I have had hives. Took months to narrow it down to a dye in an anti-inflamitory I was prescribed for a hip injury. I didn't take the medicine regularly just as needed but the hives would show up in the morning, over 8 hours after taking the medicine.

My son has had hives that we never determined the cause. The hives would only stay away as long as antihistamines were in his system then they were back. Lasted for four days then gone forever. Our luck was that his last meal before was from McD so he (being 4) blamed that and we never had to eat their again!!

on IP for 1 year with a 60 plus weight loss. now have developed hives head to toe getting worse. New Englander what chocolate drink did you use? The ready made or the boxed one? What ingredients are different in these?

Has ANYTHING changed recently? Food, hygiene products, medicines, ??? It may not be related to IP?

Not a thing. I tried a new salad at Costco but have eliminated it for weeks now. If anything the hives are worse. I love this diet. Still on phase 1. The Doctor wants me off of all supplements now. Not vitamins or Calcium etc. Where does that leave me with IP? Cannot do it without them. Doctor is thinking my body is overreacting as an allergy to either the soy or Sucralose in all this food.

While on IP I haven't had hives but I did have hives in the past when I ate shellfish, saw an allergist who recommended allergen shots to help with the tolerance to shellfish. Its been years since my last breakout, I do keep my epipen with me always, but as suggested by others benadryl and cortizone cream have helped me in the past.
Now my boyfriend has tried my mango ready made twice and on each occasion his speech has slurred to a point I thought he was having a stroke I was so scared but within 20 minutes he regained his speech back. Seems like different people react differently to IP products.

Many people on here are allergic to soy. And sucralose is a common allergy. Go to the alternative boards and see what they do. Good luck!!

When I was on IP the first time a few years ago - i broke out in hives for about 4 days in the second week. I asked my coach and she had no idea what would have caused them and told me it wasn't the IP food. She suggested it was just stress from the diet as your body is adjusting and losing toxins as the fat is being used as energy. I fortunately did not have them as long as others i'm reading about.

YES !!! OMG Hives are the worst !! I woke up one morning with these big red spots all over my chest and back and was like WTFFFFFFFFFFFFF !!!

I still don't know what caused them. I went for all sorts of allergy tests.. the doc even punctured me with steroids to make them stop !!! It was the worst thing ever !!!

I would say it could be something you are eating coupled with a change in your environment !! A new shampoo / deo / soap perhaps ? It could be dust too !! You'd be surprised what all you could be allergic to!! I gave up eating a LOT of foods to try and figure out what was causing it !! Some days, it was eggplant that caused it and some days it was red wine!!!

Just be strong and keep an eye out on what you put in your mouth !!!

Is this the same thing as angioedema? A few years back I started having issues with lip swelling, body swelling, lips breaking out and hives. On my own, I eliminated every food and every food group but didn't get any relief. I decided to go for allergy testing. Everything was negative. Last year I went to another Allergist to get tested for more foods. Again everything negative. The Dr. did additional testing and it turned up that I have angioedema. I tested positive for the ige antibody. This originally came about after my Dad passed away. Last year it got even worse when my Mom was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. The only thing that helps is a daily antihistamine. When it flares up I have a variety of symptoms from hives, swelling, and even breathing issues. I have read that angioedema is an auto immune disorder that can go hand in hand with hypothyroidism. I also have hypothyroidism. I can flare up out of the blue, for no apparent reason. I have noticed more issues around times of stress and hormonal issues (TTOM).

I had them on my fingers and I am really dry all over.

Google "allergy to sucralose". This is the same sweetner as brand name Splenda and IP products have quite a bit of it in all the sweetened items. Apparently this is becoming a more common allergy. You might try a brand of protein powder sweetened with stevia or plain if you can tolerate the bland flavor.

Benadryl is a great antihistamine but watch taking it with other antihistamines such as Zyrtec. I would only take one or the other as prescribed each day. Two antihistamines at the same time can make some people's heart race. I would also take Pepcid (generic name Famotadine) with your Benadryl. You can also buy this over the counter now. Histamine released when you have an allergic reaction cause the excess release of stomach acid and Benadryl will not block this. Pepcid will.

When you go to the ED for a severe allergic reaction they will usually give pepcid/benadryl/prednisone and only use an Epipen shot if they see signs that a patient's airway is swelling closed.

See your family MD if this persists.
Hope this helps.

I would suggest the Dr Furhman's Eat to Live plan/books. Or The Spectrum, by Dr Dean Ornish. Ornish's plan is actually covered by Medicare now because their have been enough studies showing that it reverses cardiac disease. They both espouse organic living. Diets free of preservatives. They both prefer you eat vegetarian diets but allow for low fat meat and dairy if you don't have heart disease. Many people with autoimmune disorders apparent have reported resolution of symptoms with these diets. (Especially Dr Furhman.) I have had no more ruptures cysts with my PCOS after switching to these ways of eating and I am frequently complimented on my skin and hair.

I just started doing IP with organic plain protein products and lots of veggies so I can be better with my portion sizes and stop snacking at night. I hope I have as much success on my home plan as you have with traditional IP. And I hope when I get a tracker going here it eventually looks like yours!

Congrats on your weight loss
I hope the info in these books might help with your angioedema.


Teresa

I am only on day 4, but I have them too! Neck and chest and just started in the inside creases of my elbow. Yep, worse after a shower. My first time dealing with anything like this also. Just plain weird.

I hope you are better soon, that goes for everyone! This is for the birds...

Thank you for the info. Good luck with your weight loss goals.

I posted this on the other hives thread:

I got hives in week 3. Started out as a few spots that looked like bug bites and got worse throughout the day. I didn't realize they were hives as never had them before. My left ankle and foot also swelled up to point I couldn't wear my shoe. It was now 10pm, Urgent Care was closed so I ended up at ER - probably the most expensive benadryl I've ever had

It happened again a few days later. I narrowed it down to either extra supplement my Chiropractor gave me that has Alpha-Lipoic Acid or to an artificial sweetener in some of the products, acesulfame potassium. I've never been allergic to anything. I stopped taking the supplement and any products with that sweetener and I've been fine.

My Dr. has had patients allergic to Alpha-Lipoic Acid before and turns out it messes with thyroid medication, which I am on. So a real no-no for me to take. So I just now taking the regular ideal protein supplements.

I'm going to try one of the products with the acesulfame potassium again in next week or so and see if it comes back.

My Dr. said you can build up a reaction over time to something, so that may be why it took a couple of weeks for something to happen. Or, it may have been some completely unrelated to the IP diet.

ETA. My DH didn't have any reaction to the diet when he was on it.