What’s common between a scratchy sweater, a mosquito bite, and poison ivy? A brush with any of them guarantees an itchy spot on the skin. Scratching that itch is extremely tempting because of how ...

Atopic dermatitis (eczema) can cause dry, scaly, itchy skin rashes. You can moisturize regularly, cool your skin, avoid irritants, and relieve stress to stop scratching. While some people find relief ...

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 ...

Do you feel an itch, right now, working its way down the back of your neck? Scratching temporarily relieves that itch, but can also make it worse. Now researchers at the Center for the Study of Itch ...

Scratching an itch can bring a contradictory wave of pleasure and misery. A mouse study on scratching, reported in the Jan. 31 Science, fleshes out this head-scratching paradox and could point out ...

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 ...

Medical science has deciphered many of the body’s workings, down to the level of the gene, and isn’t too far from using stem cells to repair its hobbled organs. But in many ways, the human body ...

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 ...

When you’ve got dry, itchy skin during the winter, nothing beats a good scratch. But what exactly is going on in your body when you scratch an itch that makes it feel so darn satisfying? First, know ...

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.

Russell has a PhD in the history of medicine, violence, and colonialism. His research has explored topics including ethics, science governance, and medical involvement in violent contexts. Russell has ...