What’s the process of stress leading to hives ?
In: Biology
I’m not sure if you are truly asking about stress related hives, but if you are it is rather rare. What you are describing is a type of “inducible urticaria”. Allow me to explain:
Urticaria is just the medical term for hives. Inducible urticaria means some external stimuli is causing the hives to form. These stimuli could be heat, cold, pressure applied to the skin, exercise, water, vibration, sunlight, etc.
There is a subset of inducible urticaria known as “cholinergic urticaria”. This is a situation where heating of the body leads to hives. This can occur from **stress**, exercise, strong emotions, bathing in hot water, etc. It is the cause of about 30% of inducible urticaria. The reason it happens is still up for debate. Some say it is related to release of acetylcholine (hence the term cholinergic urticaria). Some say it is related to sweat on the skin as whenever you are hot it causes sweat to be released.
It is an odd form of hives. Rather rare. Most people with this condition are following with specialists to make sure there isn’t any other mechanism as the cause.
Hope this helps
Basically it’s when your stress levels cause your sympathetic nervous system to get revved up. Your body creates “histamines” which can cause hives. Histamine is a compound released by cells in response to injury, and in allergic and inflammatory reactions.
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