Got Hives? Get your Thyroid Checked!
Tuesday October 2, 2007
A large percentage of people with chronic urticaria, or hives, have an underlying autoimmune process as the cause of their symptoms. In the past, a small percentage of people with chronic urticaria were found to have other common autoimmune diseases, such as hypothyroidism. Some of these people had improvement of their hives if their thyroid disease was treated.
A recent study by a group of allergies in Illinois found that a larger percentage of people with chronic urticaria have thyroid disease than previous thought -- up to 20%. The study showed that a number of these people had improvement of their hives when the low thyroid function was treated.
So, if you're a person who is dealing with chronic hives, you may want to see if low thyroid function is the cause of your symptoms.
Comments
I think this may be happening to me. I’ve assumed for 13 years that I’ve had tomatoes allergies because of hives I would get off and on that I associated with eating them. When my hives got out of control the past few months I assumed I must have developed a new allergy, so I finally went to an allergist. All allergy tests were negative. She linked the chronic hives to my hypo-thydroidism that was diagnosed a year ago.