The Midweek Sun

THE SUN DOCTOR

- Dear Sun Doc

has a line-up of specialist and general Your exciting and revealing paper your health concerns – and it is for practice doctors waiting to answer health bugs and let this week’s free! So come on, send in those nagging have to worry about revealing your Sun Doctor deal with it. You don’t fine! true identity. Give us a pseudo, it’s

What causes scratching of the skin immediatel­y after bathing and during hot temperatur­es? Which are the suitable drugs to use?

Dear Reader,

You may have cholinergi­c urticaria, which means that you itch when you feel hot, anxious, when you sweat from exercise, when you eat something hot or spicy, when you take a hot shower or when you get angry. This causes an itchy red rash with wheals around the pimples, starting within six minutes and lasting between 30 minutes to two hours. It may also lead to headache, dizziness, hypersaliv­ation, abdominal cramps, palpitatio­ns or shortness of breath. Rarely, the symptoms can be severe and life threatenin­g. It has no known cause, but is thought to occur either because of a dysfunctio­n in the nerve fibres in the sweat glands or due to an allergy to sweat. It is more common in people who have other allergic conditions

You may also have aquagenic pruritus, which just means itching caused by water, a kind of allergy to water. Contact with water produces an intense itching of the skin, usually with a prickling sensation, without any observable rash or swelling. The symptoms can last anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours and it usually resolves on its own.

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