Scratch If It Itches

Have you every had a mosquito bite or a case of poison ivy that threatened to drive you insane with the unbearable itching either induces?

In my case, I can ignore a mosquito bite, but poison ivy is something else, and it’s almost as bad as my allergic reaction to painkiller medication. Take a pain med; take a Benadryl at the same time.

Real Relief On The Way

Some medical conditions like cancer can cause the kind of itching that makes someone really suffer. It’s no laughing matter when someone scratches until they bleed. For chronic sufferers of itching, relief may be just a few lab experiments away.

I was reading the newspaper and discovered that scientists have finally been able to separate the itch response from the pain response. Up until now, the nerve pathways seemed to involve both, but now they clearly identify the itch-specific cells in the spinal cord.

Those poor little white mice had, in simple terms, their itch receptors killed. Then when they were exposed to something that made them itch, the vast majority of them didn’t scratch. Everything else about them was normal which is good news. Eventually, researchers should be able to use this knowledge to help those who suffer.

Takeaway Truth

Slowly, the medical mysteries of how our bodies work are being solved.

Tags: medical_research, news, scientific_discovery