Re-Introducing Carbs = Hives?!

[biggerisbetter1827]

Ok, so a little background first, I was on a CKD style diet for 28 weeks, I went from 16% bf down to 9% and I felt great on the diet. I depleted carbs all week and would have a refeed every sunday where I had about 500g of Carbs and 1000-800 cals over my TDEE (generally good clean carbs except for one cheat meal of anything I wanted).

Towards the end of my diet I noticed that everytime I would refeed the following day I would break out in hives all over my chest and back mostly. I'm not allergic to anything as far as I know, I mean I get a little stuffed up in the spring but no food allergies. As soon as I would return to my keto meals through the week my hives would clear up. So I tried eliminating different foods from my refeed day to see if any particular food was causing the hives. Nothing in particular seemed to be causing the hives. So I proceeded to go to the doctor to get some blood work done to eliminate the possibility of a virus or some other possible causes. My blood work came back clean and everything was well within the normal ranges. Now I'm beginning to re-introduce carbs back into my diet as I hope to switch to a bulking diet by sept.

I'm going into my third week of carb re-introduction and everyday I have been re-introducing carbs I have had hives on my body. Allergy pills some what help to keep it under control but nothing really makes them go away. Although I have found that low GI carbs don't cause me to break out quite as bad as high GI carbs do. I have been talking to a variety of people to get some insight as to what is going on with my body and I have not found an answer yet. The best that I can figure is that my body got so used to not having to digest carbs, that it no longer has the bacteria required to digest carbs or my body has stopped producing some enzyme that I may need in order to process the carbohydrates.

I have had other symptoms such as upset stomach, gas and edema which are all pretty common with carbs being reintroduced back into the diet. I haven't been able to find much info regarding hives and Carbs. So I'm wondering if anyone has experienced the same issue as me? If so how long did take for your body to become accustomed to the carbs again and is there anything I can do to speed the process along a bit?

Any information you guys can provide would be great.
Thanks
-D

[Bertuzzi]

When I saw this thread.... I almost started to laugh. I broke out into hives last week at the start of my cycle, after coming off a TKD for 15 weeks. I never started to get the hives on my refeed's so it was new to me. I instantly thought it was the gear causing the problem but now I am not so sure. Did you get any swelling? My hands and feet swelled up a lot too. Did this happen to you??

[biggerisbetter1827]

Ya I experienced quite a bit of edema after my refeeds and at the start of my carb intro, I'm still holding some water but I have dropped most of it now. The water retention is simply due to your glycogen stores refilling when you take on the carbohydrates. Your likely taking on some water because of your gear. Depending on what your running of course.

Are you still breaking out in hives? Did you find anything in particular helped them go away?

[Bertuzzi]

Thats amazing that we went through the same shit... My hands and feet swelled up but I did not think of Edema because they were so itchy and kinda painful like arthritis. My feel swelled and the hives kicked in... I went straight to assuming it was something in the gear that caused me to react like this.

The only difference between me and you is I can't easily link it to the carbs because I never experienced this at all on my re feeds.... I was on a TKD so I ate post workout carbs and all I have done to increase my carbs so far is a some pre workout carbs. I dunno maybe it has something to do with working out and having the carbs in me, who knows.... but I never even thought to blame it on the carbs.

Maybe thats what caused it, maybe it wasn't I can be certain but this is interesting you are experiencing similar symptoms in a similar situation.

As for making it go away, I was taking over the counter Anti-Histamine (Benadryl) 3 times a day at max dose and it wasn't doing shit! I even got some Cortisone Cream for the swelling on my hands and it was prescription from a doc. That didn't help either.

I went the Hospital and the DR Prescribed me Hydroxyzine 25mg per pill. This is just another anti-histamine but it worked for the swelling. He also prescribed me Prednisone 50mg per pill. The dose is important on this one cause according to the pharmacist this shit comes in multiple doses and 50mg is the highest.... so the doc hooked me up This one is for the hives and within 12 hours they were almost all gone and within 36 hours there was not trace they existed.

Good luck and let me know how it goes. I'll keep you updated if I experience any change.

[Bertuzzi]

Any news?? I have attached a picture of my hand and what it looked like while I was going through that shit..... Did it look the same with you?

[biggerisbetter1827]

Holy shit you blew up like a balloon. I didn't get quite that bad but I defiantly had some swelling around my hands. Since we are experiencing similar things I'm betting it might be something to do with carb intake. Are you still experiencing hives? Are you off the gear at the moment?

After some reading I actually believe mine might be a gluten allergy. On sunday I broke out in hives really bad, it was all over my body, and previously on saturday I had a bit of a cheat day and I ate a whole range of carbs, from high and low GI and a few pastry type foods. Monday I got back on my regular diet which is relatively low in gluten and is composed of about 200g of Carbs and my hives cleared up almost instantly. Tonight it looks like my hives are completely gone except for maybe a few small spots. So my diet is currently working for me at the moment. I'm thinking about going to see an allergist to confirm my theory.

From what I'm reading gluten allergies can pop up at anytime in life and is usually triggered by something. The keto diet could possibly be that trigger.
But I won't know for sure until I talk to an allergist or eat some gluten rich foods and do some self experimentation.

What does your diet currently look like? Gluten allegrgy may be worth looking into.
I'll keep you posted on what I find out from the allergist and my experimentation.
-D

[Bertuzzi]

I'm still on the Test but have not reintroduced the Tbol... I am doing that tomorrow so we'll see if that was the trigger.

Ever since the doctor prescribed me those meds I have been fine with no related issues. I recommend just going and asking for some of that stuff, see if it works for you. My diet is still relatively low carbs except on my workout days but I had like a modified Refeed day on Sunday which was the day I fully recovered from the hives and swelling... so if it was the carbs my system has adjusted to them again.

I will let you know how things go with the Tbol and keep me updated on your situation.

Thanks...