★★★★★
I had hives appear on my face last year. Major stressors were the cause. I had allergy testing and nothing came up. Went on steroids and this eventually resolved the situation and the major stressor went away. Fast forward a year later and major stress came again. Hives reappeared. Went back on steroids and they helped until I stopped them. Searched here and desperately tried iodine. What a difference. I do 6 drops in a bottle of water twice a day. So far hives are starting to resolve and heal. Will continue until they are gone.
Iodine
★★★★★
I have a bottle of 2% Lugols iodine in a small bottle with a glass dropper in my cabinet which I use topically for minor wounds and scratches. I've aways found topical iodine to also be a wonderful balm for red, itchy, swollen bug bites so I thought I'd try it for the hives.
I placed the iodine drops directly from the dropper onto the hives (or onto my finger tips) and rubbed the iodine in. Within 10-15 minutes the itch was gone. Within hours I noticed the hives had settled down. I woke up the next morning with a few new hive 'patches' on my back which were large and a few new bumps elsewhere. Everyplace I had put iodine on the night before, the hives were gone. So I proceeded to rub the iodine, direct from the dropper, onto the new hives. Within the hour the large patches on my back were no longer raised and after several hours were starting to 'breakup' in terms of color.
Please note that I did not dilute the Lugol's iodine. I placed drops directly on the hive and rubbed it in. If itching didn't stop I reapplied the iodine on the hive 2-3 times until it did. I applied the iodine on all my hives and did not worry about dosage since dermal application generally allows your body to absorb what it needs (in my opinion). Also, if you look at the tremendous amounts of iodine the Japanese ingest daily and their good health I just don't feel the need to be too alarmed with a 2% solution applied to the skin (again, just my opinion).
Topical iodine was a fantastic topical relief solution for me but it still doesn't answer the question as to what triggered my hives. The day before my hives was very stressful so it could be that but I also tried a few new foods - I may never know. If I continue to have hives in the future I will dig deeper, but for now this is a good topical remedy that relieved my itch and my fear. Getting hives is a little scary.
Note: this is obviously not a remedy for people with an iodine sensitivity. Also note, your fingetips will turn quite yellow/reddish so keep that in mind if your hands need to be presentable.
