Scientists have long struggled to explain what actually causes the sensation of itching – now we know what to blame. Having an itch can be incredibly annoying but it actually serves an important ...

An itch can feel like a burn, an electric shock, or a crawling sensation. It’s caused by stimulated nerve cells in the skin, which make you want to scratch the affected area. Share on Pinterest If ...

Despite the saying “happiness is having a scratch for every itch,” itching often makes the itchy skin condition worse. So why is the instinct so strong? In a study with mice, researchers from the ...

When you’ve got an itch, you probably want to scratch it. But whether it’s from a mosquito bite, chickenpox, or chronic skin issue like eczema, any relief from scratching will be short-lived. And too ...

That itchy feeling isn’t just in your head, in some cases it might actually be all over you. And it may literally get on your nerves. New research published Wednesday in Cell indicates that a common ...

One of the greatest pleasures in life is to scratch an itch — in both the real and figurative sense. Although scratching an itch provides immediate (albeit temporary) relief, it may actually trigger ...

Poison ivy, bug bites, allergies — just hearing those words can make you want to scratch. But even though we all itch, and we all scratch, we don’t know very much about what is happening in our brains ...

Three hundred and fifty years ago, German physician Samuel Hafenreffer defined the itch as an “unpleasant sensation” that makes people want to scratch. We itch on our skin and in our throat, but ...

I remember it well: our dark winter of itch when the kids were small. It started with a note sent home—years before the pandemic—that my child had been exposed, not to a deadly virus but to lice.

Everybody itches. Sometimes itch serves as a useful warning signal — there's a bug on your back! But sometimes itch arises for no apparent reason, and can be a torment. Think of the itchy skin ...