Living each day when you have hives and swelling is a challenge. You might wake up feeling great but 30 minutes later be so itchy you want to scratch your skin off. Whether you have hives as an acute reaction to something you ate or if you suffer from chronic hives throughout your life, you have to figure out a way to live with it.

For me, my hives come from a condition called dermatographia. I write about it a lot on this website, but if it doesn’t apply to you, read on. Here are a few tips I have learned after almost 20 years of dealing with hives and swelling.

Keep a Positive Attitude

The most important thing you can do is to keep a great attitude. I can tell you that after many years of being depressed and hopeless, your outlook is everything. If you feel like your situation will never improve, chances are it won’t.

Here are a few tips for increasing your happiness. Try yoga or meditation in the mornings to start your day off right. Instead of focusing so hard on your skin, itching, and red bumps, look at the things going right in your life.

Try to Exercise Daily

Make sure you are taking time to get outside and exercise. Since hives and swelling are signs of inflammation, you may think that this will only make it worse. However, I have found that when you are sitting around and not moving, you will be tempted to itch your skin.

Even if you physically cannot do strenuous exercise each day, that is fine. Try to go for a short walk, bike ride, or even do some stretching. Anything you can do is better than nothing to take your mind off the pain.

Improve Your Diet

There are many causes of skin irritations and hives. Many of those can either be made better or worse depending on your diet. I cannot tell you how many times I will feel great with very limited swelling or redness, only to have a horrible meal and feel awful 30 minutes later. For me the primarily culprits are gluten, alcohol, and sugar. I detail more in my lengthly post on diet and food here.

Try an elimination diet and see if removing things from your daily intake will make things better or worse. Go a few weeks without eating certain food and see how you feel. Some people report dramatic changes in hives when eliminating dairy. And one of the largest drivers of inflammation tends to be gluten, which is a natural inflammatory properties.

Get Uninterrupted Sleep

Sleep is the time when our body recovers and repairs itself. There is nothing you can do more beneficial than getting a good nights sleep. One of the most common triggers for hives is excess stress that your body is unable to cope with. It is very hard to be stressed out while sleeping.

Overall, there are many things that will help you understand chronic hives if you suffer from them. The most important concept I will stress is talking to people with experience treating these conditions. There are too many articles online written by people without the first-hand experience of living with dermatographia urticaria, hives, and itchy swelling.