Whole Body Itchiness

My WHOLE body is itchy! I don't see any rashes. But I'm itchy all over, including my eye balls and private parts! Could this be Crohn's related? Or a reaction to a medication? However, I don't have any new medications. I'm on Aza and Remicade. I only had three loading doses of Remicade thus far. Or maybe it's allergies? Or could I get a delayed allergic reaction to the one of the medications?

Help!

:eek2:

Hi Rengen,

This condition can be related to a few things, allergy can be one of them but impairment of certains internal organs is one other thing that can translate into general itching. I would suggest you to get a hold of your GI (or your GP if it is easier) and discuss those symptoms in order to get the proper blood test done. Has this itch been there for a while? I know that you are not the first to mention this symptom. Lucky, some that have experienced it will be able to provide you some additional info.

This itchiness started last night. It hasn't gone away, even with a Claritin. If it keeps up, I'll definitely contact my GI doctor. Thank you!

What do you mean by impairment of certain organs?

I have this problem and I chalk it up to a reaction to biologics. I take anti histamine daily to help with it otherwise I go crazy.

I used to get really bad allergic reactions to Remicade. I would get eczema, psoriasis and hives. The itching was the worst. I would actually wake up scratching myself.

Maybe see if you can get a test done for antibodies to Remicade. Otherwise: ask for an antihistamine and/or steroid before infusion. In my case, it turned out I had really high antibodies to Remicade and had to switch to Humira.

Prior to infusion, I get a Benedryl and have to take Claritin. I'll have them check for antibodies. But it's weird to develop antibodies after only three infusions. I hope that's not the case.

The pruritus feeling can be caused by liver and pancreas related pathologies. With medications like ours it is not so rare to encounter people that experience liver toxicity to a certain degree or even comorbidities like primary sclerosing cholangitis that can have this general itching amongst their list of symptoms. There are chances that it could be related to some form of inflammation of the liver generally the biliary tract.

I would not worry too much given it's only been one day but I would still bring it up to my GI if I were you.

Thank you. I hope it goes away on its own. I didn't know all that stuff, so thank you for the information. I took some Benedryl, however it didn't do anything to make it stop either. That is abnormal for me. If it keeps up, I'll contact my doctor. Thanks again.

I was in the same boat as you! I was itchy everywhere for about a week. Did go away on it's own, thankfully. Same thing, no rash or hives to speak of, and I'm currently undiagnosed so not on any heavy duty meds yet

I'm glad your's went away.

Hi!
The same happened to me last year. My skin was so itchy I couldn't even sleep, study or focus on everything else, and I was starting to scratch my poor skin until I saw blood.

I was on 6-mercaptopurine, quite similar to aza, and itchyness was the first symptom of a liver intoxication due to it. It took a simple blood test to see that my alkaline phosphatase was reeeeally high and so were my transaminases: I ended up discovering that itchyness is one of the initial symptoms of liver overload.

When I suspended the 6mp, everything disappeared. Make a blood test as soon as possible! Itchyness may seem a little thing but sometimes is the spy for something bigger.

babyjenks said:

Hi!
The same happened to me last year. My skin was so itchy I couldn't even sleep, study or focus on everything else, and I was starting to scratch my poor skin until I saw blood.

I was on 6-mercaptopurine, quite similar to aza, and itchyness was the first symptom of a liver intoxication due to it. It took a simple blood test to see that my alkaline phosphatase was reeeeally high and so were my transaminases: I ended up discovering that itchyness is one of the initial symptoms of liver overload.

When I suspended the 6mp, everything disappeared. Make a blood test as soon as possible! Itchyness may seem a little thing but sometimes is the spy for something bigger.

Click to expand...

Thanks so much for the information! I just had blood work about a week and a half ago. Could that change in a short amount of time?

Yes the blood can change quickly. I also have this itchiness. I'm on aza (20 years) and a biologic too and have been for about five years. I'm starting to see a lot of side effects from it that I didn't have before. Two of my sister's have been on the remicade. One had to stop from the itchy side effects. It worked well for quite a few years for the other but she has recently had to stop because of too many antibodies to it.

For my all over itch, my Dr had me take claritin, get a humidifier, take sea salt baths and moisturize with cetaphil cream at least twice a day. After about two weeks it got the allover itch under control. I'll still get an occasional day with it but nothing like it was. I hope you find a way to stop yours.

Your Dr definitely needs to know about it.

Thanks so much. I'm so fed up with this itchiness!