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.
“He also experienced an itchy butt”
TMI?
At least they didn’t mention his stinky fingers.
Chewing his fingernails probably took care of that
A few days at the beach is said to be a good cure the bad cases.
Thirty years later, if I get near the stuff or the pets were romping in the stuff and I pet them, I get it bad.
The most common means of exposure is from family pets. Anything with fur seems to be immune to the oils.
He became “TreeMan”.
Now if I can just come up with something funny regarding “Wood”
LOL
Good grief Charlie Browns. I picked Black Berries every spring as a little child, and Poison Oak was expected. I knew to wash with grandma’s Lye Soap if I showed any signs of Poison Oak. If so, all I had to do was wash the spots with the Lye Soap and leave it on the skin and not wash it off. No more Ivy breakout. No more itching. If you can’t find homemade Lye Soap, Go to the Ammish. I bought a large bar of homemade Lye soap and have kept it for many years, just in case.
Many years ago when I was maybe7 or 8 YO, I taggeed along with my dad to the woods on a rabbit hunt. Dad had the beagles running and we were standing by a tree that had vines on it. Common back in those days I broke off a twig of that vine and started chewing on it thinking nothing about it. After a while my dad asked what I was chewing and I showed him the vine. He said don’t do that, thats poison oak, spit it out. I did but to this day I have never gotten poison ivy rash.
The area I grew up in had lots of poison oak...in the late 1960’s my Mom gave us some stuff that came in a small one-serving “ampoule” that you opened and mixed with water and then drank. I cannot find any reference to any such product on the WWW...it looked like poison oak “juice”/oil.
Being kids and running around playing on the whole property we got poison oak a lot and she was looking for a “preventative”...Calamine lotion got expensive after awhile.
Ever watch Apocalypto?
Was thinking the same. This is a well known treatment for poison ivy sensitivity for those of us who live rural.
Jeff Horwitz’s idea for an audition to join the cast of Jackass?
Fels Naptha Soap ain't the same stuff today. They removed the Napthalene from the formula to comply with California loons. So it looks and smells about the same, but it ain't worth squat.
Thanks for the “Rhus Tox” pill tip! I think my Mom got ahold of a liquid mix with water version of that:
https://www.outdoorjoes.com/poison-ivy-prevention
Or goats. They eat the suff like crazy. I’m not sure if the goat poop carries the oil back out?
Never did.
Might have to now. LOL
fels naptha soap
I just watched the sequence.
Yea that could be a Super Power!
LOL
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