Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

Well, I managed to get into some poison ivy, which if you didn't know is the scum of the earth. Poison ivy is right up there with mosquitos on my list of hated species. I grew weary of being driven mad by the itch so I broke out a psychopathic cure I stumbled upon years ago. It will probably kill you dead as a door nail so use it at your own risk.

Ingredients

* some paper towels, toilet paper, an old rag or similar
* chlorine bleach

Directions

* drink the whole bottle of bleach
* don't really do that because it would be stupid, instead you should,

1) Moisten your paper or rag with bleach
2) Rub directly on the affected area, don't be gentle! Give in to your desire to scratch the itch vigorously, ignore the slight stinging sensation. It's a good thing to open the blister and rub bleach all over it.
3) Repeat procedure if itching returns after stinging sensation subsides

Within 24hrs the blisters should be dried up and stop itching, spreading and generally making your life miserable. They will heal normally like a scratch according to your constitution.

I'm sure there's some terrible downside I'm not seeing, but this method always works like a charm for me. It sure beats amputation, which I would have otherwise considered. I don't know how it works but I suspect the bleach destroys the irritating oils and kills the upper layers of skin so they can't react anyway.

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

In some places there is a plant that grows along with poinson ivy--often damp riverbottoms or woods. It's about 1m tall, succulent yellow stems, small yellow and organge blossoms in summer. It's called Jewelweed, and you can rub the succulent stems as juice on poinson ivy.

Other than that, anything that dries out the water boils will work. Baking soda, etc.

TS

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

I don't believe I have any jewelweed but next time I'll try some baking soda. Do you make a paste out of it like you'd do for a bee sting?

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

Same method I use Rev.

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

Haven't had a reason to try TECHNU yet.

My experience is with poison oak.
AFTER THE OILS ARE GONE,
or neutralized, but you are still itching,
immerse the affected area in very
HOT WATER .
Works well for me....

dtnwn

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

when I was little my mom used to dab bleach on my skeeter bites. it worked.

I'm resistant to poison ivy. Tramped through it in bare feet, pulled it with my hands, etc. Never had a problem and it's prolific here- anybody else experience that?

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

Heard of people like that.....but just like a movie star, I ain't ever actually SEEN one......ahahahhaaaaa


I take that back......I did see John Wayne once in a bar in Springerville, AZ

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

Hmm, I thought I was the only one to try bleach. I had some on my face, was getting desperate and decided I'd use the harshest chemical I could find in my friend's apartment on it to see if there would be some kind of weird chemical reaction. The irony here is that I had searched on the web and found some writeups on Technu. I went to the drug store at the corner of the street to buy some, but it was relatively expensive and I was absolutely poor, hence the desperation. I still haven't tried it out, maybe I'll give it a go one of these times.

I'm semi-resistant to poison ivy, if I get a lot on me I'll get some very itchy blisters but not a whole lot and it doesn't tend to spread too easily. When I was younger I wouldn't necessarily get any reaction at all so I'm not sure if its diet, body chemistry, luck or what?

You know, I just realized the last time I had poison ivy I got it from these same woods, except I didn't even live in this county at the time. Wow, that's weird!

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

I found this in Wikipedia about Jewelweed.

"Both species can and have been used as preventatives and palliatives for poison ivy rash, bee stings, insect bites, and athlete's foot. To do so, one can take the whole plant, crush it into a ball, and rub it onto the exposed area, or one can crush some jewelweed stems in a container, and then use a cotton ball to soak up the juice. The anti-inflammitory/fungicidal chemical in this plant is two methoxy-1, four napthoquinine."

This plant grows virtually everywhere in these parts during the summer. Watch it messing around, bees crawl inside the flowers to collect their goods and you can't see them sometimes.

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

The tiny seeds of the jewel weed are also quite tasty, a bit likes almonds. But watch out for the exploding seed pods!

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

Same here Anty. My wife claims I could eat the stuff and not break out. She, on the other hand, can just handle my clothes after I've been in the woods and she'll break out.

Bleach works for her too, Rev. Quicker you get it on your skin after contact, the better it works.

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

My dad got it really bad when he was a kid. I guess he fot it all over his body. Since then, he has not gotten it again. He claims he could swim in a pool of the stuff and he won't break out. I may test his theory on the 1st of April. :hahaha: :favorites21:

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

There's a topical steriod cream called Kenalog (at least that's how it sounds, guessing at the spelling). Many generic flavors exist now a days, but it was called Kenalog when I was a kid. I would catch the ivy so bad it would require visits to the emergency room.

This cream is some kind of miracle, Tho you do need an RX to obtain it.

The stuff would reduce my suffering from weeks to sometimes less than a day. Generally a couple or 3 days, but with greatly reduced symptoms.

Use very sparingly & the Dr. said I could lower the dosage by mixing with cold cream.

_________________________________
I Ain't a doctor. No advice given, just an anecdote. Without prejudice. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

My ex-husband used bleach on poison ivy. It worked every time.

I've never had it. I'm one of those people who aren't sensitive to it. My mother isn't, either; however, she did once get it badly as a kid when another kid, after seeing her sitting in a patch of it and hearing she wasn't sensitive to it, broke a leaf and rubbed it on her face. Her face swelled up like a big red balloon! Apparently, though she didn't react to the leaves, the amount of oil in a broken leaf was enough to do it.

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

I use Thin Set Mortar, go ahead make fun of me, it works.

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

Lime in the quikcrete does it, it draws moisture from the skin. Thats why you see big burly masons and foundation pourers using hand lotion. I keep the bottle of green gold bond right here next to the swivel rocker.
Benedril works for well on most allergic reactions if you are not allergic but now they tell me it may cause heart trouble and blood pressure problems.
Clariton D was the best but the same story there, now what do I do?
I'm going back to booze, at least its natural.

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

9 out of 10 doctors agree with the statements below (and the lone dissenter is still scratching himself):

1. Some people swear by remedies that worked for them. Bleach is one of these, but may also aggravate the problem by spreading into the bloodstream and leaving permanent scarring or reddened skin due to increased cellular damage. In general, what happened to work for one person may be ineffective or dangerous to another -- and there are literally hundreds of suggested treatments.

2. The rash is an allergic reaction learned over time, so it might seem a person is immune after the first exposure leads to no problems. Later exposure will most likely cause gradually worsening responses. No immunity or increased resistance develops after repeated contact -- in fact, one's own immune system is causing the problem by attacking the body's own cells. Trying to "cure" poison ivy by repeated contact is like trying to fight respiratory allergies by breathing more pollen.

3. The rash doesn't spread. It seems to do so in cases where different areas of the body receive different levels of exposure. The less exposure, the more delayed the reaction. Typically, it takes about a day for a rash to show up after heavy exposure, and up to a few days for less affected areas.

Re: Use At Your Own Risk: Poison Ivy Cure
 

Thanks for the backup Curtman, It really does work, I know it sounds funny. Patches of thin set on your arms and calves looks funny also.