Hives Treatment

Is There a Cure for Hives?

Looking for safe, natural hives treatment options? Learn what causes hives, hives medication that really works and safe home remedies for hives.

Hives Treatment - What Are Hives?

Hives are short term itchy rash that can appear and disappear quickly, generally within 24 hours. Sometimes hives will reappear in a different spot on the skin. Hives is considered chronic when they last for over a month. Usually hives is a simple annoyance, however they can become more serious if the hives cause breathing problems. In a small number of cases, people who develop hives have a severe allergenic reaction which requires medical attention.

Hives Treatment - Picture of Hives

What do hives look like? Generally they are red, smooth itchy spots on the skin that look like mosquito bits or welts. Hives are flat topped and slightly raised on the skin, and can vary in size from very small to quite large, covering a good portion of the body.

Many cases of hives will disappear on their own, however you should seek medical attention if your hives do not improve after a few days, or if you keep getting new hives after several days. For a very few people, hives can erupt in the breathing passageways, causing difficulty breathing.

If you're not sure what hives looks like, you can see some picture of hives.

Hives Treatment - Hives Causes

The best hives treatment is to discover your hives causes, and to eliminate those irritants from your daily life. In many cases you may not be able to figure it out right away.

These are some possible causes of hives:

• Food allergies
• Infections
• Medications
• Insect bites
• Exposure to allergy producing substances like latex
• Chemicals and additives added to foods, household cleaning products, and your skin care and personal care products. See our Safe Cosmetics guide for more information on this.
• Excessively hot or cold temperatures
• Water - yes, for some people water, especially hot water can cause hives!

Generally if you are allergic to a specific food, you will develop hives within a few minutes or hours. If you are allergic to a medication it may take weeks to trigger hives. Read more about hives causes.

Hives Treatment - Can Stress Cause Hives?

There is another important hives cause that may be more difficult for you to pinpoint. It is something we ALL experience in our lives during these challenging times.

STRESS can definitely cause hives. When you think about how many people feel "stressed out" on a daily basis, it is amazing that more of us don't get hives!

Our bodies are miraculous creations that respond not only to our external environment but to our thoughts, feelings and inner life.

If you are going through a very stressful time in your life, getting an outbreak of hives is one way that our bodies cope. Please see our Can Stress Cause Hives page.

Hives Treatment - Home Remedies for Hives

If you cannot find your hives causes, the best approach is to try some home remedies for hives. These can bring relief from the itching and redness and help your body to re-balance itself.

A healthy, whole foods diet and lifestyle is always the best approach to any kind of chronic skin problem. Many people with sensitive skin find they cannot tolerate certain environmental or chemical stresses, and so their skin breaks out.

By reducing your exposure to preservatives and toxins in your food and chemicals in your skin care products, your body will have more chance to manage the everyday stresses of life without breaking out into hives.

Cold compresses or ice can relieve the itching.

An oatmeal bath can be soothing and reduce the redness and itching of hives

Avoid foods or substances that caused your hives

Wear loose fitting clothing

Avoid too hot baths or showers, direct sunlight and excessive sweating

Relax and reduce your stress levels

Use hypoallergenic products to avoid chemicals, herbs and plants that may be causing an allergic reaction.

We've put together a small collection of the best safe skin care products which will work well without producing allergic reactions.

More natural home remedies for hives can be found in our free eBook How to Clear ANY Skin Problem Naturally.

Hives Treatment - Hives Medicine

If you have a mild case of hives, they generally will go away on their own. If you are very itchy and uncomfortable, and home remedies for hives are not working, you may find it helpful to try a hives medicine.

The problem with most hives medicine is that antihistamines make you drowsy. The most common hives medicine is Benadryl, also known as diphenhydramine.

Bendadryl will make you very drowsy so please do not take it if you need to be driving, operating machinery, or doing work that requires your full alertness.

There are newer, over the counter antihistamines that may also work as a hives treatment, such as Zyrtec, also known as cetirizine. Zyrtec does not cause as much drowsiness, but like all hives medication may have side effects.

A safer and more natural alternative is to use a natural hives medicine that uses homeopathic remedies, which are effective without causing side effects.

My favorite is Hive Away which works very quickly to reduce the itching, swelling and redness, and is safe enough even for pregnant women.

Natural Hives Treatment Program

If you break out in hives frequently, and have tried everything, and absolutely nothing works, then I recommend that you consider a comprehensive natural treatment program. I've looked at several and the best of them is the Urticaria Solution which focuses on finding the cause of your hives, and on simple, safe and natural solutions.

This program is written by Nancy Summers who spent almost half of her life plagued by chronic, recurring hives. As you can imagine, when she couldn't get help from the usual medical treatments, she was motivated to keep looking for solutions. I think you'll like what she's discovered. Best of all Urticaria Solution is guaranteed so you don't have to worry about spending money on something that doesn't work!

More Hives Treatment Options

My free eBook How to Clear ANY Skin Problem Naturally provides you with a five step plan for clearing your skin problems affordably using natural methods that create long term healthy and radiant skin WITHOUT harmful side effects.