You had a great time golfing yesterday – even though you had to search for a few balls in the brush. But you woke up this morning with an itchy rash that's driving you crazy. Uh-oh. That wasn't just any ivy you were tramping through. It was poison ivy!
The poison ivy family includes poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac. They're typically lumped together and referred to as poison ivy. They grow in every state in the contiguous United States, and can be found along almost any roadside or stream, and in many a woodland, garden, and yard. The most common way to contract poison ivy is from direct contact. But just petting your dog or inhaling smoke from a fire where poison ivy is being burned could give you a rash you won't soon forget.
The poison ingredient is urushiol (pronounced “oo-roo-shee-ohl”) oil, which is so potent that a drop as small as a pinhead could infect 500 people. To make matters worse, it has a shelf life of at least five years. That means that if you pulled poison ivy out of your garden four years and 10 months ago, you could still get poison ivy from picking up the contaminated hoe. Dead poison ivy plants can still infect you. Century-old poison ivy specimens have reportedly caused a rash in sensitive people.
Avoid the Dreaded Weed
The best way to combat poison ivy is to avoid touching the stuff – root, leaves, flowers, stems, and all. The plant is poisonous any time of year. When working or playing outdoors, try these preventive tricks:
- Know what the plants look like, in all their variations. Unfortunately, the plant has numerous forms and shapes. (It can be a vine, a shrub, or small tree). Poison ivy and poison oak have “leaves of three,” but poison sumac can have 7 to 13 leaves (but always an odd number). Of course, in the winter, there are no leaves.
- Limit opportunity for skin contact. If possible, wear heavy long-sleeved shirts, long pants, socks, enclosed shoes, and gloves. Urushiol oil can penetrate lightweight fabrics.
- Spray deodorants containing organoclay and aluminum chlorohydrate on your legs, arms, clothes, bicycle – anything that might come into contact with poison ivy. Don't spray deodorant on your face, however, because the aluminum chlorahydrate can be irritating to your skin.
- Wash your clothes, tools, backpack, golf balls, steering wheel, and pet – whatever could possibly have come into contact with anything contaminated with urushiol oil. If the oil is on your shoes and you walk across the carpet, its possible to transfer the oil there. Then, your child could crawl across the carpet and … well, you get the picture.
- If you suspect you've come into contact with poison ivy, immediately remove all clothing and wash yourself repeatedly with water. (Don't use a washcloth. It'll just spread the urushiol oil around!) The best possible treatment is to flush the contaminated area with alcohol, then rinse with water. You can use a brown or yellow laundry soap, bleach, or ammonia too. Use caution, because any solvent (alcohol, bleach, or ammonia, for example) will also remove protective skin oils.
- Do not delay. Experts disagree on exactly how many minutes it takes for the oils to penetrate your skin, but its somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes. After that, any scrubbing you do – no matter how vigorous or how long – will be a waste of time.
- If you are near Jewelweed (also called impatiens and touch-me-not), crush the leaves and rub them directly on the contaminated area.
- Whatever you do, don't scratch in anticipation of the awful itch. If you haven't gotten the urushiol oil off your skin, you'll just infect more of your body.
Once You Have the Itchy Rash
You'll relieve the itching with one of these remedies:
- Cool showers
- Calamine lotion
- A lukewarm bath with oatmeal or baking soda solution
- Over-the-counter antihistamine pills
- Cool cotton compress, soaked in water or an herbal remedy, such as equal parts of limewater and white oak bark
- Aloe vera gel or juice, tofu, or watermelon rind applied to the affected area
- Paste made from one pint buttermilk mixed with one tablespoon of salt
- Paste made from three parts water to one part dry ingredient (cornstarch, baking soda, oatmeal or Epsom salts)
- Herbal potions such as milkweed juices.
- Keep cool. Heat makes the itching worse.
- Don’t scratch. (Easy to say, isn't it?) You might cause an infection in the rash because of bacteria lurking under your fingernails.
In severe cases, you might need a shot of corticosteroids. If you break out in a rash and begin to swell 4 to 12 hours after exposure to poison ivy, rather than the usual 24 to 28 hours, you might be highly sensitive. If your eyes swell shut, more than half of your body is in blisters, you have extreme swelling and redness, a fever, or blisters that erupt, seek medical care as quickly as possible. Also, consult your healthcare professional if you have poison ivy near your eyes, mouth, or genitals. |
