> 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)