poison ivy cure, what works best for you?!


Question: Poison ivy cure, what works best for you?
When I get poison ivy it takes weeks to heal, any ideals! Thanks.

Answers:

I know it sounds weird, but you can actually take these little white round pills, about the size of a BB, and build up your immunity to Poison Ivy. I buy Poison Ivy Extract (formal name is Rhus Tox) at the local health food store, but I’m sure they have it at some drug stores, too.

I try to start taking the pills at the first of the season to prevent getting Poison Ivy. If I happen to get it before I’ve started taking the pills, then I just start taking them and it helps the itchy rash go away sooner.

In the meantime, if the symptoms are bothering me, I will use maximum strength hydrocortisone cream, and that seems to help me.



An old Indian cure was to crush leaves of jewelweed aka spotted touch-me-not (Impatiens capensis) and rub it over the affected area. I believe they also made a poultice by boiling the leaves and spread that on the affected areas when cool. I confirmed this in a book on local native American herbal remedies I picked up in an Indian museum bookstore. I can't find the book presently, so I'm going from memory. Of course, this assumes jewelweed grows in your area. The range of poison ivy certainly overlaps that of jewelweed, certainly in the northeast and into north central US. Another indicator of jewelweed are white-tailed deer who would eat the stuff, epecially before humans presented ornamental plants and garden varieties that they prefer even more. I've tried it and it works on me. Nice advantage is it's free and available, at least in my yard. However, the best thing is prevention. Where gloves and long sleeves. I occassionally pull a lot of poison ivy out on our property. If I put on latex gloves and wear an old long sleeve shirt, I never get it. Also, I thoroughly wash with an ordinary grease cleaner afterwards as well. I use the kind of grease cleaner I wash up with when I work on my truck's engine. The poison ivy active ingredient is an oil. So, some kind of detergent/grease cleaner is necessary to get it off. They say you have up to 5 hours to do this, but I've never tempted fate to that extreme. The jewelweed remedy is available sometimes from herbal shops. I put one link below.

http://altnature.com/jewelweed.htm



it is the oil of the plant(s) that is what causes the reaction in suseptible people. use something acidbased
and you break down the oil and wash it away. it is important to use the paper towel only one swipe at a
time or you will spread the oil further out from the irritated area. be gentle .dispose of all paper towels
or cloths immediately where they cannot be retrieved by any one accidentally. be sure to not touch any-
thing to the affected area until it can be washed with soap/detergent and running water. be sure to
remove all the oil from tools, shoes and clothing as soon as possible. after laundering clothing in detergent,
run the washer a couple of times empty with detergent as usual so as not to re-contaminate clothes.



My oldest son is highly allergic to poison ivy. He gets it all the time.

Help poison ivy clear up more quickly by soaking irritated skin in hot saltwater.

Hope this helps.



When I lived back East, I got poison ivy every single year beginning in my early 20’s. I was very allergic - it spread like crazy, but I thought I could clear it up on my own. I tried calamine lotion, Aveeno baths...no success. I figured I must be scratching in my sleep so, one year, I literally wrapped my arms up in ace bandages so that I couldn’t get to it. Then I awoke to find it was on my stomach. I think that’s when I admitted defeat.

You know the itch can almost literally drive you insane. I finally went to one of those Urgent Care centers. They gave me a big ol’ cortizone shot on my backside. Not fun, but it cleared up the poison ivy, and the incessant itching finally subsided. They normally give a series of three shots about two weeks apart. They suggested I come in each spring to get the shots as a precautionary measure. I never did, though. One shot took care of it for me, and I couldn’t see getting a shot in the derriere until I actually had something to warrant it.

I now live in San Diego, so poison ivy is a thing of my past. Maybe they have a pill or something less "invasive" than a cortizone shot these days. I’d check around. There’s also a lot of home remedies out there (Google brings up a bunch), but the shot is what worked for me.




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