Poison Ivy: The Facts and The Myths

With summer comes hike's in the woods, walks through the parks, as well as other various outdoor activities. Hiding in the outdoors is a harmful and extremely irritating plant called poison ivy. Anyone who has ever had a case of poison ivy knows to watch out for it when the weather starts to warm up. This article will touch on some poison ivy facts as well as some poison ivy fictions.

Poison ivy is a vine or shrub from cashew family. It can be found throughout the United States and in parts of Southern Canada. Poison ivy leaves change throughout the seasons. They appear red in early spring and end up yellow or orange by fall. They generally have three leaves, but can have more or less. I'm sure you have heard the old saying "Leaves of three, leave them be!"

So what causes the allergic reaction we see on humans? Poison ivy contains an oil called urushiol. This oil is what causes allergic reactions. Humans do not even need to touch the poison ivy plant to have an allergic reaction. They just have to some in to contact with the oil. That means if your dog walked through poison ivy and came home with it on his fur, you could get poison ivy by petting him. Also, if you went out on a hike and walked through poison ivy, getting the oil on your boots, you could get poison ivy when you took your boots off (if you used your bare hands and the oil was on your boot).

People can get poison ivy from another human being only if the oil remains on that person. It is fiction that you can get poison ivy by coming in to contact with an outbreak that appears on someone else's body. Since outbreaks don't appear right away, you can safely assume all the oil has been washed away.

What do the outbreaks look like? Initially you will just begin to feel an itch and your skin will turn red. After that blistering of the skin will occur. These blisters may open and ooze out liquid at times.