Hi, Jacquie, and welcome!

As far as I know, my kidneys are OK. However, I share your problem with
the hives on the legs when I run or even walk fast for a substantial
length of time. It doesn't usually happen in a few minutes, but I can
pretty much count on it in 45  minutes. It also happens more in warmer
temperatures than colder. I haven't found a solution. Perhaps your
sports drink idea would help.

I have not had the problem so much with other kinds of sweat-breaking
exercise. For example, I don't have the problem with Nia, yoga,
weight-lifting, or belly-dancing, all of which make me sweat.

Pell

Hi Jacquie,
I would like to welcome you. I am Canadian too. There are actually quite a
few of us here. I have had a problem with hives for many years. Mine started
long before I was ever diagnosed with lupus. I get them from being
overheated. It is almost as though I were allergic to my own sweat. I can
even get them if the bathwater is too hot. I go through periods when it
occurs all of the time, then long intervals without it. I do not have kidney
problems. My lupus expresses itself with blood, skin and
vascular/circulatory ways. I take an antihistamine called Aerius(sp?) during
troublesome periods. It is a non-drowsy, one a day pill. It helps with the
itching and seems to give me control over the hives.
BJ-Sk. Canada

Hi Jacquie.

Actually - I just posted about this a few weeks back.  I'll see if I can dig
up the post.  What I get doesn't look like typical hives but looks more like
mosquito bites.  But they are definitely related to getting overheated
during exercise or housework. A direct quote from the 1st Edition of The
Lupus Book.

"At some point in the course of their disease, 10 percent of patients with
[SLE] wil develop hives."

The medical term is "urticaria".

From 1994 Current Medical Diagnosis and TReatment (ed. L. Tierney Jr.) -
"For cholinergic urticaria, associated with hot showers or a rise in core
body temperature after exercise, there is often a wheal 2-3 mm in diameter
with a large surrrounding red flare."

My Dorland's Med. Dictionary says that this type is not *thought* to be
immunologic but rather a hypersensitivity of the parasympathetic nervous
system.  Of course, we know that hypersensitivities are common in lupus
patients.

specifically it read: "thought to be a nonimmunologic hypersensitivity
reaction in which acetylcholine released from parasympathetic or motor nerve
terminals induces release of mediators from mast cells, and evoked by
conditions of exertion, stress or increased envrionmentla heat."

In English that means that certain nerves are releasing a neurotransmitter
(acetylcholine) which triggers the cells that are responsible for histamine
release (mast cells) to react.  Histamine is what then triggers the rash.

We know that lupies tend to have more allergies and seemingly our mast cells
are more reactive.  Hives can be made worse by stress - so if you combine
the temp increase with stress...  I had not had them for a couple of weeks,
then we had to go to a stressful meeting with our builder and last night I
decided to vacuum.  By the time I was done with only about 15 mins of
housework, my legs and arms were itching like mad.

I doubt that the kidney problems themselves have anything to do with it -
though I suppose there could be some complex mechanism from the adrenals to
the parasympathetic nervous system (I don't have my neuro book in hand) that
would somehow mediate acetylcholine release.

There is a "heat urticaria" that seems to be an extreme version of this
reaction and not dependent on having an autoimmune disease.

I shouldn't be surprised that your docs hadn't heard of this - but I am.  My
sister presented with hives and it was what led her to see a doctor and
which then led to a diagnosis. Some 17 years ago.

As far as treatment - the only treatment is antihistamine and I would guess
that H1 antihistamines are more helpful.  But of course, you have to be able
to predict when you will get overheated.  And if you're running - you
probably don't want to be taking an antihistamine because it *is*
anticholinergic and will reduce sweating and tend to dry out mucous
membranes.  And I don't like to take H1s because they make me sleepy (though
this would, by default) reduce my activity, wouldn't it <g>).

I've gotten no help from topicals on this.  The only way I've found to
reduce it, is not something one can do in public.  Well, maybe on some
beaches in Europe or Australia.  But not in the US.  :-)  That is, if my
skin is open to the air  when I work out or do house work, i have less
trouble.  I do pilates as a workout and this will evoke the reaction just as
easily as other exercise.

BTB, for me, I started noticing a problem when I would be out in public and
standing in line at a store.  My feet would suddenly get very hot (I have
Raynaud's so this is probably factoring in there) and itch like mad.  I know
I got strange looks when I slipped out of my shoes and scratched one foot
with the other while in line.  :)

boy - I bet my big brother is going to have a blast with this post.  if he
reads it all.  :-)

HTH,
KCat

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I have chronic solar urticaria which won't go away , so I know about
physical hives.  BUT  perhaps your itching might be an allergy from
something you wear - clothing, soap, laundry soap, lotion, sunscreen etc.???
Salty wet sweat makes any contact allergy much worse. (I would get round
circles of hives from a metal snap on my shirt  when I sweated.) Physical
hives you can't do nothing to fix, but a contact allergy is something you
can fix.

I had itching and rashes when I sweated, but after a visit to the allergist
and months of battling the problem, I am winning. The cause of
sweating/itching is laundry soap, bath soap and anything with fragrances or
preservatives. Also nickel.

Dandelion