The Cold
Cold temperatures can be another cause of an immune freakout. We recently reported on a 37-year-old man who nearly died from anaphylaxis after he stepped out of a hot shower. Doctors believe the episode was triggered by his sudden exposure to cold air in the bathroom, a severe version of the hives he had begun experiencing when he moved to chilly Colorado from tropical Micronesia. Some cases of this allergy can be explained by a rare mutation passed down in families, but most remain unexplained.
