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Poison IvyThere really is a cure!My sister took our granddaughter walking in the woods on the way to the family reunion. They knew she had walked in poison ivy, so they stopped and washed her legs with soap and water. At the reunion, two of my uncles (one of whom is a doctor) heard this, and were talking about a sure and simple cure. As soon as possible after contacting poison ivy, rub jewelroot on the area and that will eliminate the problem completely. Once it blisters badly, this helps a little. They explained where to find it, how to prepare it, and how to freeze it to have it available year round. Then someone claimed that their grandfather made himself immune to poison ivy by eating a small leaf of it every day for several weeks, when it appeared in the spring. Well, this made me awfully curious, so I researched it on the web. Came up with the following.
In Euell Gibbons' Stalking the Wild Asparagus, he wrote how a person could build up immunity to poison ivy. When the first tiny leaflets appear in the spring, pull off three tiny newly opened leaflets and eat them. The next day take three more, and continue this daily dose every day for three weeks. At the end of the third week, "one should be able to eat three full-sized leaflets without suffering any harm." Gibbons claimed that he followed this regime each spring and hadn't been bothered by the plant. He does caution that the effects of poison ivy vary from person to person, and didn't feel the remedy could be safely recommended for general use until further experiments were made. He also writes that goats love poison ivy and that regularly drinking the milk of goats which have fed on the plant will help build up immunity. I haven't tried either, but did try the natural poison ivy itch remedy -- jewelweed, which does work. This is the genus impatien plant that grows near ponds and has yellow-orange trumpet shaped flowers. The juice from the stalk will take the itch out of poison ivy.
This web site has a pretty complete
explanation of both jewelweed and the "eat a leaf" cure.
http://www.wwmag.net/pivy.htm
Good pictures of jewelweed on this site. Explains preparing and freezing.
Has jewelweed soap and other products for
sale.
Hope this helps you.
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