I had planned so well for my Las Vegas trip, buying new clothes and deciding on my outfit for the poolside gourmet wine and food spectacular. But after one day of walking in the hotter climate I developed the dreaded leg heat rash. My legs now sported bright red splotches from calf to ankle. That certainly wasn't going to look good wearing a skirt poolside.
The red splotches are often not itchy or painful, just ugly. In this case, mine itched a bit, but I think that was due to dry skin in general rather than the rash.
What is this leg heat rash? I've seen it happen to walkers for the past 25 years, yet until just a few years ago it seemed that no medical expert had ever heard of it. It appears after walking in a hotter climate, lasts a couple of days and is gone. Finally, I found a reference to golfer's vasculitis, a new name coined for it in a 2005 paper in the Australasian Journal of Dermatology.
The researchers say it appears in healthy, active people, more commonly in people over 50. It is caused by the blood vessels in the leg being irritated by the heat, simple as that. There is no suggested prevention or cure, just that you not worry about it, and there is no need to seek medical treatment.
Well, that didn't help me much for deciding what to wear poolside! Luckily, the night wasn't too hot, so I wore long pants rather than a skirt or shorts.
More on: Leg Heat Rash -- Golfer's Vasculitis
Source: Robert I Kelly, Jacinta Opie and Rosemary Nixon. "Golfer's vasculitis." Australasian Journal of Dermatology, Volume 46 Page 11 - February 2005
Photo © Wendy Bumgardner
