Cold Allergy — Symptoms, Test, Proven Home Remedies

Aller­gy to cold is a dis­ease that affects up to 50% of peo­ple. How to rec­og­nize it, and most impor­tant­ly, how to over­come it?

What Causes an Allergy to Cold?

In the cold sea­son, espe­cial­ly with strong wind and frost, some peo­ple devel­op red, itchy spots on open areas of the skin (on the face and hands).

Doc­tors call this reac­tion a cold aller­gy, or an aller­gy to cold. Of course, an aller­gy to cold is prone to peri­od­ic exac­er­ba­tions in win­ter, under the influ­ence of low tem­per­a­tures. How­ev­er, you can get an aller­gic reac­tion in the sum­mer, swim­ming in a cold riv­er or drink­ing a cock­tail with ice, and in the fall, freez­ing at a bus stop.

Cold urticaria — this is also called an aller­gy to cold, can appear as a result of vio­la­tions to which the pro­tec­tive func­tions of the body are exposed.

The deple­tion of the pro­tec­tive func­tions of the body is facil­i­tat­ed by chron­ic dis­eases, such as sinusi­tis, chole­cys­ti­tis, caries, and the pres­ence of worms also con­tributes to this. Thus, this expo­sure to fac­tors may con­tribute to the devel­op­ment of symp­toms that are char­ac­ter­is­tic of cold aller­gies.

Aller­gy to cold can be trig­gered by a num­ber of debil­i­tat­ing dis­eases, and lupus ery­the­mato­sus, blood can­cer, dis­eases that are asso­ci­at­ed with the activ­i­ty of the thy­roid gland also con­tribute to its devel­op­ment. Cer­tain infec­tious dis­eases can also pro­voke an aller­gy to cold: measles, mycoplas­mal pneu­mo­nia, mumps, rubel­la, infec­tious mononu­cle­o­sis.

How does cold allergy manifest itself?

How to rec­og­nize cold urticaria, because it can skill­ful­ly “mask” as der­mati­tis, colds, acute res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tions and SARS.

This dis­ease occurs as a result of a sharp cool­ing and makes itself felt by a num­ber of symp­toms. As a rule, spots (some­times even blis­ters) appear first on the face: cheeks, wings of the nose, in the area under the eyes, around the lips and on the hands.

Then the per­son begins to feel itch­ing, his tem­per­a­ture may rise. In severe cas­es it is pos­si­ble

• vom­it;
• dif­fi­cul­ty breath­ing;
• joint and mus­cle pain;
• headache and dizzi­ness;
• nau­sea and pain in the stom­ach;
• con­junc­tivi­tis and lacrima­tion.

Most often, cold aller­gy symp­toms come on quick­ly and dis­ap­pear quick­ly. In rare cas­es, they can per­sist for a long time or cause severe reac­tions, up to Quinck­e’s ede­ma.

How do you know if you are allergic to cold? Test

An aller­gist can diag­nose the dis­ease based on the results of spe­cif­ic aller­go­log­i­cal tests. But a sim­ple test can be arranged at home.

Apply a small piece of ice to the skin of your hands, just above the wrist. Wait 1 minute. If you see that the skin is red and swollen, you are prob­a­bly aller­gic to cold.

What does a cold allergy look like?

What to do if you are allergic to cold?

It is very impor­tant to avoid hypother­mia (pro­longed expo­sure to frost and cold wind, ice cream and cold drinks, ice show­ers).

Know­ing about this fea­ture of your body, you should always have on hand antial­ler­gic drugs that your doc­tor will pre­scribe.

The doc­tor usu­al­ly pre­scribes anti­his­t­a­mines. If con­tact with cold was short-term and there will be no rep­e­ti­tions, then it will be enough to drink them for sev­er­al days, 1 tablet per day.

Mod­ern anti­his­t­a­mine (anti-aller­gic) drugs:

• Cetrin;
• Lorata­dine;
• Eden.

Tak­ing these pills can quick­ly elim­i­nate itch­ing and rash­es on the body.

And also the doc­tor can pre­scribe a com­plex treat­ment, for exam­ple, drugs that will help strength­en the blood ves­sels. They will reduce the per­me­abil­i­ty of small blood ves­sels — cap­il­lar­ies. This will increase the resis­tance of the cir­cu­la­to­ry sys­tem to the pen­e­tra­tion of an irri­tat­ing aller­gen into it — cold.

This list includes the fol­low­ing med­i­cines:

• Ascorutin;
• Mag­nicum;
• Nor­moven.

Prevention Tips

Home reme­dies can help with cold aller­gies!

1. Elim­i­nate from the diet choco­late, cof­fee, cocoa, eggs, cit­rus fruits, straw­ber­ries, fish. Refusal of these prod­ucts reduces the man­i­fes­ta­tions of cold aller­gies.

2. 30 min­utes before leav­ing out­doors in win­ter do not for­get to apply a lay­er of pro­tec­tive cream on the face and oth­er exposed skin areas. Win­ter cream pro­tects the skin from the aggres­sive effects of low tem­per­a­tures, snow and wind. Or at least apply baby cream high in vit­a­mins A and E. Pro­tect your hands.

3. If you are aller­gic to cold make bak­ing soda. Dilute 1 tea­spoon of bak­ing soda in a glass of warm water. Soak a gauze pad in the solu­tion and apply to the affect­ed areas of the skin. Lotions elim­i­nate itch­ing, reduce swelling and red­ness.

4. Wipe hurt and annoyed

female areas of the skin infu­sion of suc­ces­sion (1 table­spoon of herbs in a glass of boil­ing water). The sequence soothes the skin, reduces swelling and itch­ing.

5. If you are aller­gic to cold from autumn to spring you need to wear a scarf, gloves, turtle­neck sweaters and be sure to wear a hat.

6. Keep in mind you can’t get used to the cold the effec­tive­ness of hard­en­ing from aller­gies to cold has not been proven.

So take care of your­self and be vig­i­lant!