Every year I swear that I am going to take good enough precaution that I won't experience poison ivy rash. Well, I failed again this year. On the way back from looking at my garden I noticed some tall weeds in my flowerbed that are easily pulled before they get too tall, but impossible once they get too big. Like an idiot I began pulling WITHOUT gloves or long sleeves on. I realized this was wrong when I looked at my hand and saw a clump of poison ivy! I quit and immediately came in and washed with soap and water all the way up past my elbows.
Two days later I had a tiny bump on my left knuckle that I thought was a bug bite because it itched. It didn't get any bigger but the following day I had what I recognized as the blisters from poison ivy on my left arm. Even though I make a conscious effort NOT to so much as touch the skin, I must scratch at night because this stuff is everywhere, on my legs, abdomen and even on my right side where my bra line is. It always appears in a line that looks like a scratch which causes me to believe I must be scratching. I must scratch the infected area and then scratch somewhere else.
My treatment has consisted of putting a mixture of water, alcohol, and apple cider vinegar on the affected area, then making a paste of ACV and baking soda and applying to the area. The areas I'm treating are doing well, but every day I find a new spot. Does anyone have something else that may work better? I'm thinking of wearing gloves to bed at night!
I know MH is going to give you some great advice, but try epsom salt. Soak the affected area in it and then make a paste of epsom salt/baking soda and apply it to the area. The paste is kinda messy, but it works.
As a child I would get poison Ivy, but my Dad and his Mom never got it, they could pull it out all day with zero effects. My mom would get it bad. Then after I got into herbs, I don't get it anymore..........hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... seems poison Ivy is not a permanent problem......
The Amish Healer had me back a poison Ivy formula, he and another Amish healer uses 5 gallon each Spring for their fellow amish buddies that work in the woods cutting lumber. They reported back to me that this formula works like a miracle, the people don't come until the rash is HUGE and unable to treat it at their home and this liquid formula cures it!..hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!! I had to wonder WHY!
It didn't take long to read that IRON is the problem. People with an Iron inbalance get poison Ivy, people who have proper iron have no problems. The Ivy formula has a big dose of herb known to aid the IRON, the amish version uses a few drops of Iodine in the mix as well, I never liked this, because supposedly some people can be allergic of this, even none are on the record that I have ever read of. I am sure low iodine would also play a part in getting poison IVY!
So people can treate the posion all day, every day, but until they correct their iron, I doubt they will cure it and it will come back and come back with future contact.
I have only had PI once in my life when I lived in upstate NY. It was all over both hands. I bought about 4 different over the counter remedies all of which did zilch. With nothing to lose I took out the Aztec Healing Clay and dashed some ACV into it to make a gruel like paste and slathered both my hands with it. The itching left inside a minute.
Within a few days it was completely cleared up.
That's very interesting, MH, and something I would never have thought of on my own.
I've always had sensitive skin. I'm using the B&W on the areas I'm experimenting with the Black Salve (I'm sending you an e-mail later about this with some pictures.) You can tell exactly where I've put the B&W because the skin is pink, not flesh colored. I always apply from the outside in toward the center, so I know I don't get any of the black salve beyond where I want it. It is definitely a reaction to the B&W, but doesn't hurt or bother me in any way.
I will definitely try to increase my iron. Do you have any suggestions? Eat more spinach in my salads? Or could it be too much iron? How would I know?
just my 2cents, I too have suffered with poison ivy starting from when I was young, and described the history to this in some fairly recent past posts since this sort of connects to the current foot dilemma.
Anyway, the 2 cents worth is, while this may be an iron-related problem, I do not think this necessarily means it is a typical (at least, not as typically perceived) deficiency problem that is easily remedied by taking more of this, some of those, etc. More likely this is probably an "iron problem" that can manifest a bit differently among different people. The reason why I say this is that, at least based on conventional wisdom, I have and have pretty much alwasy gotten (consumed) plenty of iron-rich foods. Most of you probably already have a sense of my general opinion on conventional wisdom - I'm increasingly coming to find it's regularly wrong, often woefully so, and in many cases it's been shaped for us to be this way.
My hunch is, whatever general class of "iron problem" there is that leads to things like hyper sensitivity to poison ivy, it probably has something to do with a body that is already getting plenty of iron from diet, but the body itself internally is not able to use it due to some other malfunction......what?, I dunno, but that's my theory, and for now, I'm sticking to it :) I would add to this that a factor in this may be that the SOURCES of iron in the diet, although plentiful, may not be the best kinds of sources. Also, sensitiviy to poison ivy is one of those things that many people consider "allergy". I also suspect that we people by and large have been really mislead as to what allergies really are and aren't...... again, due to tainted "conventional wisdom". If what we have been led to believe about "allergies" is true, why is it that people often report they mysteriously "lost" a long-time allergy after having flushed their liver...... ?
That's my 2 cents worth. In commemoration of how things used to be, I decided to give 2 cents worth based on what 2 cents was worth, roughly, 100 years ago...... a time when money was more real, as was food, and people too, and were less sheeplish, but the literal sheep, well, they were probably still scared back then too ;)
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