Chronic Hives Chronic Hives Causes

Are Chronic Hives Linked to Other Autoimmune Disorders?

Hives lasting longer than six weeks can be linked to lupus, RA, or thyroid or celiac disease. Here’s all you need to know.

经过艾米丽·哈尔农（Emily Halnon） Health Writer

July 6, 2022

医学评论者

Anitha Shrikhande, M.D.

ISTOCK/ANDREYPOPOV

July 6, 2022

医学评论者

Anitha Shrikhande, M.D.

没有人喜欢dealing with a bout of hives—those red, itchy welts that can pop up anywhere on your body and last from a few hours to several months, and sometimes, even longer.

如果您的蜂箱持续了六周以上，则可能有一个chronic hives，，，，a.k.a., autoimmune hives, or chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), meaning that your immune system is mistakenly attacking healthy tissue and overstimulating your allergy cells, which is what triggers a hives outbreak.

What’s more, hives that just won’t quit are sometimes linked to an entirely different type of autoimmune condition, previously diagnosed or not, that you might have going on simultaneously, says Purvi Parikh, M.D., an immunologist with NYU Langone Health and the Allergy & Asthma Network in New York City.

当您考虑它时，这种联系是有道理的：“蜂箱是免疫系统过度活动的标志，自身免疫性疾病也是由免疫系统过度活动引起的，” Parikh博士解释说。“如果您患有一种自身免疫性疾病，它会增加您对他人的风险。”她说，不仅慢性蜂巢是自己的自身免疫性疾病，而且“任何自身免疫性疾病都会触发蜂巢”。

So, how do you know if one condition is leading to the other? And which autoimmune diseases are most often linked to chronic hives? Finally, how do you best diagnose and treat this double-whammy when it happens? Our experts are here to provide the answers.

What Causes Chronic Hives

许多不同的事情可能导致一例荨麻疹，包括对食物，药物，虫咬或刺痛的过敏反应，乳胶，花粉，植物和动物皮屑。荨麻疹也可以由感染触发。热;压力;甲状腺，肝或肾脏异常；而且，是的，其他自身免疫性疾病。通常，成年人比儿童患日常蜂箱的可能性更大，而女性的蜂箱比男性更高，尤其是当她们30至50年代时，根据杜克大学医学中心。

关于导致慢性蜂巢的原因，少知道，但研究人员发现that up to 50% of people who get them also have another autoimmune condition. The most common autoimmune disorders that are linked to CSU are甲状腺疾病，，，，lupus，，，，rheumatoid arthritis，，，，andceliac disease，帕里克博士说。

iStock/Ivan-balvan

One strong connection between chronic hives and autoimmune diseases is a high presence of autoantibodies. Autoantibodies are harmful, and they are mistakenly produced by your immune system to attack various systems in your own body. In the case of chronic hives, autoantibodies can go after allergy cells and trigger a bout of hives.

帕里克博士解释说：“许多自身免疫性疾病会产生自身抗体，这可能使某人更有可能产生引起蜂巢的自身抗体。”

与慢性蜂箱有关的常见疾病

那么，最常与CSU相关的特定自身免疫性疾病是什么？它们如何连接？让我们仔细看一下。

Celiac Disease

This disorder occurs in people who have an intolerance for gluten, which is a protein found in wheat and some other grains,per Johns Hopkins Medicine。当患有腹腔疾病的人吃面筋时，它会触发人体的免疫反应，从而破坏小肠。研究表明that there is a correlation between celiac disease and a higher risk of chronic hives, with women being disproportionately affected by both celiac disease and chronic hives.

So why, exactly, are women affected by autoimmune diseases twice as often as men? Researchers are still looking for the answers, but they do have some theories.A 2020 studysuggests that some of the greatest contributing factors are hormonal changes from pregnancy and puberty, as well as the difference in sex chromosomes. You probably recall from high school biology class that women have two X chromosomes (like so: XX) while men have an XY chromosome arrangement; X chromosomes are much larger in size than Y chromosomes, and they contain hundreds more genes, including immune-related genes. This makes women more susceptible to genetic mutations like autoimmune diseases, some researchers believe.

Lupus

Lupus is an autoimmune disease that causes pain and inflammation in your body that can affect your joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs,per the Lupus Foundation of America。The majority of people who live with lupus experience some form of skin issue over the course of their disease, including hives, and about 10% of people with lupus will also develop chronic hives,according to the Johns Hopkins Lupus Center。

Rheumatoid Arthritis

类风湿关节炎是由攻击关节并促进炎症反应的免疫系统引起的according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)。This inflammation can affect different organs in the body, including your skin, which can make people with RA more vulnerable to skin issues like hives.研究人员还发现that there can be a genetic link between chronic hives and RA.

甲状腺疾病

The link betweenchronic hives and autoimmune thyroid disease在数十年的研究中已经建立了良好的建立。当您的身体产生攻击您的甲状腺的抗体和患有慢性蜂箱的人时，甲状腺疾病就会发生have been shown产生较高水平的甲状腺攻击抗体。还显示出慢性蜂箱增加了发展的可能性hyperthyroidism- 一种过度活跃的甲状腺，可以加快新陈代谢并引发不规则的心跳 - 女性多达23％，男性为7％。

iStock/Wera52

Diagnosing Chronic Hives

In order to diagnose your hives, your doctor may perform allergy testing, do blood work, and ask questions about your medical history and specific symptoms to rule out potential triggers, like infections or medications. Your doctor may try to determine whether your hives can be linked to certain foods, drugs, animals, plants, physical activity, or travel. Your physician will also want to know if you have any additional symptoms, such as swelling, bone or joint pain, fever, or abdominal cramps.

You can help your doctor by tracking your flare-ups and paying attention to what might have caused a new round of hives. What did you eat? Were there any additives in the foods, vitamins, skin care products, toothpaste, or other products you used? Did you touch a certain plant or animal? What medication did you take? Were you exposed to heat or dealing with heightened stress? All of this information may help your doctor figure out what’s causing your hives—or at least eliminate what isn’t.

Parikh博士说，不同的测试将帮助您的医疗提供者确定您是否患有急性或慢性病病例，以及您的蜂箱是否是另一种自身免疫性状况的并发症。

“Much of the diagnosis for hives is done by ruling out other potential diseases,” notes Melanie Carver, chief mission officer of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America in Washington, DC.

Treating Chronic Hives

Carver建议如果您第一次得了荨麻疹，或者您的蜂箱使您感到非常不舒服，请致电您的医疗保健提供者。她补充说，如果您的荨麻疹严重并覆盖身体的大片区域，或者您的症状（例如呼吸困难，口腔或喉咙肿胀或感到晕厥），请寻求急诊护理。

If you have a minor case of hives, there are a few at-home treatments you can try to alleviate your symptoms, says Carver.

• Anti-itch lotions and creams.Both can soothe your hives and give you some relief from the itchiness and irritation. You can try over-the-counter (OTC) options like topical corticosteroid ointments.

• 冷压。卡弗建议，尝试用毛巾包裹的冰块来缓解热触发蜂箱的症状。

• 光疗。This treatment has also helped some people deal with hives, she adds.

• OTC antihistamines。These drugs can help reduce itching and swelling. “Cetirizine [Zyrtec] or loratadine [Claritin] offer extended relief without drowsiness and other side effects,” Carver says.

如果您的蜂箱与威胁生命的过敏反应有关，您的医生可能会开处方肾上腺素（EPI-PEN），您可以自我注射，以便您可以快速治疗任何爆发。

If your hives are more severe or chronic, your doctor may prescribe medication that will help calm down or regulate your immune system. The medications used to treat chronic hives include steroids; stronger antihistamines like Allegra (fexofenadine), Xyzal (levocetirizine), and Zyrtec (cetirizine); or immunosuppressants including Gengraf, Neoral, and Sandimmunecy (closporine).

Don’t worry if you don’t know what the exact cause is of your hives—you and your doctor may never know for sure (and not knowing is actually pretty common). You can still treat them and find relief—and sometimes, chronic hives go away on their own. In fact, about half the people with CSU stop having flare-ups within one year,according to the American Academy of Dermatology。因此，只要知道，尽管它们可能持久（不舒服和烦人），但慢性蜂箱并非永远。

Meet Our Writer

艾米丽·哈尔农（Emily Halnon）

艾米丽·哈尔农（Emily Halnon）is a freelance writer and trail runner out of Eugene, Oregon. She’s published work inThe Washington Post，，，，The Guardian，，，，跑步者的世界，，，，Women’s Running Magazine，，，，Salon， 和更多。她可以在more

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