I spent an hour this morning trying to write an entry about honey and wounds. If you haven’t ever tried this, do it. Raw honey on any open wound works several miracles.
I was planning to continue on and tell you that @riverflows's very simple remedy for a sore throat would also be great for wounds, making it a remedy that is both versatile and extremely easy to make from ingredients almost anyone who is reading this already has in their kitchen.
But I got frustrated, so out the back door I went. I grabbed a handful of weeds that were crowding some daylilies, gave a good yank, and nearly shouted “poison ivy!”
I am highly allergic to poison ivy, and spotting it is one of my super powers. Thankfully I saw the tiny bugger. I immediately stood, walked directly to my kitchen, and washed my hands several times with an oil based soap.
Then I joyfully remembered that I had seen this beauty just this morning:
This is jewelweed. There are two sprigs of it in this photo. Some people call it touch-me-not; when it is 30 inches tall in early fall its tubular orange flowers blast off if you touch them.
I've read that it is a remedy for poison ivy, so I grabbed two of these, gave thanks, and rubbed them on my hands and wrists.
It seemed too little so I went on a search for more and found this:
Poison Ivy and Jewelweed growing together, directions from on high! I grabbed a couple more and rubbed them into my skin for about one minute. The plant released some sort of salve that was very easy to absorb, and felt really good.
Jewelweed is not to be confused with lamb’s quarters, which is about the same size and shape at present in the northeastern United States, but is a darker green with downiness around the emerging leaves:
I would have taken some homeopathic Rhus Toxicodendron 30c, but couldn't find any in my house so I wrote "rhus" on my shopping list instead and will take a couple pellets of that later today.
Here are the steps if you know you have been exposed to poison ivy and it’s early spring to early fall:
• Hightail it into the house to wash with an oil based soap
• Go back outside, find jewelweed, and rub it into your skin for about one minute
• Put a pellet or two of rhus toxicodendron 30 c under your tongue
This is the first time I have applied jewelweed for poison ivy. I've done the other two steps and still suffered mild rashes, easily treated with lavender essential oil. I’ll have to get back to you on whether or not today's method worked as total protection. Fortunately or not, I'll know in the next two days!
This is my fourth entry to @naturalmedicine's contest https://steempeak.com/naturalmedicine/@naturalmedicine/home-remedies-join-in-the-fun-of-our-fortnightly-challenge
I took all those photos with my stupid phone. Thank you for reading!
Thanks for the info. I never knew about jewelweed. I hope it works for you.
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So far so good! I should know for sure in another 48 hours.
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You've been visited by @nateonsteemit from Homesteaders Co-op.
Oh, do let us know how it goes! I've also heard plantain works wonders. My son and I got into some today but no rashes yet. It's usually not that bad for me, and it's his first time, so yay. Rites of passage for forest people I guess.
A community marketplace of ethical, handmade and sustainable products available for STEEM, SBD (and USD): https://homesteaderscoop.com
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@nateonsteemit, your salve could also be good for wounds. I was going to try to work that one into my honey on wounds entry, but I gave up on that one - too long and quite boring! I haven't used plantain except on bug bites, and it stings at first then gives relief. My fave for bug bites is definitely lavender EO if I have it on me, with some homeopathic apis mellifica. If I don't have lavender, I reach for the plantain at my feet. It seems to grow everywhere I go. Thanks for the visit!
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I have no idea what is poison Ivy, but your post is very good, you explain about it so clearly so others who might have the same problem can learn from it.
Now excuse me, I need to googling what is poison Ivy 😁
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Haha! Thanks for dropping in! I'm glad you think I've explained well. It took me half a day to compose!
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That's great, you tried your best to make a good quality post 👍
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You’ve been visited by @riverflows on behalf of Natural Medicine!
Serioulsy, how did i miss FOUR of your entries? Did you paste the links under the posts? Hm. We dont have jewelweed or poison ivy here - thank goodness. Sounds like a good remedy to apply to those unfortunate enough to be slapped with it!
We are also holding a raffle - if you'd like to win some beautiful art by @frejafri, check out this post. We are also behind a fundraising charity drive hosted by @freedomtribe to raise money for Venuezualan children. Please click here to enter!
50SPII100SPII200II500SPII1000SP ♡♡♡
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You only missed three! lol! and @nateonsteemit saw one of those (this one), so only two.
I was terribly intimidated by all the entries, then decided "hey I actually live by home remedies one right after the other" so I posted one right after the other. I was mostly trying to get the total entries up to 25, not to win. This community has rewarded me plenty this month!
I would like to enter the raffle, but I don't think I have enough steem to do so. I had JUST powered it all up. I can convert my steem dollars and am considering doing so, but that takes three darn days the only way I know how to do it. Open to suggestions! I still have very little idea how to navigate this place.
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I think most of the people who commented missed the fact that you intentionally grabbed it lol I got a good laugh from that one. I’m also surprised, I didn’t realize poison ivy was limited to somewhere but lots don’t know it’s incredibly loving embrace (sarcasm lol, those who’ve had it cringe if they’re allergic to it). Thanks for the explanation! It’s nice that the two seem to grow in tandem; one to get you one to fix you.
I’m in Boston, where in the northeast do you live?
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I'm just north of NYC in the suburbs. ugh. Moved here 20 years ago and am thinking of making a big move. How do you like MA? My sis just moved there from Seattle.
I think poison ivy is very beautiful. It's a good thing I have a keen eye for it. And for jewelweed.
So far so good, no rash. I think my remedy worked.
Thanks for dropping in!
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I made a tincture decades ago with jewelweed and a few other plants that worked for about 20 minutes. I had to keep applying it.
But I developed contact dermatitis after a particularly bad bout with poison ivy and now nothing works if it gets irritated after I get it again. I, like you, am hyper-allert to it. But the cat, my son, my husband, much less so. I've also gotten it from the hay in winter....
We have PI here and jewelweed in abundance also.
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I don't understand - the contact dermatitis was to the tincture? And you got it in the winter?!!! oh that is awful. Just when you think you are safe...
This protocol seems to have worked for me - today is the fourth day.
I know a forager who smears his hands and arms with fresh jewelweed prophylactically whenever he goes to the woods. It releases its juice in a nice gush after ten seconds or so. Maybe try it fresh instead of tincture? I think immediately is important too.
I don't seem to ever get it from my animals, who walk through the stuff all the time. I've seen my dog roll in it. But if I get the tiniest bit anywhere on my body without knowing, a few days later it is all over me, so I am super careful now. If I'm going out to remove PI, I cover myself 100% in clothes that I will dispose of afterwards, shower immediately after using an oil based soap and take rhus tox. It's been years since I've gotten it bad.
Have you tried lavender EO? Helps me a lot with the itch.
thank you for stopping in! come again for coffee sometime.
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No the contact dermatitis was to the PI, and happens every time now, if I get it and it gets irritated.
They claim there's a "super" PI here in New England and I think we had a plant of it on the back side of the barn a while back... I never got into that one, directly, but maybe from the cats...
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Honey on open wounds - gotta remember that! - and
Jewelweed!
Happily, we have that in our timber, along with the highly toxic (to me) poison ivy. I native plant, yes, and birds love it, but I hate-hate-hate it. Last year I attended a funeral with Poison Ivy face, weeping with the zombie stuff, and I thought what a Halloween costume it would be, if anyone were crazy enough to seek out poison ivy to play an authentic looking zombie. If I had SEEN the stuff, I'd have avoided it. I suspect the face full of ooze was courtesy of the dogs. That'll teach me to stop hugging them. THANK YOU for this post and all the other naturopathic blog entries you share!
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Poison ivy face! That's a humorous way to describe a horrible thing. I have a poison ivy face vision of you that I will never be able to unsee now.
I don't seem to get it from my animals. I can not explain that. If I unknowingly get the tiniest exposure directly (once through a small hole in my pants at the knee), it is all over me a few days later. Lavender essential oil seems to be very helpful when I do get it.
Raw honey works better than anything else for wounds. I've used it on a dog that had a wound that would not heal. I know a diabetic who healed a wound that would not respond to anything else. The first time I tried it was out of desperation - it was to be my final attempt before I put antibiotics in my mouth to heal a wound on the bottom of my foot which just seemed WRONG. Just put a small dab of raw honey on a bandaid, enough to fill any gaps if it's deep. You don't need a lot. Switch it up every 4 hours or so and you will be amazed.
I wrote so many of these (four) because I was entering a contest by @naturalmedicine, go check out the other entries, there are many and they are all great. There's only so much writing I can do so I dropped out of freewriting for that week. Now I feel like I've lost my freewriter's touch, every word comes so labored, and I spend a long time after the five minutes trying to make some sense without changing what I said.
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