redness, just curious

[carol]

when i woke up this morning, my midtorso is as red as a tomato, my belly and my backside too. also, there are white spots randomly distributed as if these areas have been left out by blood. Last night, i drank more than usual. I don't know if it might be related. do you have an explaination about this?

[iNow]

when i woke up this morning, my midtorso is as red as a tomato, my belly and my backside too. also, there are white spots randomly distributed as if these areas have been left out by blood. Last night, i drank more than usual. I don't know if it might be related. do you have an explaination about this?

 

Well, the most likely explanation is that you were drinking, and went outside with your friend to be at one with nature. However, while outside, you got bitten by a bug, so went inside to find some bug spray. You did not have any OFF, so covered yourself in RAID instead. You went back outside, drunk out of your gourd by this point, and started howling at the moon. When you looked down, you noticed your skin was turning red from the RAID, and you... being drunk... mistakenly interpreted this to mean that you got a moonburn. Your friend, who was also drunk and failed both his classes in physics and chemistry, remembered that cooling the skin with ice would help, but didn't trust his memory (since he'd failed so many test questions), and instead decided the best thing to do was heat the skin. He went inside and got the kerosene heater, then convinced you to lay on it for 10 minutes on each side, like a burger on a grill. You, being drunk, laid there sipping another margarita and got burned in addition to the reaction your skin had to the application of RAID. Shortly thereafter, your parents came home and found you laying on the heater and freaked out. They had decided that this was too far, and drastic measurs were required. They threw you into the car, drove you to the liquor store, and bought a bottle full of tequila. They took you home and forced you to drink the whole thing to teach you a lesson about how bad alcohol is. Your dad drank with you though, figuring it was silly to waste a good bottle of tequila on teaching his child about the dangers of alcohol, and he, being an angry drunk, got mad and started yelling, slapping you with a flat palm across the belly and back, breaking the blood vessels at the surface of your skink as he did so. Fortunately, he soon realized how stupid it was to beat you and promptly stopped, but only after you smacked him in the head with the frying pan and threatened to chop off his testicles with the meat cleaver. You both passed out on the floor, and your mother put you to bed at 4am. Then, you woke up this morning and saw your red skin, but couldn't remember how it had happened.

 

 

 

If that's not it, but it's related to alcohol, try to remember that alcohol causes dilation in the surface capillaries, and some people have sensitive skin which will react more significantly to this blood vessel dilation than others. I'd guess it's either that or you had an allergic reaction of some sort (either to food or the shirt you were wearing). You might try rubbing on some Benedryl ointment or taking a benedryl tab if you're not going anywhere for the next several hours. Cheers.

 

 

I got a tattoo of WHAT... on my WHERE!?!?!

[carol]

lol.

 

i rarely drink that's why i said i drank more than usual. so that night i'm not really drunk, my senses were functioning like i never took anything alcoholic. anyway, i got home at 9 pm (quite early for someone who came from a party), and slept at 10:30 pm. i now remember that i woke up at 1 am and started scratching. but i also went back to sleep. when i woke up and changed clothes, i noticed the redness. well, i went to the doctor and he also got puzzled. he said it might only be an allergy. so he gave me an antihistamine and said to come back if the redness persists.

[imp]

lol.

 

i rarely drink that's why i said i drank more than usual. so that night i'm not really drunk, my senses were functioning like i never took anything alcoholic. anyway, i got home at 9 pm (quite early for someone who came from a party), and slept at 10:30 pm. i now remember that i woke up at 1 am and started scratching. but i also went back to sleep. when i woke up and changed clothes, i noticed the redness. well, i went to the doctor and he also got puzzled. he said it might only be an allergy. so he gave me an antihistamine and said to come back if the redness persists.

 

Consider possibility your anomaly may be totally unrelated to any event/occurrence only a few hours before its presence; this may be a reaction from as long as several days or more before.

 

Think back of anything unusual, different clothes washing detergent, for example. Anitihistamine can't hurt. imp

[SkepticLance]

Keep an open mind on this. It may not even be related to alcohol. If it does not go away in a day or two, find another doctor.

 

I remember an occasion where we were camping, and a friend woke up with a similar rash. We did not know what it was, and took her to a doc. It was shingles, which responds to treatment, but gets bloody painful without. Shingles is caused by an outbreak of the old chickenpox virus.

[carol]

it's gone now. so i guess it was just an allergy. but i still don't know from what. I can't remember anything i did that was unusual or applied something new.

 

I had an experience with food. I was told not to eat shrimps or any food product with it because of my asthma. well, that's what my parents said. but i refuse to obey the advice since I don't notice any reaction from eating shrimps. About a year ago, I ate and my face got so itchy. It swelled. Well, do you think that I would be allergic with a certain substance but I take it all the time, the allergic reaction only appears when certain conditions are met?

[imp]

allergic with a certain substance but I take it all the time, the allergic reaction only appears when certain conditions are met?

 

Assuredly possible, happens to me often. Believe related to ingestion of other things which offset the allergic reaction; why? don't know. imp

[iNow]

Try to remember that an allergic reaction is your body rejecting some chemical or molecule, etc. It touches your skin, or your lungs, or your stomach and your body sees it as foreign. So, it attacks it with histamine, a protien used by the immune system to combat the foreign body.

 

While it's possible that some combination of items caused the reaction (like the tequila and raid and kerosene heater and your dad's hand and falling asleep on the floor ), whether it be different foods or articles of clothing or your boyfriends cologne... the most likely possibility is one thing caused it.

 

 

I'm allergic to creationists, but I'm not using "allergic" in it's normally defined sense.

[Revenged]

Allergy isa 'type I hypersensitivity'...

 

It occurs because allegens cause inflammation...

 

Allegen binds to IgE antibodies, which then bind to mast cells in tissues or basophils in blood...

 

The mast cells or basophils release of substances that cause inflammation (histamine, prostglandins, leukotrieneces)

 

It is the dilation of blood vessels that causes the redness of the skin...

 

So, it attacks it with histamine, a protien used by the immune system to combat the foreign body.

 

Histamine is a decarboxylated amino acid not a protein...

[iNow]

Histamine is a decarboxylated amino acid not a protein...

 

What are proteins made of?

 

 

http://www.bio.davidson.edu/courses/Immunology/Students/spring2000/lamar/mfirp.htm

Histamine is an important protein involved in many allergic reactions. Allergies are caused by an immune response to a normally innocuous substance (i.e. pollen, dust) that comes in contact with lymphocytes specific for that substance, or antigen. In many cases, the lymphocyte triggered to respond is a mast cell. For this response to occur, a free-floating IgE (an immunoglobulin associated with allergic response) molecule specific to the antigen must first be attached to cell surface receptors on mast cells. Antigen binding to the mast cell-attached IgE then triggers the mast cell to respond. This response often includes the release of histamine.

The release of histamine (hist = because it's made up of histidine residues, amine = because it's a vasoactive amine) causes several allergic symptoms. 1) It contributes to an inflammatory response. 2) It causes constriction of smooth muscle.

Histamine can cause inflammation directly as well as indirectly. Upon release of histamine by an antigen activated mast cell, permeability of vessels near the site is increased. Thus, blood fluids (including leukocytes, which participate in immune responses) enter the area causing swelling. This is accomplished due to histamine’s ability to induce phosphorylation of an intercellular adhesion protein (called (VE)-cadherin) found on vascular endothelial cells (Andriopoulou et al 1999). That is why histamine is known as being vasoactive. Gaps between the cells in vascular tissue are created by this phosphorylation, allowing blood fluids to seep out into extracellular space. Indirectly, histamine contributes to inflammation by affecting the functions of other leukocytes in the area. It has been suggested by Marone et al that histamine release triggers the release of cytokines and inflammatory mediator by some neighboring leukocytes (1999). These chemicals in turn increases the inflammatory response.

 

Histamine's second type of allergic response is one of the major causes for asthma. In response to an allergen (a substance that triggers an allergic reaction), histamine, along with other chemicals, causes the contraction of smooth muscle (Schmidt et al 1999). Consequently, the muscles surrounding the airways constrict causing shortness of breath and possibly complete trachial-closure, an obviously life-threatening condition. If the effects of histamine during an allergic reaction are inhibited, the life of an allergic person can be eased (in the case of inflammation) or even saved by preventing or shortening asthma attacks. Thankfully, many effective drugs have been developed to hinder histamine's allergic response activities.

[Revenged]

What are proteins made of?

 

Proteins are made up of amino acids but amino acids aren't proteins...

[insane_alien]

just like a house can be made of bricks but a brick is not a house.

[iNow]

Proteins are made up of amino acids but amino acids aren't proteins...

 

Of course, I did not intent do imply otherwise. However, are you also suggesting by this that the very first sentence in the link I shared in post #10 is incorrect?

[Revenged]

Of course, I did not intent do imply otherwise. However, are you also suggesting by this that the very first sentence in the link I shared in post #10 is incorrect?

 

Perhaps I am ...

 

I don't think it really maters though...

[iNow]

I don't think it really maters though...

 

Well, I guess that makes one of us. Agreeing whether it's an amino acid or a protein would actually prove pretty useful to somebody doing work on the topic. It's not a "tastes great," "less filling" discussion we're having, but dialog on histamine structure and method of action, where details matter and statements should be supported.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Histamine is a decarboxylated amino acid not a protein...

 

Okay... You were close. Here's what I've found, complete with support and citation.

 

 

http://neuroscience.uth.tmc.edu/s1/i12-7.html

In contrast to the catecholamines and 5-HT, the biosynthesis of histamine does not require hydroxylation. Histamine is the product of the decarboxylation of the amino acid, histidine, to form the monoamine, histamine, in a single step that is analogous to the decarboxylation of DOPA and 5-HTP. A different enzyme is used to decarboxylate histidine, histidine decarboxylase, as shown in Figure 12.8. This enzyme, like AADC, requires vitamin B6.

Emphasis mine. Click link to view figure.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Hmmm... yet here, it says the following:

 

http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topicreview/bp/1biochem/amino2.html

A few biologically important derivatives of the standard amino acids are shown in the figure below. Anyone who has used an "anti-histamine" to alleviate the symptoms of exposure to an allergen can appreciate the role that histamine a decarboxylated derivative of histidine plays in mediating the body's response to allergic reactions. L-DOPA, which is a derivative of tyrosine, has been used to treat Parkinson's disease

 

 

 

So, maybe both me and my link are mistaken. Perhaps someone can answer this... Can a protein be decarboxylated, or are only amino acids decarboxylated?

[Revenged]

Tyrosine is an amino acid precursor for two neurotransmitters and adrenaline

 

Tyrosine -> L-DOPA -> Dopamine -> Noradrenaline -> Adrenaline

 

 

Tyrosine (amino acid) is hydroxylated by tyrosine hydroxylase to form L-DOPA

 

L-DOPA isn't an amino acid... It is carboxylated to form Dopamine

 

Parkinson's disease is a disease where there is death of the dopaminergic neurones in the brain...

 

The main treatment involves increasing dopamine levels in the brain but since dopamine cannot pass the blood brain barrier it cannot be used... This is why L-DOPA (the precursor of dopamine) is given as treatment for Parkinson's...

 

L-DOPA is given with carbidopa, which is a peripherally acting (i.e. doesn't cross the blood brain barrier) DOPA-decarboxylase inhibitor... This prevents formation of dopamine in the peripheral nervous system - preventing side effects (e.g. nausea)

 

 

I'm not sure about decarboxylating proteins...

[tiberiu]

Everybody has opinions, but nobody told the essential part: GO SEE A DOCTOR!!!!! The doctor will probably solve your problem quickly or send you have some tests done and figure it out... Simple, huh?