Don’t be a Casualty of Summer Fun – Avoid Poison Plants
July 18, 2005
By: Hannah Clark for Body1
A few weeks ago, the summer turned evil on me. I was hiking along the Pacific coast outside of San Francisco. My sister, a fifth grade teacher who often takes her students hiking, pointed out the flora alongside the trail. One plant was abundant – poison oak. Wise to the effects of poison plants, my sister turned sideways to avoid brushing the poison oak that reached out onto the trail. Thinking I was invincible, I walked right through it.
| Take Action | Learn to identify poison plants:
Poison Oak: Grows as a vine or shrub west of the Rockies and in the Southeast. Three leaves.
Poison Ivy: Grows as a vine in the east, Midwest and south. Grows as a shrub around the Great Lakes and in the far northwest. Three leaves.
Poison Sumac: Grows in standing water in the east, Midwest and south. Seven to 13 leaflets on each leaf.
For more information on identifying, avoiding, and treating poison ivy, oak and sumac, order an informational booklet from the American Academy of Dermatology.
Click here to order the booklet
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Poison oak and its siblings, poison ivy and poison sumac, are the most common cause of allergic reaction in the United States, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. All contain a powerful oil called urushiol, a tiny amount of which can cause a severe allergic reaction. “It takes a very small amount, an infinitesimally small amount to produce a rash,” said Dr. Andrew F. Alexis, a dermatologist and director of the Skin of Color Center at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City.
Once it gets on your hands or clothes, you can easily spread it to other parts of your body. If you don’t wash your clothes, Dr. Alexis points out, you could re-infect yourself weeks or months later. The resin can also be carried on the fur of pets or on garden tools.
My rash started as a few tiny dots that I assumed were bug bites. A day later, the dots expanded, but they still did not itch that much. “This isn’t so bad,” I thought. “I’ll just let the allergic reaction run its course.”
And run the course it did. Those tiny spots began to resemble continents. Within a few days I had Asia on my waist, Latin America on my hip, Australia on my stomach, and a rapidly expanding supernova on my back. As the days passed, the continents grew closer together, and I thought I might recreate Pangea – that is, if the supernova didn’t engulf the entire world first.
And it itched.
At first, calamine lotion and over-the-counter hydrocortisone cream kept the rash endurable. But one morning, I awoke at 4:30 to unbearable itching. I found a 24-hour drug store and bought a colloidal oatmeal bath. After soaking for a half hour, I found that if I somehow suspended all the affected body parts in air, and made sure that absolutely nothing touched them, I could almost fall asleep.
| Take Action | Over the counter treatments for poison plant rashes:
Calamine lotion
Hydrocortisone cream
Colloidal oatmeal (Aveeno is the primary brand
Zanfel
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“In severe cases, it’s certainly not advisable to let the rash run its course,” says Dr. Alexis. It’s a myth that the rash will spread when you scratch it. But scratching can weaken the skin’s barrier, Dr. Alexis said, making it more prone to infection. In severe cases, patients may experience facial or genital swelling.
I was lucky to avoid the most severe symptoms, but the itching overpowered most over-the-counter remedies. Only one ointment actually provided relief: Zanfel, a granular cream that costs about $40 an ounce. Zanfel relieved the itching and appeared to reduce the rash’s severity.
Nevertheless, the time had come to seek professional help. A week after those bug bites first appeared, I finally got to a dermatologist (not Dr. Alexis), who prescribed a steroid pill. Within two days, the bright pink Pangea had faded to a light brown, and the itching was almost gone. But Dr. Alexis cautions that the medication must be taken for up to three weeks in order to ensure the rash won’t return.
Almost two weeks after I first made contact with the poison oak, my summer nightmare is over. My advice: learn to recognize the poison plants in your area. Check out these pictures from the American Academy of Dermatology. Keep an eye out in your garden, in the park, or anytime you’re enjoying the great outdoors. If you think you’ve been exposed, wash your clothes and get to the doctor as soon as possible. Hopefully, you can avoid being a casualty of summer fun.
Last updated: 18-Jul-05
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