A This Morning guest opened up about her very rare allergic reaction to the cold – which sees her body break out in hives.
Kirsten, 41, appeared on the ITV show to chat to hosts Dermot O’Leary, 52, and Olivia Attwood, 34, about her condition, which started back in February while on the school run – which she thought was caused by stress because she was due to head back to work after maternity leave.
Before being diagnosed with urticaria, she went to the GP, who sent her off to see an allergist in July.
According to MayoClinic, urticaria ‘is a skin reaction that causes itchy welts’.
Recalling what happened, Kirsten said: ‘They asked lots of questions when it was happening, they just said: “So it’s only when you’re outside and you’re cold?” And I said “Or in the shopping aisle, anywhere that is cold!”
‘Under air con, I’ll get prickly hives. It is really painful, it feels like your body is on fire. That one picture that showed up then, that was head to toe. It does feel like your skin is on fire.’
A This Morning guest (pictured) opened up about her allergic reaction to the cold – which sees her body break out in hives
Kirsten appeared on the ITV show to chat to hosts Dermot O’Leary, 52, and Olivia Attwood, 34, (pictured) about her condition
Kirsten noticed the change back in February while on the school run – but she thought it was just caused by stress because she was heading back to work after maternity
She continued: ‘It was always my face and my neck at first. Sometimes on my stomach, if I dont take my antihistamines, it can be on my feet, my legs, the entire body. It’s gradually got worse.’
Olivia pointed out that she is relying on the medication to keep them at bay, to which Kirsten explained: ‘I have to have four (antihistamines) a day.’
She added: ‘It keeps it at bay to a degree. So if I have long exposure, for example, on Friday, I went to a cathedral to watch a show and whilst I was there, I was sat down for two hours, it’s a very cold, old building. It’s a stone building.
‘By the end of the two hours, my stomach and tops of my legs, by the time that I got home, were in red hives. It didn’t happen from head to toe, so it does keep it at bay to a degree. But doesn’t completely stop it.’
Olivia asked: ‘Does it give you anxiety?’
Kirsten explained: ‘I was worried on that day. I had a thick fur coat on… All of this is fleece-lined [current outfit]. I don’t go anywhere without something that is fleece-lined on my body or extra warm clothes.
‘It makes it difficult, when I go out, I dress for being warm, then when I’m in somewhere I can’t strip off… so I’m sweating, and then outside I’m just surviving.’
Presenter Dermot then joked that the solution was for her family to move to the Maldives.
The trio were joined by Doctor Zoe Williams, 45, on the sofa and she explained Kirsten’s condition to viewers.
The trio were joined by Doctor Zoe Williams, 45, (pictured) on the sofa and she explained a bit more about Kirsten’s condition
Dermot asked: ‘So what is Kirsten’s condition? What do we know about this?’
Dr Zoe said: ‘So it’s called Urticaria. Urticaria is a skin’s reaction to the body releasing histimine.
‘Most of us will be familiar with the nettle sting. Touch a nettle and you get an urticarial reaction, that stinging, burning. We would all have an urticarial reaction to nettles.
‘Some people have urticaria to allergens, pollen, animal dander, some people like Kirsten have an urticarial reaction to physical things like hot, cold, stress, we had someone on the show not long ago who had the same reaction to water.
‘We don’t know why some people get this condition. It does tend to come on in the 20s, 30s, 40s. For about a third of people it does resolve by itself, between five and 10 years.
‘It’s quite poorly understood. It’s pretty rare. About five people in every 10,000, though, I suspect it’s more than that because when you don’t have good treatments for conditions, people are less likely to come forward for a formal diagnosis.
‘I can only imagine it limits what you can and can’t do – going swimming with your children, things like that.’
Dr Zoe said of her condition: ‘So it’s called Urticaria. Urticaria is askin’s reaction to the body releasing histimine. Most of us will be familiar withthe nettle sting. Touch a nettle and you get an urticarial reaction, that stinging, urning. We would all have an urticarial reaction to nettles’
That reminded Kirsten of a reaction that happened after taking a dip in a pool.
She recalled: ‘We just went a local swimming baths and I remember going in and I had it all on my neck and my back.
‘I just felt disgusting, because obviously you’re wearing a swimming costume, everybody can see your body. It’s not a nice thing to have.’
Zoe explained: ‘In most people, no actual cause is ever found. Then managing it, it’s quite tricky to manage.
‘Antihistamines are the main way of treatment. People with urticaria can have four times the dose of what others may have for hayfever.’
Dermot asked Kirsten: ‘What’s life like going forward?’
She said: ‘There’s a couple of autoimmune dieases that I’m waiting to have explored, one of the side effects could be urticaria.
‘So we’re hoping that once the underlying issue of one of these autoimmune diseases is maybe starting to be resolved, this might reduce less. That’s what I’m hoping for. A resolvement around the corner.’
Back in September a This Morning guest left Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard lost for words as she opened up about her very rare allergy.
Erin Cassidy, 24, appeared on the sofa alongside Doctor Zoe Williams, 45, to talk about how being allergic to water affects her day to day life.
Talking about the first time it ever happened to her, Erin told the hosts: ‘So I actually hadn’t had it up to the age of 14. I was in secondary school, I done GCSE PE, so I did swimming and that was one of my options.
‘One day I went swimming with the school, come out and broken out in a reaction all over my chest, it was a burning sensation, really itchy…’
She then realised that the reaction had happened again, but this time after bathing, showering and sweating.
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1 and is available to stream on ITVX.
