Poison Ivy Natural Remedy

If you have kids or like the outdoor, whether you enjoy your backyard, you like gardening or you go backpacking with family and friends, this article is for you! Nature is blessed with beauty and wonders, but it also contains some dangers which you need to know how to handle.

The other day, Terry our neighbor was doing some gardening at the edge of our property. He had really thick gloves on, so I asked him what it is he was cutting so carefully. He replied that it was poison ivy and he always takes care of it every year as soon as it appears to prevent a catastrophe from happening to his kids or our dog. And I suddenly realized that even though I've been in America for many years, I've never been able to identify poison ivy (luckily I never had to). The worse part is that I hike a lot so I must've been exposed to it many times. I guess I'm lucky because the angel of poison ivy spared me! Looking at how carefully Terry was handling this innocent looking plant I thought it was time to know better what everyone, east of the Rockies, dreads so much ...

Most of you know what poison ivy is and how bad it is. So I want to give you a very simple, very efficient, very natural (read healthy) solution to poison ivy burns. If you want to read more about poison ivy just read on after the remedy, there you will find a quick overview of what it is and how it works. Read on, you may discover something new and useful and share it with friends during the next party or hike.

You can find traditional products to treat poison ivy skin burns like Cortaid, IvyStat and others in your favorite pharmacy. These topical solutions/ointments are not natural and their efficiency is questionable. Actually, a client of ours had such a bad side-effect reaction from applying one of these lotions, that when he got poison ivy rash again, he totally refused to apply the same type of products preferring to go through the long and painful process of skin healing on its own instead of the pain caused by the ointment reaction. He called us, asking for help, and we gave him a natural, simple and efficient solution which you are about to learn.

The poison ivy natural remedy made simple

You will get poison ivy rash if you touch the plant or if you have contact with a pet or clothing which have been in touch with the plant. It's actually the sap of poison ivy which contains the venom. Because the plant is very fragile and breaks easily, the sap gets on you very readily.

1. The poison ivy sap penetrates the skin within minutes, so there's no time to waste. As soon as you know you've been exposed, you should rinse with lots of cold water ONLY: NO SOAP at this point yet because soap has the tendency to pick up some of the sap from the skin surface and spread it around. Don't do anything else which could spread the sap, like taking a bath or a shower, it would be a disaster[1]!
2. Wash the affected area again with regular soap and cold water to remove the left over of surface sap
3. Apply a thick layer of Green Clay paste and leave it on the affected area for a couple of hours, making sure that the poultice doesn't dry by putting a wet towel on it. Because clay is such a powerful sponge for toxins and venoms, this is going to pump the rest of the poisonous sap out of the skin. By clearing the skin from any residual poison, clay prevents any further reaction and pain. The FDA recommends Kaolin/White Clay to help dry up the oozing blisters1, but Montmorillonite Green Clay has a much higher absorption power because of its specific mineral content, that is why it's a better choice than Kaolin/white clay. If you get clay paste tube, it's ready-to-use and easy to carry around. But you may also get clay powder and make the paste yourself by mixing the powder with water.
4. Once done with the clay poultice to clean the skin from any leftover of poison ivy sap, massage in a nut size drop of pure organic unrefined Shea Butter till completely absorbed to boost the healing process. It is CRUCIAL to use only unrefined organic Shea butter because refined form doesn't contain the healing phytosterols, it would be useless in this case. In fact, the refining process includes high temperature and harsh chemicals which destroy vitamins and precious components. Moreover some of the solvents stay in the Shea butter once the refining process is over. Thanks to its exceptionally high content in healing fraction, Nature Purity's unrefined Shea butter immediately soothes the pain, subsides the inflammation process and brings the skin all it needs to repair and heal. Nature Purity's Shea butter is gold for the skin, just check out all the other applications of Shea butter.

• Once the blisters are dry and healed, you may want to apply pure Wild Musk Rose oil twice a day to help the new skin regenerate (so that the pinkish color of the new skin goes away in weeks not months). This precious oil contains an exceptional combination of naturally balanced components (trans-retinoic acid, omega-3 and 6 Essential Fatty Acids) which calm, regenerate and tone the skin. It will help to prevent the appearance of any scar which could be quite noticeable depending on the severity of the rash and the sensitivity of your skin.

What is poison ivy?

Be aware of the many disguises of Poison Ivy because it can show up in different ways. Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans or Rhus toxicodendron) is a woody vine that is well-known for its ability to produce a poisonous sap, a skin irritant that causes an itching rash for most people. It grows vigorously throughout North American, east of the Rockies and can show up as a shrub up to 4 ft tall, as a groundcover or as a climbing vine on various supports. Just look at the pictures to be able to spot it accurately. The leaves are compound with 3 almond-shaped leaflets which is translated in the popular saying "leaves of three, let it be". The berries are a grayish-white and are a favorite winter food for some birds. The color can range from light green to dark green to bright red in fall.

How does poisoning occur?

Now that you know that poison ivy can be neutralized naturally, enjoy your gardening, partying and hiking without dreading meeting the culprit!

Have fun!

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