Hives are a skin condition that is a result in the capillaries at the skin surface to leak out fluid to the surrounding tissue. The condition is usually called urticaria and the reasons for it occurring are allergy based. It can usually accompany an allergic respiratory infection like hay fever. The treatment for urticaria and hay fever are usually achieved through the use of anti-allergy drugs like antihistamine.
Allergies are a result of the body’s immune system overreacting to a common irritant in the atmosphere. When an irritant like pollen gets into the body, the body misreads the pollen to be a foreign body like bacteria. The body then initiates an immune response against the foreign body of which inflammation plays a major role. Inflammation causes swelling, increased blood flow and mucus production. These are all typical signs that hay fever brings along with it during the springtime, when pollen in the air is at its highest. Inflammation is chiefly triggered off by the secretion of a substance in the body called histamine. In urticaria, it is histamine that causes the skin capillaries to break and flood the surrounding tissue causing the redness and swelling. An attack of urticaria could last a while, as the surrounding edema is slowly absorbed back into the blood. Hay fever is a less severe allergic reaction that occurs in the respiratory tract. Hay fever is also called allergic rhinitis. The same inflammatory mechanisms kick in here as well, but instead of the bleeding into tissue as it occurs in urticaria, the histamine secreted, stimulates the mucus membrane to secrete more mucus.
Treating allergies requires that the allergy be identified and removed from the environment. In children, it is seen that ensuring the child is shielded from potential allergens early on will prevent the development of allergies in the future. The other part of treating an allergy is to increase the intake of anti-histamine. This is available naturally in the form of ginger, feverfew and turmeric. All these should be added and supplemented through the diet. All these elements also work as good analgesics and antipyretics as well. Consuming these during spring would ensure that you never get a severe attack of urticaria or hay fever. Allergies can sometimes end up causing infections as well, as mucus produced in the respiratory tract is a good medium for bacteria to colonize. For this reason, it is necessary to keep nasal passages completely free of mucus.