The old [cottage/allergy/etc/etc] essential
Written: Jun 28 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Works, even on industrial-grade eruptions
Cons: Ingredients are not quite as benign as one might expect
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| kmennie's Full Review: Lanacane Anti Itch Creme Medication 2oz |
I'm not sure how old Lanacane is, but I'm young enough that it's the "old stand-by," found in every first aid kit I've ever owned, the first thing I reach for when...
...when I leave the house. Despite relative urbanization, I am all too familiar with the mosquitoes and horseflies of the northeast thanks to growing up near cottage country (the Canadian flight to same is quite the thing to see), and now, the brush and weird bugs of semi-high-desert Southern California. I am a freakin' bug magnet. If I swim out to an island in the middle of a lake, it becomes horsefly island. A stroll brings out mosquito swarms. I am also allergic to what seems to be half the planet, viz: Ivory soap (what is the 0.66%?!) and every green thing that grows. Despite this, I persist in stupid attempts to have a non-antagonistic relationship with nature. (Or not so stupid: playing with a water toy in a hotel pool, I found out I am still tops at diving to the bottom and staying there, having been well-trained by the bugs of Ontario.)
Right, so, back to Lanacane. I am not a huge fan of the uneducated slapping on of topical medicines, particularly ones with weird side effects (hydrocortisone thins your skin, to the point where unusually stupid magazine writers have suggested it as a cuticle treatment, and it is also a potential allergen itself -- hypochondriacs take note!) and would probably slap tea tree oil or calamine on a loved one, but nuts to that for me; I want...help. Were it not for this sort of heavy-duty itch cream, several bug and plant attacks would probably have sent me off to a hospital emergency room. I swell, bites become hives, benign plants pretend to be poison ivy...
...it hurts. Living in a forest and pretending to be a hiker, I am getting used to "What the #@*! happened to your leg(s)?" after brushing against something. Lanacane gets rid of the itch -- which is a good deal by itself, but it also numbs things a bit, and I thank the benevolent Lanacane folks for the painkiller ingredient (the benzocaine). Stranded at cottages with lesser ointments, I've tried the remedies of a simpler, less advertised time -- Aspirin and calamine lotion -- and I am all too happy to take full advantage of Lanacane, even with the reservations. The rash and swelling go down, and I forget about the itch and pain. Calamine is fine for hardier souls, but it does nothing for my grotesque eruptions: I've ended up mildly scarred from trying to treat things with milder salves, simply because the bite or rash hangs around too long, or inadvertently gets scratched to death in the middle of the night.
Some side effects are serious: benzocaine and hydrocortisone are not as benign as one might expect, and I urge people to consult doctors if their itch situation starts to warrant Lanacane abuse.
Then again, the doctor might just fling the Lanacane back at you. The strangest story I have to offer comes from a strange childhood episode at the family cottage. One of my brothers went out to a little, swimming-distance island we all frequented, and came back with some truly disgusting red bumps. Our grandparents, both doctors, checked out both him and the island. Much confusion ensued: no poisonous plants on the island, and a little boy howling about a horrifying rash. The cottage is near a little town where the one pharmacist is on a first-name basis with my family; a consultation was made, and the "prescription" was Lanacane. Nobody ever found the offending plant, and the paediatrician back home was similarly mystified at the rash, but the Lanacane prevailed.
Efficacy aside, I have to dock it a point: it needs to be more up-front about not being the world's safest cream, and I think the addition of anti-bacterial ingredients are gratuitous and part of an unfortunate trend rather than genuinely useful. As I said, I'd try things that are more benign as a first line of defence against itch: despite my skin's love of hives, I still keep the pink stuff (yes, calamine) around for the more mild irritations of nature.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
kmennie
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Member: K.M. Mennie
Location: Five cities in one year! Ha!
Reviews written: 380
Trusted by: 406 members
About Me:
Hopeless case: thorough knowledge of Victorian Domestic Science, Comparative Literature, Lego...and even worse stuff.
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