YOUR HEALTH - MEDICINE 101

POISON IVY
Farmers, all across Canada, have their cash crops: tomatoes, cucumber, corn-on-the-cob while w e doctors have our cash crop too, and this is it. It’s poison ivy. It’s not really an ivy, botanically speaking, but the poison part is quite accurate. The plant contains an irritant oil called rhus, and it’s everywhere – the leaves, the roots, the stem, everything. The oil protects the plant from being eaten by wild and most just don’t like the taste. The oil itself doesn’t cause any problem to their skin.

But on us it’s a different story. When the oil from the poison ivy plant comes in contact with human skin you’ve got about 20 minutes to wash it off. If not, it quickly interacts and sets up a chain reaction type of inflammation that lasts about 3 weeks Medically, the rash is called a contact dermatitis, simply an inflammation. And it looks like this, small blisters and redness, often in a linear pattern where the oil was dragged across the skin. Some people can get a similar rash from plants related to poison ivy, such as this poison sumac plant or the poison oak, which has an oil even more irritating.

Now not everyone reacts to the oil, there are some people who can come in contact with it and feel nothing but that’s rare. And in some very sensitive people, or in those who have had a large amount of oil deposited on the skin, a strange thing happens. Skin, a long way from the original contact point becomes inflamed, so that you can have a generalized inflammation such as this as well as another rash far away from the original contact.

Poison Ivy is fairly easy to recognize. It has clusters of three shiny leaves, often red in the fall, with white berries. The plant can be low lying or actually grow as a shrub or climbing vein. Direct contact with the plant isn’t necessary. The oil from poison ivy is often spread to humans by pets, farm animals, lawn and garden implements, carrying firewood, etc. There was even a researcher who spread poison ivy oil on the handle of his axe for research purposes. Every year, he brought the axe out from his tool shed and rubbed it against his arm. The axe was able to produce the rash for eight consecutive years. You may be getting your poison ivy from simply putting on your old gardening clothes that you used in the spring. Some of the worst poison ivy dermatitis comes from bonfires when the plant is inadvertently burned, causing the oil droplets to rise in the smoke and touch the skin of the face and hands.

The treatment for poison ivy is usually an anti-inflammatory cream, such as an antihistamine or a cortisone derivative. More severe cases can be treated with cortisone tablets but poison ivy, generally, is a self-limited dermatitis, going away on it’s own in 2-3 weeks.

So what’s the lesson here – well first of all "Leaves 3 – Let it Be" and just like your mother told you, "No matter where it itches – Don’t Scratch."