A gym bunny says she is “living in fear” after discovering a rare allergy means exercise could trigger a potentially fatal reaction.
A gym bunny was horrified to learn working out could KILL HER – as a rare allergy to exercise sees her swell up.
Ellie Sullivan was diagnosed with suspected exercise-induced urticaria (EIU) on January 25th meaning just a few minutes of high intensity activity can hospitalise her with an itchy rash and ballooned lips.
The beauty salon owner’s symptoms first started on Thursday [January 24th] after a 100-metre run with her personal trainer left her with a ‘bright red rash’ covering her face, neck, ears, back and chest. The 35-year-old spoke to her GP the next day and was stunned to be told she might have EIU, a rare condition that causes hives, itching and flushing during or after physical activity.
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After spending just five minutes on the cross trainer and doing her usual strength exercises on Sunday the fitness enthusiast was ‘terrified’ when she started experiencing tingling sensations and her lips doubled in size.
She rushed to hospital where doctors confirmed her rare allergy but are unsure what has triggered it. On social media Ellie shared footage of her flare-up to running captioned ‘when you are literally allergic to exercise’.
In the clip you can see the mum-of-four running with her personal trainer before showing her swollen lips during her flare-up. In another clip you can hear Ellie breathlessly saying ‘it’s so weird ‘ as she shows off the red rash on her neck and chest.
Now Ellie is ‘living in fear’ that her allergy could turn anaphylactic, which could be fatal. Having ‘fallen in love’ with the gym a year ago she says it would ‘break her heart’ if she has to give it up and fears that even walking might one day trigger a reaction.
Now, Ellie is urging others to get checked if they start experiencing allergy-like symptoms and ‘take it seriously’. Ellie, who lives in Honeybourne, Worcestershire, said: “I’m living on the edge because I just don’t know what’s going to happen.
“The problem is they don’t know if it’s going to turn into anaphylaxis. It would absolutely break my heart [if I couldn’t go to the gym]. I joined my local gym last year and started a transformation programme and absolutely fell in love with it.
“My PT said ‘we’re all going to do a mud run in July, do you want to join? Let’s go outside and see where you are with your running’. We did less than 100 metres and I was fine at the time. It was probably under three minutes that I ran for.
“I got home and I did think to myself ‘I feel a bit hot’ but it wasn’t until I got upstairs and looked in the mirror that I was covered in this bright red rash from my bra upwards.
“It was super itchy but it wasn’t a typical hive rash. It was a completely flat rash but just all over my face, neck, ears, back, chest. I thought ‘it’s a bit weird, don’t know what that is’ and then my lips started to swell. It wiped me out.”
After rushing to hospital after experiencing another flare-up on Sunday doctors diagnosed her with an exercise allergy and have referred her to a specialist. Now she must carry an antihistamine with her at all times and go to hospital during any flare-up.
Ellie said: “While I was standing in Greggs my ears started tingling first and then all this tingling started all over my face. Within seconds my lips just swelled up, I was terrified. When I went [into hospital] I was seen so quickly. By this point it had stopped increasing and started to go down. They could see the obvious lip swelling, my lips were double the size.
“The doctors had to research it while I was there because it’s so rare. Every time I have a reaction it’s getting worse. The problem is they don’t know if it’s going to turn into anaphylaxis. If your tongue starts to swell, that is a really life-threatening situation.”
Now Ellie’s been forced to completely cut out cardio and add more resting time into her strength workouts to avoid spiking her heart rate.
Ellie said: “It’s bizarre and I’m wondering what on earth has triggered it. It’s gutting [not to be able to do cardio]. This could end up affecting everyday life because it seems to be when my heart rate increases that my body is having a complete histamine melt down.
“I’m terrified it could one day develop to weights as well. We’ve had to adjust everything and I’m having to have extra time during sets to make sure my heart isn’t spiking. It’s trial and error seeing what I can and can’t do. It’s simple things like if I run up the stairs is it going to trigger it off? Even if I was walking it could potentially affect it.
“I’m living in fear of these flare-ups and not knowing if they’re going to turn because the doctors don’t know. I would be absolutely gutted [if I couldn’t go to the gym] and I’m really hoping it doesn’t end up like that. I’ve just got to be so careful.”
Anxiously waiting to see if her symptoms worse, Ellie hopes to spread awareness about her rare allergy.
Ellie said: “I don’t know anyone else with it. It’s one of those things I’ll say to people ‘no seriously I actually have an allergy to exercise, it’s not even an excuse’.
“I think it’s taking it seriously because at first I didn’t take it seriously. It’s not something you’d connect it to. You wouldn’t connect exercise and an allergy together, it’s just getting it checked.
“I really didn’t think it was going to be potentially as serious as it could be to the point it was life-threatening.”
