# Ingesting poison oak/ivy

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ingesting-poison-oak-ivy/443113>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [March 28, 2008, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ingesting-poison-oak-ivy/443113 "2008-03-28T23:01:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gzbrown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9fc29f/32.png) [@gzbrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gzbrown)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ingesting-poison-oak-ivy/443113/1 "2008-03-28T23:01:38Z")

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When I was young, I had a terrible time with poison oak reactions. If they burned it in the town I lived in, I would get it just from the oils floating in the air. I would get blisters all over my body, as well as down my throat and up my nasal passage.

We had two goats at the time that we used for milk. They would roam around the woods and eat shrubbery, (and poison oak!), and over time I built an immunity to poison oak from drinking their milk. I can wade chest high in the stuff with no reaction now, and it’s been 30 years since I developed the immunity. I would say the best way to desensitize yourself is to drink the milk of goats that have been eating something.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ingesting-poison-oak-ivy/443113/2 "2008-03-29T00:16:17Z")

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Welcome to the SDMB, gzbrown.

A link to the column you’re commenting on is appreciated. Providing one can be as simple as pasting the URL into your post, making sure to leave a blank space on either side of it. Like so: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/080321.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/080321.html)