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Re: [NAFEX] Poison ivy & immunity



Lucky Pittman wrote:

> At 11:09 AM 05/02/2002 -0400, Tom wrote:
> >There are people who have no reaction to poison ivy.  They can pull it
> >with their bare hands.
>
> There is an immunologic phenomenon called 'oral tolerance'.  The gist of it
> is, if one is exposed to a potential allergen, via an oral route,
> particularly at a young age, your immune system is less likely to
> 'recognize' that allergen as 'foreign'.  Those of us who gained our initial
> exposures via the cutaneous(skin) route were destined to develop the itchy
> rash in response to subsequent escposures to urushiol.

Hi,

My grandfather had no allergic reaction to poison ivy.  I don't know how he acquired his
immunity, I just know there are people out there who can remove it manually, without having an
reaction.

I can get a poison ivy rash just thinking about it, so his immunity wasn't passed to me. (smile)

Later,
Tom

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