mutha efin skin

[infinite monkey]

Even scratching doesn't spread poison ivy/oak, despite popular belief:

Can Poison Oak Be Spread By Scratching?

The rash doesn't appear until after the oil is absorbed into your skin, because it is caused by your body's immune system.
So the answer is no, once you get the rash, you can't spread it around by scratching. The oil that seeps from your wounded body isn't urushiol, its secreted by your body.

The reason most people think it will spread is because of secondary infection. You touch a poison oak plant, the oil is on your hands. You rub your face, it gets there. The oil is spread. Now after a while, there isn't as much oil to spread around, so some parts get hit more heavily. What this means is, the rash appears soon is some spots, and takes a couple of days in other spots. This gives the illusion that you've spread the rash by scratching or whatever.

Just make sure you aren't getting brand-new infection from your clothing. Whenever I go hiking, as soon as I get home I put all my clothes, shoes, everything in a bag, and wash it all. Only through extreme paranoia can you avoid poison oak. The alternative is to never go anywhere fun.

Does hot water help?

There are different schools of thought on this subject. My opinion: Hot water makes it feel better only so long as you are running hot water over it. As soon as you stop it feels a whole lot worse. Other people find that hot water can help.

Submission: Another way (Dr. Bob Sheppard of Carrollton, AL) has found relief (for poison ivy) is to hold the affected area under running, hot water. "For temporary relief, go to the faucet and turn the hot water on to the point where it is almost uncomfortable. Put the infected area in the running water," he said. "What you will notice is that the area will itch intensely," he added. "Continue to do this for a minute to a minute and a half, (and) finally, you'll begin to notice that the rash area is not itching anymore. And for four to five hours, you won't itch."

Submission: I really enjoyed your information that you provided although I do dissagree with one of your no nos...which is the hot water trick that actually for some gives tremendous relief...what it does is allows all the histimine that is building up in your system to become released. Histimine is what causes the itch..itch...itch.It is only a temporary relief but it does last up to 8 hours or untill the histimine builds back up. Also you should tell everyone the shower should be a very COLD one at the time of infection to close the pores and wash off the poison oak.

http://knoledge.org/oak/