Posted on 05/22/2024 1:09:02 PM PDT by Red Badger
How far would you go to avoid a rash from a common pest on hikes?
Well, one reporter for The Wall Street Journal has gone as far as to blend poison oak into smoothies and mix them into his salad bowl — all in a bid to develop an immunity towards the chemical irritants found in the plant's leaves.
Jeff Horwitz, who usually reports on technology, wrote about his slightly mad mission for a feature article in the Saturday newspaper.
"I started eating poison oak in January, when the first buds began to swell on the hazardous plant’s bare stems," he wrote, explaining that he was sick of getting poison oak rashes during mushroom foraging trips in California.
And surprisingly, despite some stern written warnings he came across during his research, Horwitz's newfound habit of eating poison oak seems to have built up a resistance to the shrub and its plant resin urushiol, also found in poison ivy and sumac, and which causes the rash.
After ingesting an increasing amount of poison oak leaves in his smoothies and salads — the "taste of young poison oak is surprisingly mild, grassy and only a little bit tart," he notes — he didn't get any signs in his body that it was stressed out from the experiment, except for red rashes here and there. He also experienced an itchy butt — presumably from pooping out the remnants.
At the end of his experiment, Horwitz says he could rub a poison oak leaf on his skin and not experience any rash breakouts.
"My poison-oak salad days are over, but I do intend to nibble a few leaves here and there when hiking around the Bay Area in an effort to maintain my resistance on a permanent basis," he wrote.
Horwitz got his idea from reading about how California's indigenous tribes would make tea from poison oak roots and eat the leaves to develop immunity. He also read online forums where outdoors enthusiasts discussed noshing on poison ivy or poison oak helped them develop a resistance, though much of literature he consulted warned not to eat the plants.
In the first half of the 20th Century, pharmaceutical companies capitalized on this folk remedy and sold to the public poison ivy pills and shots in order to prevent spring and summertime rashes, according to Horwitz. But for unknown reasons, Big Pharma stopped making these urushiol extract medicines, making the larger public forget there's a preventative treatment for the rash beyond a good shower, antihistamine pills or hydrocortisone cream.
But before you reach for your blender or visit Erewhon and ask them to drop a couple of poison oak leaves into your smoothie order, Horwitz reports that pharmacologist Mahmoud ElSohly, who has been working with medical startup Hapten Sciences, has developed a new urushiol drug that would prevent poison ivy or poison oak rashes.
The medication could be available to the public as soon as 2026.
A long time ago, where I worked in SW Oregon, the Forest Service would issue little vials of poison oak extract that you could mix with water and drink. I took a few with beer, but I don’t know whether they did any good because I have never been very sensitive to poison oak. I’m not immune, but it just doesn’t do much to me.
You’re gonna need an ocean,
of calomine lotion.
Bushmen in the Kalahari innoculate themselves with scorpions against scorpion stings. It does work.
He’s dead Jim
I’m the same way. I have eczema and in general dry skin and spend a lot of time outdoors. I can’t recall ever having poison ivy reactions.
Since it’s oil based, just wash any areas with DAWN dishwashing liquid, using a terry cloth hand towel (it needs to have a texture to work). Repeat this 3x.
No more reaction.
As someone who has had a severe reaction my whole life, finding this out was a God Send!
You did it again. Great post.
Due South - Masochism Tango - Tom Lehrer
https://youtu.be/JdTqeruRdis
Blakes 7 - Masochism Tango - Tom Lehrer
https://youtu.be/5O1tfNmnNNs
I wonder if you shoot yourself starting with .22...
I only read the headline, but I am sure it is “ONE WEIRD TRICK THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW, BUT THEY CAN’T STOP YOU.”
If I suggested that my wife make herself some nice fire ant smoothies, I think she’d slap me.
I am sure you can get this stuff in homeopathic dosages.
Shoot yourself with 22s tobuild up immunity to 45.
Can he count to three?
Vax shots like DTP inoculate you similarly - only diff it’s direct into blood stream, not ingested. DTP is not a shot with dead versions of bacteria, but the corresponding toxins.
Yes, Dread Pirate Roberts has immunity to Iocane powder.
https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/princess-bride-iocane-powder-poison-immunity
Umm, I think this is how allergy specialists have been desensitizing people for many decades. “We mock what we don’t understand,” might be appropriate for this thread.
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