When I was in Cub Scouts I had a den leader that said that the Native Americans would find poison ivy early on in the spring and swallow small pieces of the plant to build up an immunity to the poison ivy. The reason he said that they did it in the spring time was because the plant supposedly was the weakest at that time. Has anyone else heard of something like this? Personally, I find this hard to believe.
I also find that hard to swallow.
The link to the column:
How come some people are more vulnerable to poison ivy than others?
Please, folks, post the column link in the first post on a topic, so that people responding are all on the same page?
Thanks.
I’m not sure about airborne particles from a lawnmower, but a friend of mine was using a weedeater to clear some undergrowth at the edge of her property and hit a clump of poison ivy and the liquid sap pretty much splattered all of her exposed skin.
My wife is suspectable to almost any kind of skin irritant, but I am not. I was using a paint stripper and wearing gloves, but I had gotten splatters on my forearms and leg with no ill effect. When my wife started helping me, some splashed on her arm and almost immediately caused blisters.
Years ago, during a visit to a local state forest, my girlfriend and I somehow found ourselves rolling around on the ground, essentially naked. Of course, not being woodspersons, we didn’t notice what must have been a solid carpet of poison ivy beneath us. I wound up with a few small itchy spots, elbows and wrists as I recall. She, on the other hand, was forced to cancel our date the next evening due to the fact that she couldn’t bear to wear clothes. She was under a doctor’s care for weeks, and her rash, when I finally saw it, was red and lumpy and obviously very painful, covering at least 80% of her body. Given that our exposures to the stuff were roughly equal, it’s obvious to me that different folks have markedly different reactions!
No matter where you go, there you are…
T
unibrow, given that the reaction to poison ivy is an allergic one, the process you describe sounds a lot like the hyposensitization therapy that is nowadays used to treat allergies: The patient is given small but increasing doses of the allergen (usually into the bloodstream, but sometimes orally) and the body is supposed to get used to it so that its excessive sensitivity is reduced.
However, I doubt that the native Americans did any controlled studies or that they had a scientific theory on what they were doing. In fact, I have no idea whether hyposensitization works for poison ivy at all. Thus, I wouldn’t recommend this treatment pending further studies.
I know that mowing poison ivy can cause exposure. My boss was mowing his property and unknowingly went over some poison ivy. The next day, he was in such pain from his reaction that he could hardly move.
My two cents worth.
I spent a lot of time roaming around the woods as a youngster and never ended up with the stuff. My mom told me a story that my grandmother got into it really bad when my mom was nursing and my mom never got it either.Her claim was an inherited immunity.
I am skeptical myself.
Viva La Dos Equis!
[[Viva La Dos Equis!]] I could be wrong, but wouldn’t it be “Viva los Dos Equis”? Unless it’s “Viva la cerveca Los Equis”…
I don’t get much of a reaction to poison ivy, but my husband takes weeks to heal from exposure.
There is a caution against milk goats browsing on poison ivy(they love to eat it, with apparently no ill effects) because it can be passed on in the milk. But perhaps this is more of a caution for the sensitive milkmaid, who would pick it up in line of duty.
I’m one of the lucky people who doesn’t react to poison ivy, poison oak, or sumac (so far, and I’m 41 years old). Actually didn’t know what the first two looked like (never having the need to distinguish it from other plants) and wasn’t aware that sumac (which is plentiful in my area) could cause a reaction. Only one member of my rather large family reacts to exposure, and only began doing this around her 40th year. An inherited trait?
I read an article some years ago that said that many people only thought they were immune because they had never been sufficiently exposed, so I (probably foolishly) tested myself. I asked a highly allergic friend (who can spot poison oak a mile away) to point out one of these fiendish plants, then stuck my bare arm in the bush and rubbed the leaves all over it. No reaction. Also have cut down and burned tons of sumac without a reaction.
However, my highly allergic friend had a severe reaction from smoke from a campfire in which poison ivy vines were burned.
On the theory that eating a small amount may create an immunity: Don’t know how true this actually is, but my college biology teacher told my class that two professors at a nearby university (married to each other, BTW) decided to make their two children immune by feeding them poison ivy sandwiches, and both children had to be hospitalized and almost died. I wouldn’t recommend trying it, myself.
Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand.
Is there a plant which can occupy the ecological niche which poison oak occupies?
Friends pay to have the stuff dug out, but then it comes back. An ecologically oriented gardener told me it was valuable to prevent erosion. If there’s anything which can supplant poison oak, I want to know!
As far as folk remedies for poison ivy (and presumably its relatives) go, I had always heard in Boy Scouts that the sap of the jewelweed plant, of which touch-me-nots (those plants with the exploding seed pods) are a variety, will cure poison ivy if rubbed on the afflicted area. Various members of my troop have used this, apparently effectively, to treat exposure to the stuff, and it’s convenient because jewelweed is relatively common in areas where poison ivy is found. Has anyone else heard of this, or have any comments as to its effectiveness?
re: jewelweed, [[Has anyone else heard of this, or have any comments as to its effectiveness?]]
In my research to write the mailbag answer, I never ran across anything about this at all.
Jill