This might seem like a stupid question but I was curious if any of you folks who've ever had poison ivy have stung yourself as a treatment? The thought occured to me this morning as I noticed a fresh (and painful) patch of poison ivy on my arm. I seem to get it really bad every couple of years and the Rx hydrocortisone creams from the doc don't seem to work all that well and the systemic cortisone injections or pills knock me off balance for weeks from an energy standpoint. With bee venom being 100 x more potent than cortisone I imagine a few stings would probably work quite well.
I dunno about stings helping, I did not know the medical industry gave cortizone for poison oak/ivy. Hope it works for you, give it a try, it can't hurt! One thing I would try, if I had the problem, is try coating it with honey. Honey will seal it so no oxygen can be gotten to it and will help to draw out infection and might just help dry it up and make it go away sooner. I've never tried it myself, but will if I ever have that terrible rash again.
I'll stick with IVY-DRY from the drugstore !
Bee-Bop
I will tell you from experience....Bee stings hurt!!!!! Poisen Ivy itches!!!!! I get poison ivy EVERY year. The best thing for poison ivy, besides cortisone, is salt water. Every year, that I get poison ivy that's my excuse to go to the ocean. I jump in and stay in the water for at least an hour. Here in Massachusetts the ocean water is cold. The colder the better. By the end of the day, between the ocean water (salt) the sun and the wind...by the time I get home the itch goes away. Within the next few days the wound heals, dries and does not return. This really works. I am not a scientist but I can tell you that One, either the salt the sun or the wind, or a conjunction of all these things the poison goes away. I don't really think that an additional bee poison is going to get rid of your problem. Think-poison+acid...salt=base.
Rich
Best thing I use is tea. Used to go rock climbing a lot in Boulder canyon the poison ivy capitol of the world. Black tea made strong then put on gauze and applied to the area. Dries it right up.
Alfred
alfred, you are right. Even though I never tried it, I did hear that it works. Green tea, black tea...who knows?
When it comes to Poison Ivy/Poison Oak all I can say is that after keeping bees for nearly 10 years I ended up in the Army. Boot Camp was at Fort Ord, CA with acres of sand and poison oak. My DI had my platoon make bivouac in a patch of poison oak. Everybody came down with a bad case of itches but me. I pulled the stuff out by hand to before putting up my tent. Of course Nettles don't seem to bother me either. Another true folk tale heard from. :camp: