Link between sudden onset of hives/allergies & thyroid?

[incognito1]

Ok..this is my first post.  I am 36 yr old living in So. Calif.  I have had seasonal allergies since I was a kid.  When I  was in HS I discovered I was also allergic to cats & had one single incident of hives & one single incident of "asthma"...or basically I was wheezing and they gave me an inhaler I used it once and never again.  

Anyway in November '07 my allergies began to act up and I had two separate bouts of hives, followed by a chronic chough and wheezing.  I was put on prednisone & claritin & an inhaler for the wheezing.  Anyway the hives went away, the wheezing became intermittent & the cough has never gone away.  

Then last week I broke out in the worst hives I've had yet...my entire face/ears were red/swollen & I was wheezing horribly again.  Again my Dr has put me on prednisone, antihistamines & the inhaler as needed.  The hives and wheezing has subsided, but the cough remains & he now thinks I need to have an entire spectrum of allergy tests run.  

I am obviously OK with trying to pinpoint the cause, but I guess my concern is that this all seems so sudden & I'm afriad the cause could be something bigger, like perhaps a thyroid problem.    Has anyone else heard of a link between hives/allergies & hypothyroid issues?  For the record I have put on about 20 lbs in the last year and am low energy, but I mostly attributed that to the gall bladder removal surgery & knee arthroscopic surgery I underwent in 2007.   Any help or resources would be appreciated. :)

[CalJamChris]

I would say yes to link between hypothyroid and hives, have suffered with worst hives past 3 months straight, have had break outs in past due to dairy allergy, nothing like this one, hives all over and swelling face eyes and lips ... crazy .... was put on prednisone & claritin helped didn't stop it completely, doctor insisted I go to allergist, I insisted on a blood test first to check liver, kidney, thyroid and other basics to make sure nothing else was the cause. Got the test back yesterday, everything good except my thyroid, have Hypothyroid  started 50 mg of thyroid med this morn, no prednisone, did take claritin, so far no break out.

[incognito1]

Have any of the Drs heard of a link between allergies/thyroid or even allergies/candida?  I see my allergist for the first time on Monday, so I would like to go in with some good information & also if there are certain tests I should ask to be run, so I can get the most complete picture.  Thanks :)

[incognito1]

Thanks for the information.  I dont have any food allergies that I know of but i did eat some shrimp the night before I broke out in hives this last time.  However I have eaten shrimp and other shellfish for years without problems.  

My father has allergies to tree nuts & my mother has eczema, so I probably have a pretty fair chance of having some allergies.  The article on candida was interesting.  I will probably see if they can check me out for the thyroid & candida in addition to the allergy tests.  I am going to read up some more & see what I can find out.  Thanks again

[Soonerman]

http://ibdcrohns.about.com/cs/candida/a/candida.htm

Check out the link above and the relationship between candida and allergies.  The Symptoms sound the same as what you have , there are tests for levels of candida.  I also saw in another site weight gain and inability to control it was another symptom.  

In addition, although I didn't look into too closely, I saw an article on the link between candida and thyroid issues.  Basically what I got out of what I saw is the deficiencies associated with candidiasis correlate well with deficiences associated with hypothyroidism, selenium, zinc, b12, folic acid...

Interesting, please let me know what you think when you look into candida and if you get tested.

[Soonerman]

Do you have any food allergies?  Environmental allergies are common in people with food allergies also.  I would get checked out for that because eating foods that you are allergic to, gluten, wheat...could lead to your problems.

I don't know about allergies and thyroid issues; but I did read that gluten, a common food allergy, has links to thyroid issues.