Juicing for Hives & Urticaria

*UPDATE:
I have had so many people coming to my site for this post, that I have decided to make another blog strictly about hives/urticara and juicing. I hope you will check it out. There will be more information there, ways to follow along and information to get in contact with myself.
Please check out my new site here:
help my hives 

But by all means, finish reading here too, this is a good place to start.
Original post below:
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A few weeks back, during our weekly "I'm-bored-and-I-can't-sleep-late-night-phone-chats" my sister, Katie and I after laughing about "Dang you autocorrect" Katie brought up a documentary that she had recently watched{on an unrelated note, I don't know what it is with me and my sister and documentaries. It seems we are always watching them. It's Lloyd sister crack I guess.} Anyway, the documentary she brought up was "Fat, sick and nearly dead." she started talking about how she thinks he has the same "auto-immune disease" that I have. Sure enough he has exatly what I have. Urticaria. AKA cronic hives.

Some info about my condition: on my 16th birthday, instead of heading to the DMV to get my drivers license, I was busy rubbing calamine lotion all over my body and taking a benadryl every few hours.  I woke up covered (I mean covered) in hives. I have had hives almost every day since (about 7 years now) excluding my pregnancy from week 8 to 6 months post partum (a miracle that thing called pregnancy), they completely went away. I didn't even have to take my medication. After thinking I was cured, Maisie turned 6 months and one morning I woke up with a few random hives, a few on my belly, arm and leg. It gradually got worse from that day. I wasn't cured after all, but after many years struggling, that year break was very much needed. So after that very itchy day when I was 16 my mother took me to doctor after doctor in need of answers. I was on so many different medications including prednisone (a very addictive steroid that has scary and long term side effects). I think in my first year of my condition I went to over 10 different doctors. All had varied opinions. Here are a few of my favorites:

-Some people just get hives, even for years on end. You could have hives for 20 years.

-food allergies.

-allergic to SOMETHING, but who knows what.

-I need divine intervention (No joke. A doctor told me that.)

Stress related.

For obvious reasons my family and I were less than thrilled. We still had no answers until a blood test showed came back with some answers. I had an auto immune disorder, but why and how to treat it was a big fat question mark. What's an auto-immune disease? It's an overactive immune response of the body against substances and tissues normally present in the body. In other words my body is attacking itself. Bottom line, we still don't know what is causing this kooky chain of events. It could be a hormone, an organ, gland, lymph. It seriously could be ANYTHING in my body.

You know how when some one receives a donated organ they are at high risk of the body rejecting the new foreign organ? Well my body is reacting that very same way to something completely normal. Silly Sammie.

Anyway, the documentary {fat, sick and nearly dead} was about a man suffering from urticaria, but he was also very over weight. His goal was to completely detox is body. In order to do this he goes on a 60 juice fast. No food, except fresh fruit and veggies in juice form. Anyway, this guy totally cures his urticaria and loses an insane amount of weight. I obviously can't do a 60 day juice fast yet seeing how I am still breastfeeding Maisie, but I have started to supplement my meals with fresh juice. To tell you the truth, I haven't had hives since, but I am still on my medication and sometimes the hives lay dormant for short periods of time. The truth is the juice is good for me either way. I do have plans to do a 7-10 day juice fast/detox after Maisie is weaned, but right now I am just enjoying my nutritious drinks. Maisie even loves them too.

When watching the documentary take it with a grain of salt. I don't want people to think this is a disease that only affects super unhealthy, overweight people because like I said I was only sixteen, very active and healthy when diagnosed. Even now many years later, it wouldn't hurt if I lost some of my pregnancy weight, but my condition is not at all related to my weight because I am still in the realm of normal {I am dying to lose these extra pregnancy pounds though!}

My go to juices:

*Maisie's favorite*

8-10 organic carrots

1 local organic granny smith apple

4-5 hand fulls of fresh spinach

sometimes I add a pear and ginger in the morning

*Mean Green*

2 granny smith apples

1 cucumber

1 bulk of kale

4 celery sticks

thumb sized piece of ginger

half of a lemon

sometimes I will add a few handfuls of spinach as well.

If you have Netflix check out "Fat, sick and nearly dead." On watch-instantly. It's a good one.

UPDATE JANUARY 4TH, 2012: Maisie has {finally} weaned and I have plans to start my highly anticipated juice fast in two weeks when I return from vacation. I still juice most mornings and I can definitely tell theres a difference. My hives are less frequent and not nearly as aggressive. I will keep updates going as I start my first fast in the coming weeks.

UPDATE MAY 28TH, 2013: I am consistently surprised how many people are still searching for answers about their hives. It breaks my heart to see how many people suffer from this annoying ailment and it is my wish is that you all find the relief you need and the health you deserve.

 I have now completed several (at least 5) juice fasts. My longest was 5 whole days in which I lost 8 pounds (mostly water weight) and without medication controlled my hives. The other fasts were 2-3 days long. My goal is to do a 3 day fast every month to help reboot my metabolism . I have had a few outbreaks of hives this year, but still continue to take antihistamines at night (Zyrtec). If I had to recommend anything, I would say to incorporate as many anti-inflammatory foods as possible.

KALE is a miracle worker, no joke! Get it into your diet as often as possible. Use it in juice, smoothies, salads or kale chips. Without a doubt, I know this helps tremendously. Other foods? Wild caught salmon, green tea, papaya, blueberries, extra virgin olive oil, broccoli, sweet potatoes, prickly pear etc. Eat this often and organic.

I will hopefully update more from here on out. Please feel free to comment below. I do check this page a lot and try my best to respond to every comment.