Curing Hives With Diet

Curing hives with diet is an easy way to treat hives. It is essential to consume a diet that prevents you from getting affected by hives. This will avoid the future growth of hives which can be irritating and itchy for your skin. Researchers have found that consuming food which contains Quercetin can help you to cure hives. Quercetin is a bioflavonoid that has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-histamine properties. The best dietary sources of Quercetin include capers, apples, red and yellow onions, red grapes, broccoli, citrus fruits, cherries, red wine, tea, and many berries including lingo berries, raspberries, and cranberries.

Vitamin C can help to cure hives. Vitamin C is powerful to lower the histamine release in body and will also help to break down the histamine faster. The more positive effects of vitamin C can be seen when it is consumed together with vitamin E. These two vitamins together work great and they protect each other and show the best results in curing hives.

Hives is a skin condition that causes red raised itchy bumps on the skin. Hives are typically caused by an allergic reaction - allergy to food, medicines, weather and pets can cause hives. The best way to treat hives is to prevent it from happening. In order to prevent hives, one has to stay away from the triggering agent which causes the outbreak of hives. A triggering agent or an allergen could be food, medicines, dust etc.

People who are allergic to certain kinds of food should go for an elimination diet or the cave man's diet, in order to keeps hives at bay.

What is the elimination diet?

The basic principle of the elimination diet is to identify food items that bring about an allergy in a person thus causing hives in the person. On identifying allergy food items, one will have to eliminate it from their diet for a period of time from 2 weeks to a month. Once the food item is eliminated, the patient is monitored to check if there is improvement in symptoms. An elimination diet relies on trial and error method to identify foods that cause hives. The diet does not reduce calories or portions but just eliminates certain foods from the diet. Once the symptoms of hives disappear, food items may be re- introduced slowly.

Some foods that are most commonly eliminated are:

• Artificially flavored drinks and foods.
• Almonds, apples, apricots, blackberries, boysenberries, cherries, currants, dewberries, gooseberries, grapes or raisins, nectarines, oranges, peaches, plums or prunes, raspberries, strawberries, cucumbers or pickles, and tomatoes, etc.
• Peanut products, dairy and dairy products and food made from soybeans.
• Mushrooms, corn, tomatoes, all types of potatoes, eggplant and peppers that include ground cayenne and paprika.
• Prepackaged and processed foods.

Challenges of the Elimination Diet:

• Since readymade foods are not allowed, dieters have to prepare all meals from scratch.
• Dieters will need to prepare meals with only the permitted ingredients. They will need to make changes in recipes by using a substitute. This can be harder than thought especially for someone who has no hands on experience in cooking, so let alone substitute methods of cooking.
• Dieters maybe moody, because sometimes their favorite food item is prohibited. In some cases, coffee is also prohibited, which could bother the dieter especially is he or she is an avid coffee drinker.
• Snacks are also limited; hence a person who snacks may find it hard to manage with the elimination diet.
• Going on an elimination diet can also pinch the pocket, as some of the diet items are expensive and hence will be out of the budget for some people.

This is a well known method of curing hives with a diet. Although following the elimination diet is hard, but it works wonders.