Epoisode 90: Poison Ivy - Learn About It The Easy Way

spk_0:   0:04
so I know if you like white nursery rhymes but their rhymes, we'll talk about some rhymes.

spk_1:   0:11
I think I learned these rhymes in the nursery.

spk_0:   0:14
Did you did? Which is good because they're important. How about leaves of three? Let it be absolutely Harry Vine. No friend of

spk_1:   0:26
mine Berries Wait, run in fright that only actually works in the fall. Guys who don't get too tied up in that one. Also the Harry Vied is true, but it's not the only growth form of

spk_0:   0:41
Boy is Ah ah, there's a reason we don't think of the podcast

spk_1:   0:47
about one person. Singing it badly was plenty, so I held off. But I was having the same thing. Wilson, Ivy

spk_0:   0:53
Welcome to the show The Big Show, the largest, most popular and important influential show that is recorded in our car as we're traveling like we are today on the road to a very big city and a state. Not that we don't live in, but anyway we're traveling, and we're talking about an itchy, itchy subject that we're gonna actually have a multi part series on this subject because it is a critical thing for Preppers and people who walk around in the woods to d'oh to know, understand, to be able instantly identify poison ivy and poison oak. But we're not gonna talk about poison oak today. We're just gonna stick with Mr Ivy. So poison ivy today and we're gonna talk about mostly today. We're gonna talk about recognition and what is actually going on with the plan. From a scientific point of view, why does it make you itch? Because why it makes you itch is important to understand in how to make it stop itching when you get something.

spk_1:   2:00
If you've got some that is the top thing on your mind, this

spk_0:   2:03
is how to make it stop itching. And there's a lot of misinformation out there. And it took us years of dealing with poison ivy because even if you're really careful, you'll still run up against it. If you're working out in the woods,

spk_1:   2:17
the place could be nicknamed Ivy.

spk_0:   2:19
Yes, and, uh, so it's in pretty apart. If you get someone, you how do you get it off as quickly as possible, as cleanly as possible and stop the irritation. And there are some tricks that we've learned that worked very well and there's a lot of misinformation about it. There's a lot of work that's gonna be more of the second part of the Siri's is doing a little myth busting on it. But first part, we're just gonna talk about what is poison ivy? How do you recognize it is critically important, weren't even in this time of year. It's out there. It's a it's a It's a perennial bine. It doesn't just die off over the winter, and you can get exposed to the oils of it any time of the year. Now you're much more likely to get off of the leaf. But earlier it's Oiler. But it's residual.

spk_1:   3:12
Have horrible breakouts from burning wood that had poison ivy vine on wood when they burned

spk_0:   3:18
it right, and they didn't need those people who have different levels of allergy to the oil. Some people really bother hardly at all. Some people, it's really horrible, so that's more than medical end, and that's where I turn it over to the spice. Now she is not a doctor, she's not a nurse, but she is somebody who has extensive a scientific background in dealing with things that relate to the human body so she can.

spk_1:   3:52
And I've had plenty of cases of poisoning.

spk_0:   3:54
Did you lie out? Lots. Lots of time. So? So she's got the scientific and the Hyuga terrific experience to tell you about it. She's been out Burger all her life.

spk_1:   4:09
And considering how much of it I have been through in my life, I haven't actually gotten very many cases of it because I'm very careful with it.

spk_0:   4:17
Okay, First, let's talk about identifying the blighter, and we're gonna in the article that will accompany the podcast. We're gonna throw Lincoln to it to the wiki, because the wiki is actually really good

spk_1:   4:29
things about poison. Ivy is a lot of times people will tell you things like look for leaves that look like mittens. Well, that works some of the time, and it's great when it works. But sometimes poison ivy doesn't have notch leaves, or they'll tell you how. It's a freestanding plant, and sometimes it is. But then it's not sometimes or they'll tell you how. It's a vine that winds up along trees, and sometimes it is.

spk_0:   4:52
Sometimes it is not

spk_1:   4:54
where they'll tell you to watch out for the white Berries which works great in fruiting season, which is the fall but not the rest of the time or the color of the leaves, which is red in the fall, but not the rest of the time or really dark green and glossy, Which is true in midsummer, but not an early spring. So there are some things you could count on all the time. In all, the growth warms, and they are clusters of three leaflets. That's where the leaves of three let it be, comes on alternate leaf arrangement. That means when you're looking at the stem, the two of the three don't come off directly opposite each other. One will come off and then a second will come off. And then there's 1/3 right at the end.

spk_0:   5:36
But they'll still be a three leaf pattern, but they won't be symmetrical.

spk_1:   5:39
Yeah, there aren't any thorns on this, and one of the kind of similar looking binds does have thorns, and each group of three leaflets grows on its own little stem, which connects to the main bind that is different from one of the common misidentified versions. Beyond that, there's a whole lot of differences in growth form, depending on the soil and stuff and where it is. And you also have vines of it that grow underground so it can pop up in new places.

spk_0:   6:10
Okay, my caveat is, yes, there are several plants is easy to misidentify with poison ivy. But if in doubt,

spk_1:   6:19
leave it be any

spk_0:   6:19
would be anyway, because if you're not sure, don't don't mess with it.

spk_1:   6:24
The first thing about this plant is it is not actually poisonous it all. I mean, I don't know. I don't know anybody who's tried to eat the thing so it might be poisonous, but that's not why we care about it. It's got an oil on it called your Rocio, and this oil is by itself, not toxic. There are some people who could rub it on their skin as a to peel cracked skin, and they would be fun. Blast them. They do not realize how fortunate they are, because in the majority of people, the Russia, once it gets on the skin, it binds to one of the proteins commonly found on human skin, and the combination of the oil and your skin protein is a potent allergen. So this is actually an allergy, but it's an extraordinarily common allergy, found and even people who don't. I have allergies to other things, so not everybody's allergic to it. Many people, most people are allergic to it at some level, and some people are horribly, dangerously allergic to it.

spk_0:   7:37
Those people really need to be careful. My mother was one of those people. I'm mildly allergic gets me, but it's not that bad. I've had a couple cases in my life, misidentified a place to put my sleeping bag wants well, but I only ended up with a patch about 1/2 an inch, or, I mean a couple inches, and it wasn't that bad. But the key word and I think what she said was the binding part. It binds with your skin, and then it becomes very difficult to remove.

spk_1:   8:09
And it's an oil.

spk_0:   8:10
It's, um, well, so that means it's gonna be around a little while unless you take significant.

spk_1:   8:17
It's also an oil that can stick to cutting tools that can stick to clothing. Rocket stick to anything that brushes up. It can stick depends.

spk_0:   8:26
So it's a gift that keeps on giving

spk_1:   8:27
Yes, So if you've been nowhere in contact with the plant, but have used the same pair of pruning shears as somebody who is cutting around poison ivy with it. You might be able to get poison ivy from the pruning shears even a long time after, because this stupid oil is annoyingly stable.

spk_0:   8:46
Yeah, And if you're taking Fido out there with you in the woods and fighter decides to roll on a patch of it, he's covered in the stuff.

spk_1:   8:54
Then you pet Fido, and congratulations. Your pet loves you and just gave you a present poison. I really poison. So how do you get this stuff off if you've been in it, you wash the clothes with soap? Yes. You

spk_0:   9:10
know, to see the soap or the clothes don't have that cool protein thing. So it's not gonna buying to them in the soap Knox oil. Everything that goes

spk_1:   9:19
off other oils gets off this oil

spk_0:   9:21
soap get, you know. So So you know, often time now you're gonna think I'm nuts. But oftentimes, if I'm just wearing ah, a pair of clothing around the house or whatever. I don't even wash some of my clothing with soap. I just wash it because you just need to get the get the stuff off. I don't wash some of my stuff. So anything I've over walking in the woods last. So yeah, I'm fine. Soap tends to, uh, tense because you're close to deteriorate, Pastor for something. I don't really need it. So there were.

spk_1:   10:01
If you've been working with tools in places where there might be poison ivy, you can either wash the tools off with soap and water and then make sure you dry them quickly so they don't rust. Or you can wipe them down with anything else that'll take off oil like an elk alcohol on a rag or a solvent on a rag. Anything that normally takes off oil, you could wipe down the handles and things with to get it off of it. And then if you used to rag, you wash the rag because you got the oils on there, too. Imagine the oil is this as this color dye and everything you've touched it with gets colored with the dye. And your goal is to wash everything that's got any dye on it. So that's the tools and stuff. Champion the dog. If it's on the skin.

spk_0:   10:49
Shampoo the dog if you think it's been in oil, but do it wearing gloves and then discard the gloves.

spk_1:   10:57
Yeah, you can get all sorts of fancy products for this, and I'll talk more about that

spk_0:   11:05
T man. They make all kinds,

spk_1:   11:07
Yeah, because it makes people miserable and people have the nose. Do not

spk_0:   11:11
want to mask the mask. The symptoms,

spk_1:   11:14
Which could be a good thing. By the way, there's nothing wrong with masking the symptoms,

spk_0:   11:18
but the symptoms doesn't solve the problem, which is to get the oil off your skin.

spk_1:   11:25
Yeah, if you get a patch of poison ivy and you just put something on it to stop the itch. I remember at one particularly horrible set of circumstances for some of my brothers who got into poison ivy, and then they got it on their hands, and then they had to use the bathroom and their little boys. So I'll just leave the story there and not go further into that one. Other than do suggest that the oil is on your hands, you don't want to be touching other parts of your body or let the oiled part touch other parts of your body before you get that oil water,

spk_0:   12:07
I will never look at your brothers the same way again.

spk_1:   12:11
Well, I didn't tell you which one, so

spk_0:   12:13
I know which one. I don't even have to ask. Which ones knowing those people. I know exactly which one.

spk_1:   12:21
They're all troublemakers a lot of, um hello. So if you think you might have poison ivy on your hands, you wanna wash it off? Here's what I found when doing some research on this last year and stuff before I started working out in the poison ivy Washing with soap is great, but it's not good enough by itself because Theo Oil doesn't want a lift away from the skin proteins. It's complex with It takes a little friction to So what I've got up out of place. I got an old set of nylons and I dropped a bar of soap into the nylon, tied it off of the top, tied it to my hand washing station, and when I wash my hands, I've got the soap in the nylons, and I use that to rub over the surface of my skin. If I'm at home, I've got a special bath sponge that I use for nothing but potentially poison ivy contamination.

spk_0:   13:17
And it's a rough, rough, rough sponge.

spk_1:   13:19
Yeah, not enough to irritate my skin, but just less just less rough than that. And I so put up really good, and I make sure to, ah, rub on the places I think may have poison ivy oil and wash it off as soon as possible after exposure. So it has less time to complex with skin and start the immune reaction. And I've had very good success with that, even though I practically swim in poison ivy in some particular spots on the place where I have to work. And all I've got is a jug of water hand washing station called tippy tap. Oh, I'll tell you about some other time. So my my hygiene options are rudimentary and my poison ivy is abundant, and I am sensitive to this stuff. But I have been pretty successful in not breaking out

spk_0:   14:12
and what she learned how to treat it. It really has just become it's become a much more minor annoyance than it then it is because if you could treat it correctly and if you can treat it in a way that, you know, minimizes everything. It really goes away much faster.

spk_1:   14:33
Yeah. Essentially, what you do is your limited to the points of original contact. Instead of spreading it all the heck over the place and you calm down the immune system, which is creating the system symptoms in the first place. It's not really the oil that's causing the problem. It's your immune system that's causing the problem.

spk_0:   14:50
But you want to get the oil, show

spk_1:   14:51
out the immune response and you get the oil off so you don't spread it all over the place, and then you treat the immune response, and that is the main keyed to dealing with poison ivy.

spk_0:   15:06
Okay, we're gonna get a little bit more into the specifics of how, exactly if she does it. But you see an overview of a quick treatment for because people want to know.

spk_1:   15:18
First, I take over the counter allergy meds like like diphenhydramine. If I'm ready to go when I'm ready to go to bed, I take diphenhydramine

spk_0:   15:28
that slays may. Yeah, I mean, I look like it's been I take one of those things, a couple of things, whatever and I look like a You know, those dogs that lay down on their back legs Just go every which way. That's me. In five minutes, I'm gonna block. It

spk_1:   15:46
doesn't affect me nearly a strongly to make me sleepy. But actually, that's a very common reaction. A lot of the nighttime sleep aids you find in the sleep center of your local pharmacy are actually diphenhydramine.

spk_0:   15:59
Benadryl.

spk_1:   16:00
It has been

spk_0:   16:00
a drill. I know. Training people, no brand names. Okay? Yes. Trust may take Benadryl or pen a drill. A generics because there's no real reason. Not by the generic of that, because all type and 100 me?

spk_1:   16:15
Yes. All the same. Stuff.

spk_0:   16:16
A couple of

spk_1:   16:17
yourself. If I don't need to be using heavy machinery or being alert, I'll take that. If I do need to be alert, I'll take daytime allergy medications like the Loretta teens. Hi. Would give you the common trade name, Except I don't memorize them that way. It's the common one. A day allergy pills. Allegro, maybe.

spk_0:   16:39
I know it's ah, not like something. Ah, I remember. But it will say

spk_1:   16:47
Loretta Dean on the label. Yeah, it's much deeper in the generic form. Anyway, take that. That that helps. And then

spk_0:   16:58
okay. Sorry about the rough transition. Their apps. Whoa. Driving off the road way, uh, and stop the stop recording so we could look up things with bugging me. Um, Claritin is

spk_1:   17:10
an AL avert

spk_0:   17:11
and Albert of the two names, but it's generic, and it's over the counter now where it used to be a prescription. But anyway, topical, go back to topical

spk_1:   17:20
tropicals like hydrocortisone creams are good for it. Kala Mine's actually useful for, ah, poison ivy

spk_0:   17:32
H yeah, that's Oh, that's been one that's been around forever. Tell him I

spk_1:   17:36
You can also find some topical surface creams that have the antihistamine medications like that diphenhydramine that just give you a high dose locally, right where you rub it in. And I personally haven't used those, but I have every expectation that worked great, because it's right mechanism of the right place. I usually use kala mine and hydrocortisone. No reason not to use them together because they have different modes of action and something world that is an anti allergy med like Claritin or diphenhydramine. So that's the basic story. First, you know, all of its different growth forms so you can avoid it in all seasons. Don't think you can burn it and stand down one to the smoke, because that will get some people infected. Don't think that you can handle things that have been in it and be safe because that'll give you transfers. Don't think that it will break down over time if you just leave it be or that it's not active during the winter because both of those are false, too. Um, so be able to recognize at all times all seasons and be suspicious of other things that may have been in contact with it. Basically, if you suspect you may have gotten it on yourself, then not only wash with soap, but make sure you've got some friction there to help lift it off skin and then sluice it with plenty of water. The soap doesn't kill the oil. It just removes the oil from its attachment, and then you actually got a wash it off, so it doesnt reattach.

spk_0:   19:19
And then, after all that stun, you deal with whatever irritation.

spk_1:   19:22
Yeah, and if you do have a niche over the counter allergy meds to slow the problem from the inside and then topical anti itch type stuff to reduce the problem at the rash sites.

spk_0:   19:36
Sounds good to me.

spk_1:   19:38
Sounds heck of a lot better than having poison ivy.

spk_0:   19:41
We'll have a party because there's some really interesting and maybe not uber critical. Ah, but interesting myths that surround poison. Ivy

spk_1:   19:52
is nice to know what doesn't work,

spk_0:   19:54
right, So

spk_1:   19:55
some of them probably do work. So

spk_0:   19:58
some of them are just your sergeant.

spk_1:   20:00
Yeah, some of our terrible ideas.

spk_0:   20:02
So, what's that? They put

spk_1:   20:04
kerosene on it. Yeah. Get the oil off.

spk_0:   20:06
Yeah, we'll come back to We don't wanna You don't want to assault her own game. So we're gonna We're gonna hold off on some of that and, uh, do another podcast in the future. It will not be right away. But in the future about poison ivy, Part two, you can't. Sure. Poison ivy was snake oil. All right. Talk to later