Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout
haven't archived this post yet. have a subscription? use the importer!

Content


Files

Previews only

Comments

Thomas Whitney

Yeah a former girlfriend who grew up in a tropical climate used the same method. Washcloth soaked in very hot water also works!

Carl Fink

Just running hot water (from the tap, not boiling water!) on the bite also works. It's the heat, it actually activates the histamine, speeds up and amplifies the reaction. The thing is, your body can only react to histamine to a limited extent before the chemicals involved in the reaction are used up.Heat can cause a few seconds of very intense itching, followed by a long period where you can't feel any itch at all because the histamine can't react with anything. Then the chemicals regenerate.

Christopher Heiny

Yes - a similar hot tapwater treatment can be used for temporary relief from poison ivy and poison oak.

Carl Fink

I remembered more about the process after posting. It actually causes the cells of your body to release *all* their histamine at once, which means they have to "reload" before you can itch again. That would work with any itching caused by inflammation ... such as poison ivy/poison oak/giant hogweed, etc.

Anonymous

I find that beginning with lukewarm water and slowly increasing the temperature until I feel a “flash”, the scalding sensation I guess, has the best results.

Sebastian Wiesinger

Here in Germany we even have that als a battery powered device from amazon. Better than doing it manually because it exactly controls the necessary heat