Anyone Immune To Poisin Oak/ivy?

[rdunbar]

Was reading Dr Peter Greens' book Celiac Disease, the hidden Epidemic, and something he wrote really struck me; celac disease is the only autoimmune disease that has an environmental trigger; ie. Gluten needs to be introduced into your system in order for your immune system to (mistakenly?) attack your own tissue.

Then I remembered that poisin oak also causes an immunilogical response. I googled it, and learned that the rash caused by poisin oak is due to the immune system attacking your own tissue in an effort to attack the foriegn poisin, which although it is a different mechinism than with celiac, you have to admit is similar to what is going on with celiac and dermititas herpetiformis. So is the only significant difference really just semantics?

I mean , we don't call poisin oak a disease, and yet it is not that different than ( the skin condition associated w/ celiac, DH) some people are immune to the environmental trigger, some are'nt, whether it's gluten or poisin oak.

I also read that many people with autoimmune disesaes are immune to poisin oak, like people with AIDS; i've considered myself fortunate to be immune to poisin oak, and was wondering if many celiac people are also immune to poisin oak?

I'm really questioning if celiac is really the only autoimmune disease with an environmental trigger, or should it even be called a disease, I am feeling more strongly all the time that gluten is a toxic substance to ALL humans, and is not meant to be eaten at all , I mean cows evolved with how many stomachs so they could eat grasses ?(wheat is a hybridized grass)

isn't the stuff just beyond toxic if it can cause your immune system to go haywire? Shouldn't they put warning labels on it like cigarettes? " this could be hazardous to your health?"

[modiddly16]

I've been diagnosed for 6 1/2 years....which is when it was "triggered" but I can tell you that even before that, I've never had poisin ivy or posisin oak and not for lack of trying, haha. When I was little my mom used to be terrifed because I rolled around in the stuff without knowing, never got it. I had boyfriends in high school who had it all over and I never got it. That was all pre-celiac but I haven't had it since I've been celiac either. I don't know if the two are related but I think its safe to say that I'm immune.

[vbecton]

I am immunue (knocking on wood just in case ) to poison oak/ivy. It's funny this topic even came up because about 2 weeks ago I was out running in the woods with my girlfriends. There was loads of "ivy" brush hanging down on the trail...it's not normally that overgrown. I can't tell the difference between oak, ivy, or regular ivy that grows on a house . So, naturally, I knocked the ivy down with my bare hands. My friends freaked out, "that's poison IVY!!!"...But, I had no reaction. I was holding large quantities in my hands, but didn't have a reaction. So, yes, that is bizarre!

[Kay DH]

One difference between an allergic response and an immune one is that, (1) in allergic reactions you body responds by generating chemicals that cause the reaction in you, and (2) an immune reaction to invasion is your body attacking itself. So, an allergic reaction to gluten could have the same symptoms as an immune response, but the immune reaction would be a direct assault on the villi, skin, etc. I don't know if poison oak/ivy causes a reaction; it did when I was a kid in California, but the plants here are so feeble that I get no reaction. Regarding triggers, other immune diseases can be initiated by infection. Reiter's Syndrome, now called reactive arthritis, is commonly triggered by bacterial infection. Stress plays a part in all of our afflictions.

[brendab]

I am not diagnosed but my kids always get a reaction when I've never had it and it grows on my property.

[kayo]

I've never had poison ivy or oak either. I've been exposed to poison ivy many times. The people I was with broke out into major rashes and nothing happened to me. I even have poison ivy in my yard and while my neighbor has had a reaction nothing has happened to me.

[jerseyangel]

I had a horrible reaction to poison ivy the summer before I went gluten-free. There is another Celiac on this board who also had a bad reaction to poison ivy, so I guess some of us are not immune.

[cassP]

in regards to your statement that we maybe we shouldnt call Celiac a "disease"- there's a website called www.greenmedinfo.com ... they wrote a HUGE article on Wheat & Gluten & Celiac- and i LOVED how they worded it- they said the same thing- that it's not really a "disease" but that those who are not genetically evolved to digest gluten actually have this body intelligence. that the body KNOWS that this is a poison, and then in turn "shuts down" those villi so as to not absorb it into the body.

i like that- our bodies have this genetic intelligence

[mushroom]

I was immune my first couple of exposures, but then year after year the reaction (systemic hives) got worse and worse to poison oak and I had to take so much prednisone I was reacting allergically to that - one of the reasons for my move from 'the golden state'.

[rdunbar]

It is the most common plant here in California

this came up the other week when I was playing golf with a friend and he got some poisin oak and reacted badly. Hard to feel too much sympathy when I feel like I've had something as bad or worse with the dermititas herpetiformis for many years with the insane itching, and didn't even know what it was,

I'm really suprised so many people here are also immune to poisin oak or ivy, personaly I don't know too many people who are immune to poisin oak. I can just roll in the stuff with no problem

[ravenwoodglass]

I am not immune to either oak or ivy. When I was a kid I had it really bad, the first time was from peeing in the woods I was about 7 or so and was embarrassed to tell my Mom but when it got infected she noticed my 'funny walk' and we made a quick trip to the doctor. It was about the same time that I started getting DH outbreaks on my arms and legs and the doctor told my Mom the DH was 'poison ivy in my bloodstream' to explain why I had it all year round. The worst cases of poison ivy that I ever had was when I got it a couple of times on top of the DH sores. Now that was agony. I've learned to be real viligent in the woods and also to never stand in the smoke from a campfire.

[lynnelise]

So far over the past 32 years I've never gotten poison ivy or oak. In fact when I was a child, as ploy to extend spring break my cousin and I rolled in it...I was fine, she was so miserable she would've liked to die! lol! I know I've been exposed to it many times because my husband and daughter get it all the time. Fingers crossed my immunity to it lasts!

[Skylark]

How strange. I've never gotten poison oak or ivy either. I'm good at identifying and avoiding them but I spent a lot of my childhood in the woods and I can't imagine I avoided them that well. My brother got occasional poison ivy rashes and we played in the same area.

[GFinDC]

My brothers got poison ivy as youngsters on the farm. Cutting brush, hiking, hunting, fishing etc.. But I only remember getting a small reaction to it once. At least I think it might have been poison ivy. But we always did the same activities together and it just didn't bother me like it did them. I know we got into it a couple times and they had reactions but I didn't. Hard to avoid the stuff when you are clearing a roadway through scrub brush.

[sandsurfgirl]

Just to let you know there was a huge argument over this "celiac is not a disease concept" and the thread was shut down. There are quite a few who feel offended by a comment like that considering all the suffering and pain and loss we have experienced, but I see what you are saying. I don't agree that gluten is a toxin by any means unless you are celiac or gluten intolerant but I get where you are headed with that.

[cassP]

Just to let you know there was a huge argument over this "celiac is not a disease concept" and the thread was shut down. There are quite a few who feel offended by a comment like that considering all the suffering and pain and loss we have experienced, but I see what you are saying. I don't agree that gluten is a toxin by any means unless you are celiac or gluten intolerant but I get where you are headed with that.

of course its a disease- its a real serious thing that if untreated leads to innumerous illnessess- sometimes fatal

i just think like the article i read put it (maybe they're more eloquent than me- )- that we're not "weaklings"... and that our bodies are just super intelligent and KNOW what our poisons are...

i read that an estimated 30% of the population has some degree of gluten sensitivity

[Roda]

Never had poison ivy until I was 32 years old. I thought I was "immume" to it. I've had it every year since then. I have alot of it growing in my woods in my back yard. My kids run and play back there and neither of them have gotten it yet. I heard somewhere that children are less suseptible to it and we get more so as we get older however, I can not verify this information so take it with a grain of salt. I know I had exposures as a kid I just never had a rash until 5 years ago.

[TrillumHunter]

There's always something strange, huh?

No, I don't get it either. I get in it all the time walking the dog in the woods and such, but I never break out.

BUT===

If you ever watch the show Mythbusters, you may have seen a test about poison ivy. They were trying to find the best remedy, but it took them quite a few attempts before they found someone who reacted. That was the first time I knew I wasn't the only person who didn't react.

So, here's two positives for me about having celiac- I don't react to poison ivy and alcohol doesn't affect me.

[ravenwoodglass]

It has been interesting reading the varied responses to the Poison Ivy question. I don't think either one of my children ever had it either. My Mom and I used to get it but my twin brother and younger brother never did. Since everyone in my family has celiac I don't know if there is a corelation but one thing that is interesting to me is the 2 of us who both react to it are both the folks that had severe DH. My allergist called poison ivy reactions a 'chemical burn' rather than an allergy and said some folks are just more sensitive to it than others.

An elderly neighbor of mine in childhood used to tell the tale of her going out to pick greens for a salad and having her mother be horrified because she found her eating the stuff. That would have likely killed me but she said she didn't react at all.

[rdunbar]

the reaction to poisin oak is caused by the allergen urushiol, which triggers an immune response which involves t-cells which attack the protiens in the skin that the urushiol binds with. Apparantly IgG antibodies can interfere with, or stop this immune response, or take away the t-cells receptivity to the urushiol.

also, I noticed that the rash caused by poisin oak is called urushiol contact dermatitas, so it could in fact be classified as a disease for all i know;

In any case I find it interesting that an autoimmune disease can be caused by an environmental trigger, so if you take away the trigger, you don't have the disease. if you never got exposed to urushiol you would'nt suffer from it; If you never got exposed to gluten, you would'nt have suffered from it. sure, some people are immune, but in a way gluten IS the disease, not just the trigger;

[kayo]

This thread is so interesting and this is too:

I don't react to poison ivy and alcohol doesn't affect me.

Alcohol doesn't affect me like it does others either. I can drink everyone under the table. I will often feel sick well before I feel drunk. I joke that I get the hangover first and then the buzz. I barely drink anymore but when I think back to my college days I'm amazed at how much I could drink.

[JBaby]

I am severely allergic. It gives me flu symptoms and i require high doses of prednisone. I get just as ill with poison ivy etc as i do with gluten.

[larry mac]

I've never had any kind of problem with poisin ivy. Don't know of any specific incident where I actually touched it, but have been around it many times.

I played in the woods by our house all the time as a kid. Yesterday, I noticed some growing on my pool switch, and carefully cut it down. One time, I noticed it actually growing into my front door from a flower bed. I was walking through a bunch of it a while back at a wooded area near where I work, looking for wild berries, when a co-worker noticed it.

So I've been insensitive to it (or just extremely lucky) for 58 years, but have had Celiac for only about 5 years. Whether or not having Celiac Disease has anything to do with a possible immunity to poisin ivy is an interesting question. If I had to make an uneducated guess, I'd say no. It's probably just a coincidence. But, it is fun to talk about.

On a possibly related side note. I've also never been bothered much by chiggers. As a kid, my friends would get eaten up by them after we went walking in a field or somesuch thing, and I wouldn't even have one bite.

Poison ivy and chigger immunity. Coincidence?

best regards, lm

[GFinDC]

Chiggers! That reminds me of skeeters. My ex used to get ate up by the skeeters but they would hardly bother me. Not that they wouldn't bite, but they bit her a whole lot more. I always caught more catfish than her too. But then again she didn't go fishing much.

[polarbearscooby]

It's funny that this topic popped up as I've just gotten my first reaction to poison ivy/oak/sumac....At first I thought it might be DH but a nurse friend of my swears it's P/I...Its not healing very fast at all and I'm wondering if the glutening has anything to do with it? *ugh* That's my life