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Avatar universal

Allergic to exercise?

I want to know if its possible to be allergic to exercise.  I'm in my twenties, and it's frustrating when no one believes me when I tell them that exercise makes me itch like crazy.  I've been told that it's all psychological and in my head.  I've even been told that maybe I need to lose weight and walk more.  I highly doubt that's the case since I'm 5 feet 3 inches and a little under 120 lbs.  I used to walk a lot before this happened.

This all started when I was 13.  I always walked to school.  One day, my feet started itching really bad whenever I was walking outside.  It would then spread throughout my legs and become almost unbearable.  Around this same time I started getting extremely itchy whenever my armpits would sweat or whenever I got out of a hot shower.  I don't know if it's all related, but it all happened around the same time.   Anyways,  this continued to happen when I walked to school.  It started to also happen during my gym class.  My teacher never believed me and thought I was trying to make an excuse not to participate.  It was unbearable going through gym class, and feeling like I was going to die because of how bad the itch is.  My mom never took me to the doctor for it because she thought it was all in my head and started accusing me of being lazy.  I continued to live with it, slightly annoyed with no one believing how severe it was.

Fast forward to my twenties. I decided to keep silent about my bad itches.  I took yoga, and bam the same thing happened with the bad itch.  I thought it would probably stop after taking yoga for a while.  A year later, and yoga still caused me to itch real bad.  The only time the itch went away was during the relaxation phases of yoga.
Two years later, its the halloween of 2013.  I'm trick or treating with some family members.  Ten minutes walking outside, and my legs got super red and itchy and I just couldn't bear it.  I had to stop constantly.  I almost felt like crying because no one believed me when I told them I was itching real bad.  They thought I was just getting tired with walking too much.

I tried once again to confide in someone that the itch was like an exercise allergy of some sort.  And they laughed, said it was in my head and if that was the case I'd have constant allergy attacks because I have a hard time sitting still when in the house.   I do walk around a lot in the house, however I stop a lot so it doesn't activate those itchies.  It really upsets me when no one believes me over this.  Especially since recently, I've found that I have a hard time breathing over simple physical tasks like folding clothes.  My chest tightens real badly,  and I cant breath so I have to stop every so often in order to do it.  I'm afraid that's caused by the same thing that causes me to itch so badly over exercise.

Unfortunately I don't have any health insurance so I can't see my doctor at the moment.  Is there really such a thing like an exercise allergy?  Or is it really all in my head?  I'm tired of no one believing me, it's stressful going through this alone :(  

Sorry if this was too long, I just have no one else to talk to about this...
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612551 tn?1450022175
Great information - are you listening??  

I think you have a "best answer" here - of course something you could have found yourself with a web search on your key words.

Great job, skydnsr - I'll try to remember.  Being one who used to exercise, including running  this post caught my eye, and I learned something, thanks.

I'm too old and heart problems but I still try to exercise mainly though house and yard work - some walking but neither my wife nor the dog are much into walking.

I have found recently some troubles with instep/feet itch and figured it was due to dry winter (baby it's cold outside) and put some Vaseline on, it didn't offer any immediate help, but the itch is gone now: Vaseline or other natural bodily activity I don't know.  Dry skin can itch, I note as an added input.
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Avatar universal
Never heard of it. You might Google and find if anyone shares the feeling with you.
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Avatar universal
PS, the fact that it also happens when you take a hot shower is another clue.  Heat will also cause your blood vessels to dilate, just like exercise does, with the same result.
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Avatar universal
I did a quick google, because I had never heard of this before, and it turns out that a lot of people have this problem.  It's called exercise-induced itching, exercise-induced hives, or exercise-induced urticaria.  If you look up any of those terms, you will find a lot more information.  When your blood vessels dilate during exercise, histamine is released from the cells, and that's what causes the symptoms -- exactly like an allergic reaction.  I did not go very deep into it, but one article suggested taking an antihistamine before exercising.  Another article suggested that the condition may be related to food allergies; in other words, something you eat causes histamine to build up in the cells, and then when you exercise, all the histamine is released at once.  Good luck.  It's not "all in your head," not at all.  I think there will be a way to cope with it.
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