Enjoying the great outdoors can be a fantastic way to spend a summer day. However, there are a number of hazards out there that can ruin a perfectly good day. While falling down a well or being swept away by a flood are more dramatic, if not unlikely examples, encountering poison ivy or poison oak are just as likely candidates to put the kibosh on your summer excursion. Avoiding contact with poison oak and poison ivy is the best possible way to prevent yourself from spending the next few weeks itching, but often these plants can sneak up on you. Should you ever find yourself in the wilderness and stricken with a sudden dose of poison oak, here are several poison oak treatment options for dealing with this problem.
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Poison oak and poison ivy cause intense itchiness and rashes that can last for weeks depending on the amount of poison introduced to the body. This stems from an allergic reaction that the poison compound urushiol, which coats the leaves of both of these toxic plants, causes in humans. While some lucky individuals are immune to urushiol, the majority of humans are vulnerable to coming into contact with poison ivy or poison oak and succumbing to the plant’s toxicity. Most cases of poison oak or poison ivy are caused by brushing exposed skin against the leaves of these plants. This transfers urushiol residue to the skin where it then sinks in through the skin’s pores and causes an allergic reaction.
If you have been exposed to either plant, the best course of action is to immediately rinse your skin with cold water. Avoid hot water and soap at all costs as this can cause the urushiol to seep deeper into your skin due to removing the outer most productive layer of skin and opening up the pores on the skin. This treatment is usually ineffective if you have been exposed to poison oak or ivy for over a half hour.
Cold Compress
Once the itchiness and rash of poison oak contamination has begun to set in, using cold compresses to alleviate both symptoms can be helpful. Cold pressure can slow down the natural allergic reaction caused by urushiol and provide temporary relief.
Antihistamines and Creams
For more lasting relief from symptoms of poison oak and ivy there are a number of nonprescription medications that alleviate much of the itch and irritation of allergic reactions. Often these treatments are the best course of action to wait until the poison runs its course, which can be upwards of a month in duration.
Prescription Medication
Depending on the level of severity of the symptoms, seeking a doctor may be necessary. Injections can be administered that halt the body’s natural allergic reaction to the poison oak toxin. Symptoms of poison oak may affect certain people more so than others. Should the rash spread to cover a large section of the body or should swelling, puffiness or difficulty in breathing occur, seeking a doctor is highly advised to combat these adverse reactions. While the home remedies and over-the-counter medications work for most people, there are some that need to seek professional poison oak treatment options.
