Found MAJOR relief for chigger bites, poison ivy rashes, etc. - Skin Problems Message Board

millpark26 · 09-10-2004, 07:29 AM

Whenever the weather is nice, I suffer from chigger bites. I recently had about 40 of them that extended from the arches of my feet all the way up to my knees. Anyone thats had them know how intense

the itching is and it can last for several weeks! In the past, I've never allowed myself to not have a bottle of Benadryl gel by my side until I ran across a remedy that is absolutely FREE and it works! HOT WATER!

All you have to do is run the effected area under hot water (as hot as you can stand it.....) for several minutes. This is why it works. The stuff that makes your skin itch is called histamine. Your body makes it. To control the itch some people recommend an antihistamine such as benedryl "the histamine blocker". What hot water does is it draws out the histamine thereby stopping the itch. It takes your body 6-8 hours to regenerate the histamine which why you start itching again.

This has worked better (and lasted LONGER.....) than ANY medication I've ever used!

ChannelZ28 · 06-09-2008, 09:05 AM

i know this post is 4 years old, but i have poison ivy again and i was just searching the boards and came across this post. does anyone else know if this is true? i always noticed in the past that when i had poison ivy and i ran it under really hot water it would make it itch like crazy. i think i could probably stand it for a few minutes if i got a few hours of relief...is that part about histamines being drawn out really true? i would love some verification, but i am probably going to try it anyway,

ChannelZ28 · 06-12-2008, 07:51 AM

well as a follow up, yes this works great. but if i do it a lot i feel like i always have a minor burn where i constantly run hot water over my skin. but it beats the itching by a mile.

Janet4571 · 07-12-2008, 02:49 PM

I alway put clear finger nail polish on my chigger bites. It kills the little critters because they can't breathe. Same with the no-see-em bites. Poison ivy and chigger bites are completely different. For poison ivy, I use Ivy Dry (OTC). It works best for me.