Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: Fried Pie on April 26, 2010, 02:50:12 pm

Title: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: Fried Pie on April 26, 2010, 02:50:12 pm
I am extremely allergic to poison ivy and the fact that I regularly eat the leaves to maintain my non-allergic condition has created some discussion with some of my friends.

Here’s the deal.  I eat one poison ivy leaf a day for about two weeks in the spring as soon as the leaves start showing, then eat maybe a leaf a month until the fall.  I do not understand it, but I never break out inside my mouth.  Sometimes when first starting in the spring, I can get a blister on my lip if it touches the leaf.  To avoid this when starting out in the spring, I will clip a leaf and let it fall on a piece of bread, then fold the bread over it to make sure the leaf  doesn’t touch my lip.

I have not had any ill effects…. and it works.
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: mullet on April 26, 2010, 02:52:15 pm
 How's your butt feel? :D
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: Cacatch on April 26, 2010, 03:21:33 pm
I had heard of this and wondered if it really worked and if anyone actually did it. I've read where it was a trick the NA's used to reduce or eliminate susceptibility to poison ivy. I'm scared to try it though, because some sources say it can be deadly to the wrong person by causing them to have all sorts of internal infections. Don't know, but at least it works for you. Not everything works for every person.  :)
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: El Destructo on April 26, 2010, 04:00:26 pm
I'll just take your word for it.....  ;)
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: Badger on April 26, 2010, 04:28:48 pm
 That scares the crap out of me. I have had my throat almost close up and choke me to death tasting things I shouldn't be tasting, or smoking things I shouldn't have been smoking LOL. I chewed up a philadandren leaf when I was a kid and came real close to dyeing, might have been an elephant ear not positive anymore. Steve
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: jeff halfrack on April 26, 2010, 04:48:22 pm
       DANG!!!!!!!!!!   I'm  writing  this  by  proxy!   I  can  catch  poison  Ivy  off  the  internet!!!  you  crazy  boy!!   good  luck!  my  bro  works  for  the  phone  co  he  gets  some  shot?  He  dosn't  break out  that  bad  any  more JEFF W
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: HoBow on April 26, 2010, 05:40:24 pm
Works the same as an allergy shot. Take in concentrated dosages to help your body build up immunity to the allergens. I've had to get on a shot both times I've moved to a different region of the country. Taking honey works the same way with tree allergens. Your mouth probably doesn't break out because of the acid level. Your method may work, but the controlled method of shots would be safer!
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: sailordad on April 26, 2010, 07:23:55 pm
ya,aint never done that
but i can see how it would work,after all they say if you have seasonal allergies
ti make them a lot easier tp put up with you should eat a tbsp of local honey every day in the spring/summer
that way you are ingesting all the local pollens that you are allergic too
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: Pat B on April 26, 2010, 08:05:49 pm
El D, my sentiments exactly!!! :o
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: John K on April 26, 2010, 08:19:41 pm
Good luck with that one ! I would just aviod the Ivy  :-\
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: El Destructo on April 26, 2010, 09:17:36 pm
El D, my sentiments exactly!!! :o

I have no desires to eat Poison Ivy...I am allergic to Shell Fish...it swells my Throat and makes it itch...I almost died of Anaphylactic Shock once...and don't want to chance it again...so I will only eat Shrimp till my Throat starts to Itch...and then Quit.... ;)

As for Allergy Shots being a concentrated Dose...when I used to take them...they were a Minimal dose to make your Body react to them and build it's own immunity to the Allergen...not a Concentrated Dose...I would think that this would trigger an Attack....JMO
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: mullet on April 26, 2010, 09:37:31 pm
 I grew up in Florida eating Mangoes all my life, I've been told that's why I don't break out at all. I sat down in a big patch turkey hunting one morning. I set up in the dark and when the sun came up I was covered in the pretty green stuff. No problem.
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: DanaM on April 26, 2010, 09:47:18 pm
Me I'm allegric to deer, go figure eh but it never bothered me until I skinned several hundred for extra cash while in college,
doc said it was from over exposure, now when I field dress a deer I wear a dust mask and a tyvek suit, No fun when yer eyes swell shut and yer wind pipe closes and you break out in hives :o
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: FlintWalker on April 26, 2010, 10:55:10 pm
I have a buddy that could wipe his butt with poison ivy leaves and not have a problem. Me...I can't touch the stuff with out looking like I've been shot with a load of #9's a day or two later :'( Ticks me off!  >:(
 I wouldn't eat a leave of it for $500
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: Timo on April 26, 2010, 11:08:05 pm
Quote
I wouldn't eat a leave of it for $500

That would pay for the roofin ,popacap! ;D
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: stickbender on April 26, 2010, 11:20:27 pm

     Man, Eddie can you just picture him and his dog scootin across the carpet together....... ;D  Yeah, back in the sixties, idiots would chew those leaves, dumb cane etc. to get a little buzz, and have their throats close!  Yeah, Eddie, same here, I used to eat Mangos, by the bushel full.  Used to have big tree growing wild in the woods, and man were they good, and there were a bunch of them at the junior high school, sometimes, we would eat them raw, and watch the other kids break out in sores on their mouths.  Come to find out, Mangoes, are in the Poison Ivy family.....  Could be why we are not allergic to it.  I bivouacked in a patch during AIT in the army at Ft. Gordon, Ga.  The guy sharing the shelter had to go to the hospital.  A bunch of them got it.  Never knew I was not allergic to it.  You can use the juice from stinging nettle to stop the stinging from the same plant.  It neutralizes the pain, and discomfort.  Just put the juice on the affected area.
Now if we can just find something to neutralize the bite of red bugs (chiggers) !!! ;D
                                                                                              Wayne
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: El Destructo on April 27, 2010, 12:22:04 am
And Pappy's Seed Ticks....the two I got last Year ....still flare up and Itch a year later
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: HoBow on April 27, 2010, 05:24:28 am
El D- it took me six months to get to concentrated syrum and it was only .5cc
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: recurve shooter on April 27, 2010, 10:26:50 am
in one of the lucky suckers that it dont bother.  ;D ;D me and a friend, and a few non-friends had a little "arguement" in the edge of the woods a few years ago. the next day later his legs and arms looked worse than his face from rolling around in the stuff. didnt bother me.  ;D :D
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: Fried Pie on April 27, 2010, 12:07:01 pm
Follow-up…

Mullet seems confused.  Keep uneaten poison ivy away from the butt.  My experience supports the notion that digested poison ivy is harmless to sensitive unmentionable places.

I consider the mango comments interesting.  I was not aware it is related to poison ivy.  Years ago in the navy, me and three other fools ate a whole grocery size bag of ripe Porto Rican mangos at one sitting.  As a result we all had  diarrhea and a loathsome skin rash.  We did not have a doctor aboard ship, but we were told by those knowledgeable with shipboard illness that we had a rash from vitamin “A” poisoning and diarrhea from eating the inedible mango skin.
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: JackCrafty on April 27, 2010, 01:32:15 pm
Never had a reaction to poison ivy.  Still wouldn't eat it though.  Found out I was sensitive to gluten (and probably other stuff) ...so now I watch what I eat very carefully.  And "sensitive unmentionable places" are no joke (ouch).  What's that expression?  "That really chaps my a$$".   :D
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: mullet on April 27, 2010, 02:20:50 pm
 Mango and Cashew are in the poison oak, poison ivy family. When we were little you tended to start peeling a mango with your teeth while you were sitting up in the cool tree in the summer. The sap in the skin will make your mouth break out into a rash. If you look where the stem attaches to the fruit you can usually see a little clear sap, that's what will do it. And the Run's came from all that fibre in the fruit. And you really ate the skin? ??? ;)
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: StevenT on April 27, 2010, 02:21:37 pm
I think I am in the same league as Halfrack. I can look at a picture of P.IVY and break out. I'll leave the leaf munching to someone else.
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: stickbender on April 27, 2010, 02:44:28 pm

     Hey Eddie, if Ol Fried Pie will eat mango skin, lets give him a piece of sugar cane, see what he does with that !! ;D ;D
We can take turns doing the Heimlich maneuver on him!! ;D

                                                                                      Wayne
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: makenzie71 on April 27, 2010, 02:58:33 pm
I wouldn't eat a leave of it for $500

Do I hear $501?  Anyone?
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: Hillbilly on April 27, 2010, 03:17:01 pm
I can pretty much waller around in poison ivy and rub it all over me and it doesn't bother me, but I still wouldn't eat a leaf of it, even for $502.37 :) Wayne, what's up with sugar cane? I used to chew on it all the time when grandpa was making molasses.
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: mullet on April 27, 2010, 04:54:32 pm
 I think Wayne was figuring if he'd eat mangos without peelin' it, it would be fun to watch him eat sugar cane without peeling it, to. ;D

Or maybe he thought he'd chew and swallow it.
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: DanaM on April 27, 2010, 07:56:02 pm
I'll stick to pasties eh, thank you very much ;D
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: stickbender on April 28, 2010, 12:05:16 am

     Eddie, I was thinking he would try to swallow the sugar cane, after he chewed on it a while.  I peeled with my teeth, so I don't think he would try to eat the peel, or skin on sugar cane, but I would like to watch and see if he tried to swallow the inner fibrous material.  Definitely get his fiber for the week there. ;)
P.S. 
Why aren't you in bed?  I thought you were leaving in the morning?
                                                                              Wayne
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: mullet on April 28, 2010, 12:08:25 am
 I've got a Safety Class to teach and Corporate Meeting in Orlando tomorrow before I can leave.
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: recurve shooter on April 28, 2010, 10:27:12 am
lol. yeah mango skin not good. :-\
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: nugget on April 28, 2010, 07:53:34 pm
I make tea out of a plant called  jewel weed. It grows near poison ivy. If I drink the tea every year poison ivy doesn't bother me at all. The plant is a square stemmed plant that grows right along with the poison ivy plant. Dry it and brew tea out of it, but add alot of sugar cause it don't taste real good. 
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: aznboi3644 on May 01, 2010, 06:23:54 pm
Mangos?  I've never heard of them being bad for you lol.  Eat them all my life.

I've only had poison ivy a couple times though.
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: Tsalagi on May 02, 2010, 01:10:18 am
I just learned I'm allergic to sulfa drug the hard way a couple weeks ago.  Never had that reaction to any antibiotic before. So, I'll pass on eating poison oak, if that's ok. But I know the idea has merit. There was a king in the Ancient World named Mithridates who made himself immune to several poisons by ingesting tiny doses of them over time. He also had the rather interesting hobby of growing poisonous plants and feeding poisons to prisoners to test out antidotes. Unfortunately for Mithridates, his immunity to poisons caught up with him one day.  He ran afoul of the Romans and needed to commit suicide to avoid the embarrassing fate Romans traditionally reserved for captured leaders (look what happened to Vercingetorix.) He tried to take poison, but none of it had any effect on him due to his immunity. So, he came to fairly messy end at the point of a sword and a decidedly painful one.
Title: Re: Eating Posion Ivy
Post by: El Destructo on May 02, 2010, 09:53:48 pm
I didn't eat any....but Walked through a bunch at Pappys