at any time in your life whether its your 2nd dose or 1,000th dose the body can set up a reaction so for your doc to say YOU must have done something is out of line.

Hope you get some answers and that my waffle hasnt confused you too much!!

 

[fenway1971]

hi -
i'm convinced there is a connection between allergies and crohn's. allergies are our bodies' mechanism to warn us that what we are ingesting can't be tolerated. with all the diet evidence linked to crohns, i wonder if crohns just isn't an allergic reaction to something. . .

 

[danman]

I had hives and asthma as a child.

I don't know if there is a connection but add me to the list of sufferers.

 

[JillianB82]

Add me to that list! I have asthma, which usually acts up in the colder months & this season my allergies have been off the charts! I had to go to the Dr last Wednesday because my eye swelled shut 2 days in a row. It looked like I had been punched in the eye. The Dr gave me a daily allergy pill to take & drops to use. So far, so good! *Fingers crossed*

 

[fenway1971]

Jillian -
You get the seasonal asthma as well? Hmmm. It started for me about 6 years ago. Coughing fits in the winter. Finally, got an inhaler which I use a few times each winter.

 

[JillianB82]

Yep Fen...have always had it, even as a child. I noticed if I jog in the winter it's really bad. I usually have to stop mid-run to take a few hits

 

[Guest]

uhuh.. i also strongly believe in the link between Crohn's and heightenend immune system reactions; allergies etc..

i think it's because Crohn's is an immune disorder, and our immune systems are kinda out of sync, or running on overdrive...? i dunno. but i do know that since my Crohn's returned after many years Crohn's free, i've developed more and more allergies, to the point where i now have to carry an epipen around with me.

i'm on LDN... not only am i hoping it will settle the Crohn's issue, i'm wishing very hard that it will sort out the allergy levels too - even if it just dampens them down a bit so i don't get such a strong reaction, i'd be happy.