NEWS AND VIEWS (COMMENT): Yvie Jones says that she was cat sitting, looking after a kitten whose name is Audrey. Within 24 hours the 47-year-old Australian television personality, was covered in hives. She posted a colourful picture of her hives on her Instagram page…covered in words. She says that she used a filter to make the hives look less severe and said that it turned out that she is allergic to cats.
My research tells me that at the extreme end of severity, a cat allergy can cause hives but it must be rare. I’m sure she’s right but it’s worth remembering that Yvie Jones was in a friend’s home and that hives can be caused by a whole range of things such as chemicals, dust mites, heat, emotional stress, infections, medicines, latex, insect bites and stings and even food. Look, I am just questioning whether Yvie Jones is absolutely certain that little Audrey caused the hives. She is very confident it did but there are other possibilities.
For the sake of completeness, hives occur when one of the above causes results in the body producing a high level of histamine and other chemicals which are released in the skin. The visible symptoms are what you see in the photograph. A doctor might prescribe corticosteroids, methanol cream or stronger antihistamines to treat the hives.
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