Stephen Henning wrote:
Leon Fisk wrote:

You don't spread it around by scratching the sores.

But if the chemical irritation is bad enough that you get blisters that
fill with liquid, the area is so sensitive that the mere act of
scratching and irritating the area spreads the inflammation and makes it
worse. It is not the urushiol spreading the poison ivy, it is the
scratching and irritation spreading the inflammation. It heals much
faster if you don't irritate the area mechanically by scratching. The
itching may drive you crazy, but it will heal faster if you don't
scratch.

Most poison ivy medicines just treat the itching. This in combination
with allergy pills and steroids is about the only treatment. In any
case, if you don't scratch it and get an infection, it usually starts to
clear up in a week.

The urushiol is fairly slow acting. When I was in the Forest Service we
used a prophylactic gel soap. We covered ourselves from head to toe with
this soap before a shift on a forest fire. Then when we got back 13
hours later, we took a shower in a steam and washed the soap off. This
prevented us from getting poison ivy everywhere except in our eyes and
lungs. We had to wear face masks when we were in areas where poison ivy
was burning since the smoke carries the urushiol in the air and it gets
in your eyes and lungs.

Once the oil is on your skin and/or clothes, you can touch it and spread
it around. You can get the oil on your hands when you take your clothes
and shoes off and then spread it to tender parts of your body. If you
sit on furniture with contaminated clothing, other people who touch it
with bare skin can get urushiol on them. If you take a good shower
after working in poison ivy with a brush and a strong soap it usually
will remove most of the urushiol and any reaction will be rather
minimal. Be sure to scrup in tender areas like between your finger and
around your wrists. Some people have hours before a visible reaction,
others have days. However, once you start seeing the reaction, it is
too late to prevent it.

Has anybody had any luck with the product called "Zanfel"?

It's fairly new, and very expensive - about 40 dollars for a one ounce
tube. It's a special wash for poison ivy rash. The manufacturer
claims it stops the itching by bonding to the urushiol and removing it,
even after the oil has bonded to the skin and your immune system has
started attacking it (creating the rash and the itching).

I have a tube of it here. I have used it with mixed results.

"Ether Jones" wrote:

Has anybody had any luck with the product called "Zanfel"?

It's fairly new, and very expensive - about 40 dollars for a one ounce
tube. It's a special wash for poison ivy rash. The manufacturer
claims it stops the itching by bonding to the urushiol and removing it,
even after the oil has bonded to the skin and your immune system has
started attacking it (creating the rash and the itching).

I have a tube of it here. I have used it with mixed results.

The washes work best as preventatives after exposure but before the
rash. Nothing except time is a cure. Treatments just try to contain
the itch, the inflamation, and the other allergy symptoms.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman

Stephen Henning wrote:
"Ether Jones" wrote:

Has anybody had any luck with the product called "Zanfel"?

It's fairly new, and very expensive - about 40 dollars for a one ounce
tube. It's a special wash for poison ivy rash. The manufacturer
claims it stops the itching by bonding to the urushiol and removing it,
even after the oil has bonded to the skin and your immune system has
started attacking it (creating the rash and the itching).

I have a tube of it here. I have used it with mixed results.

The washes work best as preventatives after exposure but before the
rash. Nothing except time is a cure. Treatments just try to contain
the itch, the inflamation, and the other allergy symptoms.

Yes, I know this used to be the conventional wisdom.

But the point I was making is that Zanfel claims to have changed all
that.

Have you ever heard of Zanfel? Have you ever tried it? That was my
question.


I bought a tube of Zanfel a year ago to keep in the medicine cabinet
when a friend swore by it, since I have 10 wooded acres with serveral
patches of poison ivy.

I've had occasion to use it 3 or 4 times, and I've not been impressed.
I was wondering if anyone else has tried it with better results than I
obtained.

"Ether Jones" wrote:

The washes work best as preventatives after exposure but before the
rash. Nothing except time is a cure. Treatments just try to contain
the itch, the inflamation, and the other allergy symptoms.

Yes, I know this used to be the conventional wisdom.

But the point I was making is that Zanfel claims to have changed all
that.

Zanfels claim and only claim is:
"Zanfel helps lift the toxin, urushiol, common to poison ivy, oak and
sumac from the skin where it has come into contact and bound to the
epidermis. This binding of plant toxin creates the allergic rash known
as poison ivy. By washing the urushiol oil out of the skin cells, relief
comes more quickly."

As one reviewer explained: "The scientific claims in the product
description defy belief. By the time the symptoms associated with
poision oak (ivy or sumac) show up, the urushiol has already been
metabolized and gotten rid of. If you're itching, you don't need
something to bind to and defeat urushiol, you need something to relieve
the skin that has reacted to one of the already-excreted breakdown
products of urushiol metabolism."

If you read reviews by users, you will find that some claim that it
relieved the itch. Others found it did nothing. You decide. Remember
most reviews are published by places that sell the product. However, by
the time you can get it from most pharmacies or mail order, the allergic
reaction would be clearing up on its own. Since it is very expensive
many pharmacies don't stock the stuff.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman

Stephen Henning wrote:

As one reviewer explained: "The scientific claims in the product
description defy belief. By the time the symptoms associated with
poision oak (ivy or sumac) show up, the urushiol has already been
metabolized and gotten rid of. If you're itching, you don't need
something to bind to and defeat urushiol, you need something to relieve
the skin that has reacted to one of the already-excreted breakdown
products of urushiol metabolism."

What is an "excreted" product of urushiol "metabolism" ??

My understanding of the mechanism of poison ivy rash is quite
different. The skin is not "reacting to" an "excreted product" of
"urushiol metabolism". Rather, the urushiol binds to the skin cells,
and the body's immune system no longer recogizes them as being part of
your body... so the immune system attacks the cells, causing the rash
and the itching. Once the affected cells have been destroyed, the
immune reaction stops and the rash clears up.

Is the above description now history, and the new theory about excreted
products of urushiol metabolism now the accepted explanation?

On 6/8/06 3:02 PM, in article
, "Ether Jones"
wrote:


Stephen Henning wrote:
Leon Fisk wrote:

You don't spread it around by scratching the sores.

But if the chemical irritation is bad enough that you get blisters that
fill with liquid, the area is so sensitive that the mere act of
scratching and irritating the area spreads the inflammation and makes it
worse. It is not the urushiol spreading the poison ivy, it is the
scratching and irritation spreading the inflammation. It heals much
faster if you don't irritate the area mechanically by scratching. The
itching may drive you crazy, but it will heal faster if you don't
scratch.

Most poison ivy medicines just treat the itching. This in combination
with allergy pills and steroids is about the only treatment. In any
case, if you don't scratch it and get an infection, it usually starts to
clear up in a week.

The urushiol is fairly slow acting. When I was in the Forest Service we
used a prophylactic gel soap. We covered ourselves from head to toe with
this soap before a shift on a forest fire. Then when we got back 13
hours later, we took a shower in a steam and washed the soap off. This
prevented us from getting poison ivy everywhere except in our eyes and
lungs. We had to wear face masks when we were in areas where poison ivy
was burning since the smoke carries the urushiol in the air and it gets
in your eyes and lungs.

Once the oil is on your skin and/or clothes, you can touch it and spread
it around. You can get the oil on your hands when you take your clothes
and shoes off and then spread it to tender parts of your body. If you
sit on furniture with contaminated clothing, other people who touch it
with bare skin can get urushiol on them. If you take a good shower
after working in poison ivy with a brush and a strong soap it usually
will remove most of the urushiol and any reaction will be rather
minimal. Be sure to scrup in tender areas like between your finger and
around your wrists. Some people have hours before a visible reaction,
others have days. However, once you start seeing the reaction, it is
too late to prevent it.

Has anybody had any luck with the product called "Zanfel"?

It's fairly new, and very expensive - about 40 dollars for a one ounce
tube. It's a special wash for poison ivy rash. The manufacturer
claims it stops the itching by bonding to the urushiol and removing it,
even after the oil has bonded to the skin and your immune system has
started attacking it (creating the rash and the itching).

I have a tube of it here. I have used it with mixed results.

NO! but I might not have given it a fair test. Last PI attack may have gone
systemic with in hours of exposure.

Cheryl