Can You Prevent a Poison Ivy Reaction? Part Two (or maybe Three; I lost Count)
To recap: On a recent show, Stephen from Missouri recounted that he had been a lineman for what was then the Bell telephone company, which required him to climb poison ivy-covered telephone poles.
But the telephone company had supplied its linemen with something called ‘Immune Ivy’, a liquid that you mixed with water and took on a regular basis that would eventually protect you from the dreaded allergenic oil (you-roosh-e-all) Urushiol. He reports that while taking this liquid, he was able to climb poison ivy covered poles without causing a reaction. He wondered if it was still around.
I couldn’t find it under that name, but did discover a modern version: A homeopathic treatment called “Oral Ivy”, which is now distributed by Nature’s Way under the name of the original maker: Boericke and Tafel, which was located back in my hometown of Philadelphia. Beginning in 1915, the AMA campaigned against homeopathy so vigorously that the bottom dropped out of the American market. {quote}: “Fortunately, the worldwide reputation that Boericke & Tafel medicines had earned for purity, quality, and efficacy generated sufficient export business to enable the firm to survive in spite of greatly diminished U.S. sales”.
But homeopathy made a comeback in the nineteen eighties and nineties, when the idea of using alternative remedies swept the nation—and the Boericke & Tafel company was still around to make a comeback.
The website (homeoint.org) from which I just quoted liberally, has a photo of the original Boericke & Tafel product, which was simply named Rhus Tox, the homeopathic name for poison ivy. Undated, it looks to be from around 1900.
And Wikipedia has a very interesting (but also undated) photo of FDA personnel (one clearly using a Geiger counter) inspecting a shipment of Boericke & Tafel products. Based on their white shirts and skinny black ties it seems to be from the early sixties. You can clearly see the name of the firm and their address (10th & Arch Streets in Philadelphia), but there’s no postal ‘zone’ number, which would identify it as being pre-1963 or a Zip Code, which came into effect in 1963. Those differences are a great help in dating things from the recent past. (Well, it’s recent to me! I was already twelve years old when “Mister Zip appeared!)
In 2005, the pharmaceutical company that had kept the name alive closed its Santa Rosa manufacturing facilities and moved its distribution department to Nature's Way in Utah; and its manufacturing to the Netherlands and Mexico.
The Boericke & Tafel Oral Ivy distributed by Nature’s Way is labeled as a 3x preparation, which means it goes through three ritualized dilutions. (Many popular homeopathic preparations go through 20 or 30.) And there are good medical studies showing that a small—but detectable—amount of the original, full- strength ingredient can be found in dilutions of 2 and 3 X.
Now I have to relate a story about Frank Buck, whose catchphrase was “Bring ‘em Back Alive”, which is what he did as a live animal trapper and not a trophy hunter. Idolized as a true folk hero in the twenties through the forties, Buck came close to being bitten by King Cobras many times and decided to try and make himself immune. He milked a drop of venom into a large container of water and took a single drop from that in a glass of water. He nearly died. But he kept at it until he could take high doses without harm, supposedly, becoming immune to one of the deadliest venoms on earth.
Knowingly or not, he had created a homeopathic treatment for snakebite and/or used a technique akin to allergy shots to gain immunity. And that, as we wrote in recent Questions of the Week on this topic (all of which are available at the Gurney’s website under “resources”) explains how the Rhus Tox “Oral Ivy” homoeopathic product has a potentially valid scientific explanation.
(Medical studies conducted over many decades against placebos have shown some homeopathic products to be very effective, especially against seasonal pollens and house dust.)
Simply put, homeopathic cures involve taking a single drop of a substance deemed responsible for a condition or of causing the symptoms at full strength, placing it in a gallon of clean water, and then shaking it in a specifically designed manner. Then a drop of that water goes through the same process, and so on and so on until science cannot detect the active ingredient.
Many homeopathic medicines go through dozens of dilutions, but some only go through two or three, and research has shown that these less aggressive dilutions still contain small amounts of the original substance.
Referring to a recent oncology study, The National Library of medicine notes that “Some natural health products are sold as homeopathic agents, despite the fact that they do contain detectable levels of pharmacologically active agents. A 2X–3X solution in homeopathic terms could be pharmacologically active.”
And that’s it for now. Maybe.
PS: Here are the promised links to everything I’ve talked about here in the written version of the Gurney’s Question of the Week:
The ‘homeoint’ article:
The story of Boericke & Tafel.
By Boericke & Tafel
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
http://homeoint.org/cazalet/boericke/story.htm
William Boericke bio:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Boericke#:~:text=Before%20the%20end%20of%20the,medicines%20in%20the%20United%20States
FDA Geiger Counter photo!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Boericke#/media/File:Sorting_Through_Homeopathic_Drugs_(FDA_189)_(8220643215).jpg
Today’s ‘Oral Ivy’ product with readable ingredient info:
https://www.amazon.com/Prevents-Symptoms-Poison-Homeopathic-Natures/dp/B0001APXWY
Note: Some of these products are labeled only for symptom relief, but all were originally labeled for prevention. (Probably a legal issue.)
Bonus! Another B&T product with confusing ingredient statements. Is this even homeopathic?
https://naturesway.com/products/boericke-tafel-ssssting-stop-gel?variant=43405106151638# To recap: On a recent show, Stephen from Missouri recounted that he had been a lineman for what was then the Bell telephone company, which required him to climb poison ivy-covered telephone poles.
But the telephone company had supplied its linemen with something called ‘Immune Ivy’, a liquid that you mixed with water and took on a regular basis that would eventually protect you from the dreaded allergenic oil (you-roosh-e-all) Urushiol. He reports that while taking this liquid, he was able to climb poison ivy covered poles without causing a reaction. He wondered if it was still around.
I couldn’t find it under that name, but did discover a modern version: A homeopathic treatment called “Oral Ivy”, which is now distributed by Nature’s Way under the name of the original maker: Boericke and Tafel, which was located back in my hometown of Philadelphia. Beginning in 1915, the AMA campaigned against homeopathy so vigorously that the bottom dropped out of the American market. {quote}: “Fortunately, the worldwide reputation that Boericke & Tafel medicines had earned for purity, quality, and efficacy generated sufficient export business to enable the firm to survive in spite of greatly diminished U.S. sales”.
But homeopathy made a comeback in the nineteen eighties and nineties, when the idea of using alternative remedies swept the nation—and the Boericke & Tafel company was still around to make a comeback.
The website (homeoint.org) from which I just quoted liberally, has a photo of the original Boericke & Tafel product, which was simply named Rhus Tox, the homeopathic name for poison ivy. Undated, it looks to be from around 1900.
And Wikipedia has a very interesting (but also undated) photo of FDA personnel (one clearly using a Geiger counter) inspecting a shipment of Boericke & Tafel products. Based on their white shirts and skinny black ties it seems to be from the early sixties. You can clearly see the name of the firm and their address (10th & Arch Streets in Philadelphia), but there’s no postal ‘zone’ number, which would identify it as being pre-1963 or a Zip Code, which came into effect in 1963. Those differences are a great help in dating things from the recent past. (Well, it’s recent to me! I was already twelve years old when “Mister Zip appeared!)
In 2005, the pharmaceutical company that had kept the name alive closed its Santa Rosa manufacturing facilities and moved its distribution department to Nature's Way in Utah; and its manufacturing to the Netherlands and Mexico.
The Boericke & Tafel Oral Ivy distributed by Nature’s Way is labeled as a 3x preparation, which means it goes through three ritualized dilutions. (Many popular homeopathic preparations go through 20 or 30.) And there are good medical studies showing that a small—but detectable—amount of the original, full- strength ingredient can be found in dilutions of 2 and 3 X.
Now I have to relate a story about Frank Buck, whose catchphrase was “Bring ‘em Back Alive”, which is what he did as a live animal trapper and not a trophy hunter. Idolized as a true folk hero in the twenties through the forties, Buck came close to being bitten by King Cobras many times and decided to try and make himself immune. He milked a drop of venom into a large container of water and took a single drop from that in a glass of water. He nearly died. But he kept at it until he could take high doses without harm, supposedly, becoming immune to one of the deadliest venoms on earth.
Knowingly or not, he had created a homeopathic treatment for snakebite and/or used a technique akin to allergy shots to gain immunity. And that, as we wrote in recent Questions of the Week on this topic (all of which are available at the Gurney’s website under “resources”) explains how the Rhus Tox “Oral Ivy” homoeopathic product has a potentially valid scientific explanation.
(Medical studies conducted over many decades against placebos have shown some homeopathic products to be very effective, especially against seasonal pollens and house dust.)
Simply put, homeopathic cures involve taking a single drop of a substance deemed responsible for a condition or of causing the symptoms at full strength, placing it in a gallon of clean water, and then shaking it in a specifically designed manner. Then a drop of that water goes through the same process, and so on and so on until science cannot detect the active ingredient.
Many homeopathic medicines go through dozens of dilutions, but some only go through two or three, and research has shown that these less aggressive dilutions still contain small amounts of the original substance.
Referring to a recent oncology study, The National Library of medicine notes that “Some natural health products are sold as homeopathic agents, despite the fact that they do contain detectable levels of pharmacologically active agents. A 2X–3X solution in homeopathic terms could be pharmacologically active.”
And that’s it for now. Maybe.
PS: Here are the promised links to everything I’ve talked about here in the written version of the Gurney’s Question of the Week:
The ‘homeoint’ article:
The story of Boericke & Tafel.
By Boericke & Tafel
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
http://homeoint.org/cazalet/boericke/story.htm
William Boericke bio:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Boericke#:~:text=Before%20the%20end%20of%20the,medicines%20in%20the%20United%20States
FDA Geiger Counter photo!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Boericke#/media/File:Sorting_Through_Homeopathic_Drugs_(FDA_189)_(8220643215).jpg
Today’s ‘Oral Ivy’ product with readable ingredient info:
https://www.amazon.com/Prevents-Symptoms-Poison-Homeopathic-Natures/dp/B0001APXWY
Note: Some of these products are labeled only for symptom relief, but all were originally labeled for prevention. (Probably a legal issue.)
Bonus! Another B&T product with confusing ingredient statements. Is this even homeopathic?
https://naturesway.com/products/boericke-tafel-ssssting-stop-gel?variant=43405106151638#
