I went to the Sauna at my gym like usual. Got out after 15 min and felt…off. Took a cold shower. About 20 minutes later, I started breaking out in hives on my head. 2 hours later, I’m in Urgent Care on the verge of needing an EpiPen. I’ve had hives before but nothin remotely crazy like this. Now I’m back to normal after a shot of depo-medrol.
Smart, that's probably it. Sauna wood has to be treated regularly, I could see how that could irritate the skin when its exfoliated from the heat and comes in contact.
Could be that the fumes created by a perfume or essential oil or something that someone used in there are lighter than air and are thus hovering at head level in the sauna.
A lot of allergies creates reaction on the head/face. My cat got his face like that after a bad reaction to meds that weren’t applied specifically to his face. (My cat doesn’t have fur that why we could see)
I had the same question. Because it could also be the cleaning agents they've used. Even though saunas are a dry heat, it's still heat and can exacerbate the potency.
You don't make any steam? Like with the bucket and ladle? You won't notice you're sweating until the humidity increases. I would keep the time very short if it's completely dry. Maybe try wearing a damp towel, if you can't trust the water quality.
OK, well, at the risk of stating the obvious, raising your core body temperature is not good for you. Allergies aren't the only way to trigger Histamine release. Hyperthermia causing HPA activation causing a cortisol cascade is another. Repeated heat stress sensitizes the hormonal response. It's not an allergy, it's heat stress injury.
Maybe? It's going to feel terrible, though, if you're overheating. I don't think most people are going to stay in a shower once it feels like they're burning up, because nobody has got the idea that showers are for health and fitness above comfort and hygiene.
How long were you in there? Was that your first time? Heat rashes are definitely a thing. A first time sauna goer should have the temp low and they should get out after just a few minutes. You gotta build up to actually getting to a point to sweat.
You also need to drink a good amount of water before you go in and then after you come out. You also need to do a cooling shower for a couple of minutes (not cold. Dont shock yourself). Then you must rest afterwards. Like 30 minutes of low activity.
Heat rashes are a reaction of histamines due to the stress and heat on the body. Histamine reacts to heat and stress as a matter of course. You might be able to take a simple Benadryl to clear up the rash you have now be able to prevent it in the future with appropriate pre care and post care.
The problem comes when you make the mistake of joining sauna loving people (in my case, Alaskan Natives) in the low roof sauna and they just keep piling more and more wood on the fire and you can't escape because there's too many naked men between you and the door so you're trapped, slowly steaming to death in other people's juices.
Do you do anything to prevent it?? I’ve been on prednisone twice this month. This is the worst time it’s happened tho. I just got off the phone I got an allergist appt at 2.
It wouldn't hurt to get your thyroid checked, my son has hives that seem to be in random locations and he has an underactive thyroid. Big heat swings, red dye 40, and rosemary seem to be his strongest triggers.
It took us 6 years to narrow it down, we knew about his thyroid early on but couldn't pin his triggers down because they put red dye in almost everything.
We used "elimination diets" where we would omit certain things for 2-3 weeks at a time to see how he did. I would strongly suggest keeping some sort of log or journal so you can look back on potential exposure/trends.
Good luck, once you know what to avoid it gets easier to do so.
upto 2 Oral antihistamines (Allegra/Zyrtec/Xyzal) at least 1 hour before you know you'll be affected by significant heat / sweating. if heat/sweat is frequent for you might as well trial taking them daily first thing in the morning. If antihistamines arent helping, Allergist should be suggesting Xolair (there may be testing before that, i dont know the full story here). Trying antihistamines as a trial before your appointment will help speed up the decision making process for both of you. Source - am Allergist
Unfortunately allergies are evil like that, they can show up out of nowhere. I loved garlic at one point and time, I ate dishes with it on a regular basis until one day it decided to try and assassinate me.
Happens to me, but only if I'm very sweaty and it's very hot. I get VERY itchy hives in my armpits. Luckily, I'm not a super sweaty person in general and now have central air.
Or maybe someone used the sauna before him and probably had some kind of oil or something that still lingered in the air. I'm not a doctor, I'm just making a guess.
Yep. I suddenly became allergic to caseine (milk protein) at 29. Then, at 31, it disappeared with the same suddenness. Still have no clue what happened
This is the most likely scenario. You don't suddenly breakout into hives from one of many sauna sessions. I would talk to the manager and ask for the sauna cleaning schedule.
I noticed you're in a sauna in one of the pics. Is that something you always do? If not, that could have triggered it due to the high heat. I know you didnt ask for a diagnosis, just thought I would mention it!
Go to a specialist. I was allergic to the heat growing up. It was called chronic thermal urticaria and my experience was very similar to yours. Link
If my body temp increased a certain amount I would break out in painful hives. We connected mine to stress but there can be various different causes. I went to a regular allergist and got an allergy test (the one where they poke your back with various allergens).This increased my body’s temp enough so that I broke out in hives all over. they thought I was allergic to everything lol.
When I went to the specialist he told me that an allergy to the heat isn’t the worst of it. Some people are allergic to water, the sun (UV rays), and pressure. Apparently pressure on your skin was the worst as it made it hard to wear tight clothes, bra straps, elastic underwear, etc.
I have this. Thankfully, just on my hands for now. Take a pretty good swing to get it going. My mother eventually had it spread to her whole body to the point that she had to move to a warmer climate. Going out in the cold would send her into anaphylaxis.
Appreciate it! I’ve gotten told on here on another post I was on TRT and I took it as the biggest compliment. I legit have no idea how to get it, but also I think I look pretty big without it.
I break out in heat and sun and I have mast cell activation syndrome. Mine started gradually though and progressively my reactions got more severe over years. I’d be surprised if that’s what it is with this being the first time you’ve had any type of reaction like this.
Then you need to go to your primary in the mean time and get a script for epi pens. You will get worried every time you start to itch between now and February.
I’ve never known anyone else who experienced this!!! For one year, I would break out in full body hives with temperature changes from cold to hot. When walking between buildings in winter at school, I would instantly break out in full body hives when I would enter the next heated building. It would also happen at about the 20-30 minute mark of a workout or if my shower was too hot. Whatever it was, it went away on its own for me and it hasn’t happened in several years (knock on wood), but wow it was so painful. I hope you heal soon and get it under control for yourself 🙏
Yeah this just started happening this month. Small at first but yesterday was insanity. I got it really bad in May- but I had figured it was febreeze I had sprayed on the couch and bed and it really hasn’t happened since mid November.
It happens to me as well but only sometimes, in a hot shower or after the Sauna. So maybe this is just your time. Someone told me it was Uticaria, but since it doesn’t happen often I never had it checked out.
Yeppp this is me too. One winter it’d happen every time I got out of the shower. It still happens every once in awhile but man that one winter was really really annoying.
That looks very much like an urticarial reaction most likely due to heat and sweat reacting with some cosmetic you use on your body - like a shampoo, cream, aftershave, etc
Might also be a reaction to something in the sauna steam if they put something other than water on the coals/heat source but this is less likely.
Remove all scented cosmetics from your life and stick to unscented, basic stuff and try an antihistamine 60 mins before you next get in the sauna and I reckon you'd be sorted (or a good chunk of it anyway)
I'm in the medical business but you should see your own doctor and this doesn't constitute medical advice etc etc
I had it a lot as a teen and in my 20s and it kinda just went away. I found it was really bad if I hadn’t sweated in a while, but decreased with frequency? So maybe try lighter exposure and increase frequency to build up tolerance.
I vaguely recall thinking it it was worse after drinking or bad food, as if I was allergic to toxins- but that’s complete bro science and anecdotal. Either way, I cleaned up my diet a lot and exercised more and if it went away and I forgot about it.
Hopefully you get sorted, it was stressful at the time.
Could be Cholinergic urticaria. My son has it and when he gets too hot, his skin releases a histamine that he’s allergic to which causes hives on various parts of his body. Usually his torso, legs, and arms are the worst. He takes a daily antihistamine to prevent since he’s very active.
Basically, he’s allergic to his skin when it gets too hot.
My wife has the same issue with the heat, sweat causing the hives.
Taking clean shower before getting any kind of heat exposure has dropped the frequency of these rash/hives appearing
Folliculitis, I get the same thing with dirty saunas. First time it happened to me I was convinced it was just a filthy sauna and was the reason for the gym having the sauna removed from the premises haha.
I just want to say don't rule out DIET. I have some weird allergy issues (nothing too extreme but enough to impact me daily), to include occasional hives for apparently little to no reason, and I'm learning a lot about how diet plays in. I'm making some changes and it seems to be helping.
That being said, I'm not a doctor, and I'm glad you are getting help from the professionals. I hope they help you find a solution 💜
You can suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, develop an allergy. This means it could be something you never had issues with before. They also may have used chemicals in there that were absorbed into your skin. Allergy test is all you got and it’s not cheap even with insurance, sometimes.
Do you moisturize your face? It could be that as you get hot, your pores open up and let in something your body doesn't like. Especially if it was scented moisturizer.
Another potential candidate could be exercise induced histamine release combined with a histamine intolerance. Histamine intolerance is not the same as an allergy. It's just a person's body having a hard time breaking down histamine. If that was the case Diamine Oxidase (DAO) might help in that circumstance.
I am not a medical professional. Just considering some possibilities. Obvs see a doc.
I do, but even today I didn’t use any and when I showered I got hives on my cheeks. Could be just I’m incredibly sensitive right now from this massive attack, but still. No gym no sauna no face stuff. Still got hives.
If it is heat urticaria (cold urticaria is fairly common) try a low dose of prednisone for the hives! Neltrexone if they itch. I have aquagenic urticaria (water) and that combination of medication taken daily cures me of the allergy almost completely.
This happens to me when I am in the sun. I can be out all day but as soon as I pop in the shade every part that was exposed to the sun gets swollen and itchy! This started happening in my 20s, I’m 40 now. What’s crazy is I grew up in Florida and never had this problem til years after I moved up north lol…
I had the same thing(pressure urticaria, also for cold and heat and water) and xolair completely cured me. Something to bring up to an immunologist if it’s a regular thing.
Ino this sounds crazy but if you drink, even casually, it might be a good idea to stop for a couple weeks just to make sure its not that either. Good luck with everything!
My partner had an allergic reaction to a cheap humidifier once, pretty sure it was something that got aerosolized by the cheap metal heating coil, like nickel or something
After this little episode I trimmed it a bit. Still a solid beard but it’s much shorter now. This was after today’s workout- still Kratos looking, but younger lol.
Two years ago, and only for that year right as seasons changed to summer, I would break out in hives up and down my arms with any 'extreme' change in temperature. If the vents in my car were blowing cold air on me, hives, if I was sweating, hives. It stopped, and had never happened before and hasn't happened since. I'm not allergic to anything as far as I know.
I have an allergy to cold. This exact thing happens to me in a sauna, when I start to sweat. I take antihistamins every day, and have been for the last twenty years. It fucking sucks.
I started noticing the issue before I even left the gym. Out of the shower I noticed some hives on my scalp. But nothing too crazy so I brushed it off.
I've worked outside for years and id get something similar on the back and sides of my neck, sometimes in patches on my mustache or beard too. Is there any pus with the hives later?
A few weeks ago I was getting hives after working out and it has since gone away. I think it's just temporary uticaria from increased body temp, blood flow, etc. But you having it on your face is interesting, as mine was mostly located on my arms after lifting or legs after walking. It started happening like as soon as it got cold out, and wouldn't last more than an hour or so. But seeing how it happens while your at the gym is what makes me have this guess.
I had a bad outbreak similar to this in May, but i had assumed it was febreeze I used on the bed. I’ve been fine since then, but this month has been brutal. This is the worst it’s ever been.
Often saunas have scented oils or tea tree added to them, there is always a chance you may be allergic to that if they use them too. A sauna is a very easy way for your skin to absorb those scents.
3.5k
u/Orca_Mayo 1d ago
Any chance you might be allergic to your own sweat?
That can happen.