Archive for April, 2012

Poison Ivy Season Is Here

Poison Ivy Season

Summer can be scary because it is a poison ivy season. Especially if you are prone to poison ivy skin rash! Your regular walk in the woods can quickly turn into a nightmarish experience if you are not careful. Summer is best known as poison ivy season and you had better be aware of the havoc it can cause!

So what do you do during poison ivy season? Discontinue walks in the woods. However, you still need to do the laundry right? Therefore, when you put your children’s clothes, which are stained with grass, into the washer you can be prone to poison ivy sores especially that it is a poison ivy season. If you just felt a rush of love from your dog who went for a little stroll in or near the woods, your skin could quickly flare up because of poison ivy! You will really be convinced that poison ivy season is here.

Additional Poison Ivy Resources

Do not touch anything feasible?
Of course not. As much as we hate contracting poison ivy rash you just cannot stop touching things around you, right? You would look like a lunatic straight from another planet! Since this is not a solution, you need to think of ways where you avoid indirect and direct contact with poison ivy, having in mind that it is a poison ivy season.

Things to do in summer which is a poison ivy season
If you want to avoid poison ivy skin rash and all those messy, leaky boils that itch all day, you can stay indoors all day long! But what fun is summer if you have to be indoors all the time? Or better still, do not let anything or anyone touch you. But what if you need a hug? Nah not a good idea! Otherwise you can dress up like a Taliban leader who looks like he is warding off bees! That would sure make heads turn in curiosity!

Do you know what poison ivy looks like?

Okay, if you have never seen poison ivy then here is a primer. These plants grow to a height of two feet and appear in clusters. Therefore, if you are walking inside the woods and come across an especially weedy section, you need to be extra alert. After all, summer is poison ivy season and the plant lurks in such weedy areas. The flowers are not much to look at anyways. Wait a minute did we say flowers? Yep, you heard us right! Poison ivy does have flowers, but they look like itsy bitsy mushrooms or popcorns on the cluster of leaves. If you still didn t notice poison ivy inside the woods, you can identify the plant based on the berries on it. These clusters of berries ripen during late summer season. You will see these berries transform from pale green to a whitish hue. If you thought poison ivy only grew and stayed on land you re mistaken my friend! Poison ivy, as menacing as it is, even climbs up stone walls just like regular creepers! So if you find a trailing creeper with pale green berries and disgusting looking flowers, you know it is the dreaded poison ivy!

You may not even know it but might have accidentally brushed against a poison ivy plant. The resulting rash can be nasty and leave you with boils all over the affected area. If you have come back from a walk inside the woods and notice a swelling, itchiness or blisters on your skin you can be sure it is a case of poison ivy rash. You will most likely notice a straight line of blisters and redness on the skin. This is usually the case when you rub against the plant. However, if you touch some clothing with urushiol oil over it, it can trigger a massive case of poison ivy skin rash. You can expect to see a nasty rash appear anywhere from 12 to even 48 hours after contact. If the condition is more severe, you may notice more rashes appearing several days after contact. Most people believe the poison ivy rash is spreading across their body but actually it is a reaction to how much urushiol oil got absorbed by your skin.

Do leaky blisters trigger its spread?
No. In fact, if the pus from the blister were to spread to other people around, they would not get infected. However, if you have germs present under your nails these could result in secondary infections.

Removing Urushiol oil
Urushiol oil is the substance found on the poison ivy plant, which triggers poison ivy skin rash. If you suspect being infected by the plant, your first priority should be to remove all urushiol oil traces from the skin.

This article was written by A. Broussard, a free-lance writer currently working in the medical field. Broussard has written for a number of news journals and is currently under a writing contract with Q-Based HealthcareTM.

Complete Poison Ivy Treatment Kit

Our Complete Poison Ivy Treatment Kit comes with a Citrus Skin Exfoliator to remove the urishol oil from your skin and pores and also comes with the Medicated Healing gel that stops the burning and relieves the itch from Poison Ivy, Poison oak and Poison Sumac while helping heal the skin damage.

Specialized surfactant base washes skin and removes urushiol without abrasives that can cause skin damage in serious outbreaks.

Does anybody have any home remedies for poison ivy? I have a bad case!?

Home Remedies for Poison Ivy

Well, this is probably too late for you, but having been a Scout leader, a forestry worker and a farm owner, I unfortunately have a long, long relationship with the typical reaction from the poison ivy/poison oak plants. I have to work in them nearly every day.

A quick and easy home remedies for poison ivy, although you have to be careful, is application of lots of warm to “hottish” water to the site of the itch. The heat of the water activates the body’s histamine.

Histamine is what causes you to feel the itch. The body can only produce so much histamine at a time, and by running hot water over the area, you will “use up” all the body’s histamine. The itch will disappear for four to six hours until the body produces a new bunch of histamine.

BUT, while the hot water is applied, the area will itch like crazy while all the histamine pops off…Usually only takes two or three minutes…You also have to be intelligent enough not to scald your skin with the hot water while doing this. While doing this home remedies for poison ivy be sure to use the hottest you can stand without doing any 1st, second or third degree burns….LOL

On a related topic, you have heard of “anti-histamines,” right. A couple of other posters also mentioned them. Typically called allergy pills, such as Bendaryl, etc., I find they give mild to moderate relief.

Finally, I have found what I consider a “miracle cure” for the itch, but it is a lot more expensive than hot water. The first company to come out with it was ZANFEL. If you do a web search on it, you will find lots of information, including where to buy it. It is pricey. $30 + a tube and it is a small tube, but you don’t need much.

A few years later, Tecnu came out with a copy of the Zanfel formula. It is usually a bit cheaper. I talked to the pharmacist who made the formula for Tecnu. He says that both product work equally well as remedies for poison ivy, a slight difference in formulas for legal sake.

Resources of Interest: Poison Ivy

Variety of Remedies for Poison Ivy

The Tecnu product is called Tecnu Extreme. Be aware that Tecnu has SEVERAL products….On the West Coast, where I live, they are both available in all the major chain drugstores. You may not be so lucky, but both Tecnu and Zanfel have Web sites that can probably direct you to where to buy.

I have recommended these remedies for poison ivy to a few dozen people over the years and only one has said they did not work. All the rest were very outspoken about how wonderful the relief was.

As I said, they are both expensive, and hot water is cheaper….

Finally, this is the BEST Web site I have ever found for poison oak, and although some of it is out-of-date, it has more than enough ideas to keep you busy for awhile.

Again….my usual remedies for poison ivy is hot water. If it is a large area, or particularly stubborn, I go for the Zanfel or Tecnu Extreme.

If it is near the eyes, on the genitals, or causing some other major problems, you NEED to see a physician immediately.

Steroids will knock it down big time, but, of course, they are also expensive and carry their own list of side effects.

The Most effective Remedies for Poison Ivy

The All Stop Complete Triple Action Individual Pack is everything you need to relieve the itch, treat your skin and the items in your environment that may have Urushiol Oil left on it. This is the complete pack to eliminate the itch, stop the spreading of the rash and prevent re-contamination of Poison Ivy from your gear.

The Poison Ivy Healing Gel has an effective formula to immediately stop itching and quickly repair the blisters, and the Disinfectant Spray treats items contaminated with the Urushiol Oil.

Any successful home remedies for poison ivy?

Poison Ivy Remedies

Jewel weed!! you can get jewel weed soap, from Burt’s bees it helps curing the Poison ivy. I just get the bar wet and rub it on the affected area and let it dry.

Spray it with pure alcohol (not the kind you drink, the clear kind you get at the drug store) and or a mixture of alcohol and tea tree oil (i put mostly alcohol with just about 1/8 tea tree, proportionally. Putting the alcohol and tea tree in a small spray bottle helps you put it on without making the poison ivy itch when you’re applying it). Then cover the oozy ones with loose bandages so they won’t spread and change the bandages many times during the day, spraying the area with the alcohol/tea tree stuff then let it dry and put bandages back on.

First Aid Gel to stop the burning and itching of Poison Ivy, Oak, or Sumac and help protect against the risk of skin infection in minor cuts, scrapes, and burns.

Learn More About Poison Ivy – Other Resources

Poison Ivy Healing Gel penetrates deep into the skin to remove the Urushiol oil responsible for the itching, burning, rashes, blisters, and oozing. This helps to soothe the itchiness and burning, as well as attack any bacteria, viruses and fungus providing long-lasting relief! The Non-Toxic gel can also be used as a hand and skin cleanser, stopping 99% of bacteria on-contact.

It’s also effective against poison ivy skin irritations and minor cuts, scrapes, scratches, and burns, and the convenient travel size makes it perfect to throw in a purse, pocket or backpack to provide instant relief where ever you go.

Archive for April, 2012