Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffAs strange as it sounds, it's possible to have an allergy to cold temperatures. Doctors refer to this as cold urticaria (ur-tih-KAR-ee-uh). It's also sometimes called cold allergy or cold hives. With cold urticaria, exposure to cold temperatures causes redness, itching, swelling and hives on your skin. As much as possible, people with cold urticaria should avoid exposure to cold air as well as cold water. For example, swimming in cold water is the most common cause of a severe, whole-body reaction — leading to fainting, shock and even death.
If you think you have cold urticaria, consult your doctor. Treatment for cold urticaria may include antihistamines taken before cold exposure.
- Habif TP. Urticaria and angioedema. In: Habif TP. Clinical Dermatology: A Color Guide to Diagnosis and Therapy. 5th ed. Philadelphia, Pa. Elsevier: 2010. http://www.mdconsult.com/book/player/book.do?method=display&type=bookPage&decorator=header&eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-7234-3541-9..X0001-6&uniq=168576944&isbn=978-0-7234-3541-9&sid=911103500#lpState=open&lpTab=contentsTab&content=4-u1.0-B978-0-7234-3541-9..00015-8--s0420%3Bfrom%3Dtoc%3Btype%3DbookPage%3Bisbn%3D978-0-7234-3541-9. Accessed Oct.10, 2009.
- Kaplan AP. Urticaria and angioedema. In: Adkinson NF, et al. Middleton's Allergy: Principles and Practice. 7th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Elsevier; 2008. http://www.mdconsult.com/book/player/book.do?method=display&type=bookPage&decorator=header&eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-7234-3541-9..X0001-6&uniq=168572969&isbn=978-0-7234-3541-9&sid=911093993#lpState=open&lpTab=contentsTab&content=4-u1.0-B978-0-7234-3541-9..00015-8--s0505%3Bfrom%3Dtoc%3Btype%3DbookPage%3Bisbn%3D978-0-7234-3541-9. Accessed Nov. 2, 2009.
- Claudy A. Cold urticaria. Journal of Investigative Dermatology Symposium Proceedings 2001;6:141.
- Fox RW. Urticaria and angioedema. In: Lieberman PL, et al. Atlas of Allergic Diseases. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, Pa. Current Medicine: 2005:73.
