Can stress cause little clusters of itchy red bumps?

[shan_e_wilson]

This past Thursday I had 2 red bumps appear on my stomach and thought nothing of it. I just thought I had somehow got bit by something and it would go away. Over the past few days it has continued to get worse, to the point where when I woke up this morning, I had little red itchy bumps with warm heat on my lower back, stomach, a few on my neck and legs, and 1 on my face. The weird thing about this is that it is mostly on my right side of my body, with the exception of a few being on my left side of my body. I also have been feeling tingly and numy in my fingers, where they feel a bit achy (mostly my right hand).

I have never had anything like this in my life. I had the chicken-pox when I was 10 yrs old and that has been it. Never had any rashes or bumps until now. The itching and warm feeling of heat got so bad today that I thought I better go to the ER Room. I was told by the doctor I saw this evening that basically he did not know for sure what it was. He said it could be a response to something I am allergic too, but he wasn’t sure. He said it did not look like a bug bite, because the bumps were not just in one location on my body. I have done nothing different with eating or pills I take, so I don’t understand how it could be allergies. Especially, when this has never been present before.

The doctor told me to take 20mg of Prednisone for 3 days along with Zyrtec and see if it clears it up and then go from there. What I am concerned about is that if I am currently on hormonal treatment, could the Prednisone change my levels of Cortisol and Estrogen and make the bumps worse? I already have high levels of Cortisol and Estrogen and not enough of Progesterone.

My eyes have been aching, burning, and itching as well. This has me a bit concerned, because I have never experienced anything like this. The only thing I have done different lately is stay up later than I normally do. I have been helping a few friends move where we have been packing up their house and loading the boxes on the truck. If my body is stressed from this, could this cause the little red warm itchy and bumps?

I realize and understand this forum is not for diagnosing or treating issues, but I wander if any of you have had these similar symptoms and if you wouldn’t mind sharing what you did to get rid of it?

Thank You,
Shannon

[pmgamer18]

This happens to my wife a lot she has good cortisol levels but was OK taking Prednisone it’s not going to hurt anything and for my wife the red bumps were due to stress. The Prednisone helped. Once this happened and nothing helped she went back to the Dr. only to find out she had Shingles.

[DrMariano2]

@shan_e_wilson 560 wrote:

This past Thursday I had 2 red bumps appear on my stomach and thought nothing of it. I just thought I had somehow got bit by something and it would go away. Over the past few days it has continued to get worse, to the point where when I woke up this morning, I had little red itchy bumps with warm heat on my lower back, stomach, a few on my neck and legs, and 1 on my face. The weird thing about this is that it is mostly on my right side of my body, with the exception of a few being on my left side of my body. I also have been feeling tingly and numy in my fingers, where they feel a bit achy (mostly my right hand).

I have never had anything like this in my life. I had the chicken-pox when I was 10 yrs old and that has been it. Never had any rashes or bumps until now. The itching and warm feeling of heat got so bad today that I thought I better go to the ER Room. I was told by the doctor I saw this evening that basically he did not know for sure what it was. He said it could be a response to something I am allergic too, but he wasn’t sure. He said it did not look like a bug bite, because the bumps were not just in one location on my body. I have done nothing different with eating or pills I take, so I don’t understand how it could be allergies. Especially, when this has never been present before.

The doctor told me to take 20mg of Prednisone for 3 days along with Zyrtec and see if it clears it up and then go from there. What I am concerned about is that if I am currently on hormonal treatment, could the Prednisone change my levels of Cortisol and Estrogen and make the bumps worse? I already have high levels of Cortisol and Estrogen and not enough of Progesterone.

My eyes have been aching, burning, and itching as well. This has me a bit concerned, because I have never experienced anything like this. The only thing I have done different lately is stay up later than I normally do. I have been helping a few friends move where we have been packing up their house and loading the boxes on the truck. If my body is stressed from this, could this cause the little red warm itchy and bumps?

I realize and understand this forum is not for diagnosing or treating issues, but I wander if any of you have had these similar symptoms and if you wouldn’t mind sharing what you did to get rid of it?

Thank You,
Shannon

Itchy red bumps may indicate the presence of a vasculitis. This may be an allergic reaction. It is possible for stress to increase the risk for allergic reactions. A short course of Prednisone is a good general treatment. It is useful to determine the cause of the problem, if it exists, other than stress.

For example, on one of my patients developed an allergic vasculitis (itchy red bumps) from taking a particular birth control pill. But accompanying the rash, she also developed flu-like symptoms, aches. She had difficulty even walking. This indicated that the immune system have become over-activated as a result of the allergy, causing generalized problems in addition to the rash. Her gynecologist could not believe it. But I diagnosed it and the dermatologist agreed. A short course of Prednisone and stopping the birth control pill ended the problem.

[shan_e_wilson]

Thank You pmgamer18 for your response. I appreciate you sharing with me. Wow..your wife was being treated for what she thought was symptoms from stress, and it turned out being shingles. I sure hope it doesn’t go their for me. I hope your wife is fine now. I have heard that shingles is very uncomfortable and painful.

I also want to thank you Dr. Mariano for your response. You are very informational! I have not taken birth control for years. My fiancee told me that it was not good for me and that it screws up your hormones, so I quit taking it. I only took it because of hard menstrual periods. It was suppose to help me, but did the opposite. It completely messed my hormones up. I am now taking 100 mg of progesterone for 2wks on and then am off of it for 2 wks. I am trying to get it in ratio along with my cortisol and estrogen levels. I have had a real battle with it, to the point..to where it has caused me to loose my hair every time I wash it. My hair use to be really thick and it is getting thinner.

[DrMariano2]

Thinning hair may indicate a thyroid or estrogen imbalance.

But it may also mean a nutritional problem such as deficiencies in zinc, biotin, magnesium, selenium, lysine, linoleic acid.

[shan_e_wilson]

Thank you for this info Dr. Mariano. I have been a vegetarian since high school, and today I am 33 yrs old. I think by being a vegetarian all of this time..it really hurt me health wise. I will look further into the deficiencies you suggested that may be a contributing factor. My fiancee said a lot of the same things to me that you suggested, so I better get movin on it.

[DrMariano2]

@shan_e_wilson 637 wrote:

Thank you for this info Dr. Mariano. I have been a vegetarian since high school, and today I am 33 yrs old. I think by being a vegetarian all of this time..it really hurt me health wise. I will look further into the deficiencies you suggested that may be a contributing factor. My fiancee said a lot of the same things to me that you suggested, so I better get movin on it.

A vegetarian diet is not a natural human diet. Only in the modern age has such a diet been even possible. Otherwise, every society in history has always had at least a small amount of animal protein in the diet to maintain health – even if it is at least insects or insect parts that are often in harvested vegetables.

Plants are deficient in numerous amino acids, and are not good sources of the fat-soluble vitamins.

Recent studies show the brains of vegetarians are smaller than non-vegetarians.

The societies which have the most people who reach 100 years old usually eat the most animal sources of proteins and fats – even if it only consists of raw milk – compared to shorter lived societies.

[Rami]

@DrMariano 641 wrote:

A vegetarian diet is not a natural human diet. Only in the modern age has such a diet been even possible. Otherwise, every society in history has always had at least a small amount of animal protein in the diet to maintain health – even if it is at least insects or insect parts that are often in harvested vegetables.

Plants are deficient in numerous amino acids, and are not good sources of the fat-soluble vitamins.

Recent studies show the brains of vegetarians are smaller than non-vegetarians.

The societies which have the most people who reach 100 years old usually eat the most animal sources of proteins and fats – even if it only consists of raw milk – compared to shorter lived societies.

I’m curious, could you list the animo acids in which vegetarian diets are deficient? I’ve been tracking my nutritional intake for a few years and I’d like to see if my numbers are indeed suboptimal.

Also, what are the fat-soluble vitamins you mention? I’m genuinely interested.

And finally, didn’t those studies of vegetarians’ brains conclude that the reason was suboptimal levels of B12. It seems to me that it would be fairer to blame the shrinkage on failure to supplement with B12 than to place the blame on vegatarian diets as a whole.

And finally, aren’t the Okinawans the population with the greatest longevity? Sure, they are not vegetarian, but they are predominantly vegetarian, with only occasional treats of fish and pork. They get most of their protein (only 9% of their caloric intake) And fat (an astonishing 6%!) from plants. They certainly do not get most of their proteins and fats from animal sources.

Thanks for your time.

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