Can You Prevent a Poison Ivy Reaction?
On last week’s show, Stephen from Missouri brought up a topic that absolutely floored me. He was responding to a spate of recent callers concerning poison oak, poison ivy--and oriental bittersweet, which I had only recently learned also contained the highly allergenic and rash producing Urushiol (you-roosh-e-all), the compound that activates the allergic response.
(By the way, I really wanted to try pronouncing that word correctly for a change, and studied five different pronunciation websites before I was confident that I was at least getting close to it. In my behalf, it was rated “very difficult to pronounce” on at least two of those sites; add in my dyslexia, and I’m happy to at least come close; and its much better than the clumsy way I used to say it. By the way, its spelled U R U S H I O L, which also isn’t a lot of help…)
Anyway, Stephen recounted that he had been a lineman for what was then the Bell telephone company, which required him to climb telephone poles in the South, many of which were covered with poison ivy, making it treacherous work.
But Stephen recounted that the company had supplied its linemen with something he recalled being called ‘Immune Ivy’. It was a liquid that you mixed with water and took on a regular basis that would eventually protect you from the dreaded Urushiol. And it did! He reported that while taking this liquid, he was able to climb poison ivy covered poles without causing a reaction. This was years ago, and he wondered if it was still around.
Well, so did I—and when I got home, I started a deep search looking for it. I came up empty (as had Stephen), so I began searching around it, looking for a connection. Luckily, my background as a medical writer helped a lot. To me, taking a liquid over a long period of time to prevent a reaction meant two things.
One, the liquid was acting like allergy injections, where you are exposed to small amounts of the subject you react to, with the dosage increasing over time until your body no longer recognizes the allergen as a threat. Countless studies conducted over many decades (I first started reporting on them back in 1985 or so) have shown it to be very effective, especially against seasonal pollens and house dust.)
The other possibility was homeopathy, a discipline first practiced by a Doctor Samuel Hahnemann, a highly respected German physician who established the first homeopathic hospital, located in Philadelphia, in 1848, where it remained a working and teaching hospital (although no longer homeopathic), until it was acquired by a private equity firm in 2018, who closed it down a year later.
Homeopathy operates much like those allergy shots. Simply put, homeopathic cures involve taking a single drop of a substance deemed responsible for a condition, 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 can detect none of the active ingredient.
To quote Hahnemann: “The vigorous shaking causes the substance to leave behind a “spirit-like” essence that, although “no longer perceptible to the senses,” is nevertheless “remembered” by the water, and thus retains healing properties.”
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, enough perhaps to mimic allergy shots.
Which brings me to “Oral Ivy”, a homeopathic remedy designed to PREVENT poison ivy reactions that I found at a ‘forestry supply’ website.
And I quote: “This homeopathic treatment is formulated to relieve the symptoms of contact dermatitis associated with poison ivy, oak, and sumac. The easy-to-take liquid helps to relieve itching, red or burning rashes, oozing or crusting blisters, swelling, and skin irritation. Take 10 drops (0.2 mL) in 2 oz. of water every 2 hours as needed.
“Oral Ivy® is an over-the-counter homeopathic medicine extracted with alcohol from poison ivy leaves Rhus Tox. The manufacturing process is in accordance with the principles of homeopathy as set forth in the Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States, the acknowledged authority on homeopathic medicines.”
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. For example, Traumeel, an anti-inflammatory, is a complex mixture of natural health products termed homeopathic, but mainly diluted only to the 2X–3X level, and a randomized controlled trial found it to improve chemotherapy-induced mucositis 1.”
(Modern US Patents for similar products go back to at least 2016).
The directions for Oral Ivy specify 10 drops in 2 ounces of water every 2 hours as needed, and there is approximately 0.02 ml of Rhus Tox in every full drop of Oral Ivy homeopathic solution.
That sounds pharmacology active to me.
Now, I am not recommending this specific product or any similar ones out there, but those with a severe allergy to poison ivy might want to research this further, because it sure sounds like immunology meets homeopathy to me.
(By the way, I really wanted to try pronouncing that word correctly for a change, and studied five different pronunciation websites before I was confident that I was at least getting close to it. In my behalf, it was rated “very difficult to pronounce” on at least two of those sites; add in my dyslexia, and I’m happy to at least come close; and its much better than the clumsy way I used to say it. By the way, its spelled U R U S H I O L, which also isn’t a lot of help…)
Anyway, Stephen recounted that he had been a lineman for what was then the Bell telephone company, which required him to climb telephone poles in the South, many of which were covered with poison ivy, making it treacherous work.
But Stephen recounted that the company had supplied its linemen with something he recalled being called ‘Immune Ivy’. It was a liquid that you mixed with water and took on a regular basis that would eventually protect you from the dreaded Urushiol. And it did! He reported that while taking this liquid, he was able to climb poison ivy covered poles without causing a reaction. This was years ago, and he wondered if it was still around.
Well, so did I—and when I got home, I started a deep search looking for it. I came up empty (as had Stephen), so I began searching around it, looking for a connection. Luckily, my background as a medical writer helped a lot. To me, taking a liquid over a long period of time to prevent a reaction meant two things.
One, the liquid was acting like allergy injections, where you are exposed to small amounts of the subject you react to, with the dosage increasing over time until your body no longer recognizes the allergen as a threat. Countless studies conducted over many decades (I first started reporting on them back in 1985 or so) have shown it to be very effective, especially against seasonal pollens and house dust.)
The other possibility was homeopathy, a discipline first practiced by a Doctor Samuel Hahnemann, a highly respected German physician who established the first homeopathic hospital, located in Philadelphia, in 1848, where it remained a working and teaching hospital (although no longer homeopathic), until it was acquired by a private equity firm in 2018, who closed it down a year later.
Homeopathy operates much like those allergy shots. Simply put, homeopathic cures involve taking a single drop of a substance deemed responsible for a condition, 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 can detect none of the active ingredient.
To quote Hahnemann: “The vigorous shaking causes the substance to leave behind a “spirit-like” essence that, although “no longer perceptible to the senses,” is nevertheless “remembered” by the water, and thus retains healing properties.”
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, enough perhaps to mimic allergy shots.
Which brings me to “Oral Ivy”, a homeopathic remedy designed to PREVENT poison ivy reactions that I found at a ‘forestry supply’ website.
And I quote: “This homeopathic treatment is formulated to relieve the symptoms of contact dermatitis associated with poison ivy, oak, and sumac. The easy-to-take liquid helps to relieve itching, red or burning rashes, oozing or crusting blisters, swelling, and skin irritation. Take 10 drops (0.2 mL) in 2 oz. of water every 2 hours as needed.
“Oral Ivy® is an over-the-counter homeopathic medicine extracted with alcohol from poison ivy leaves Rhus Tox. The manufacturing process is in accordance with the principles of homeopathy as set forth in the Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States, the acknowledged authority on homeopathic medicines.”
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. For example, Traumeel, an anti-inflammatory, is a complex mixture of natural health products termed homeopathic, but mainly diluted only to the 2X–3X level, and a randomized controlled trial found it to improve chemotherapy-induced mucositis 1.”
(Modern US Patents for similar products go back to at least 2016).
The directions for Oral Ivy specify 10 drops in 2 ounces of water every 2 hours as needed, and there is approximately 0.02 ml of Rhus Tox in every full drop of Oral Ivy homeopathic solution.
That sounds pharmacology active to me.
Now, I am not recommending this specific product or any similar ones out there, but those with a severe allergy to poison ivy might want to research this further, because it sure sounds like immunology meets homeopathy to me.
