What to Do When Your Skin Itches                                                                             

By Paula J. Wart

Your skin is the largest organ of your body. It accounts for 15 percent of your total body weight. So exactly how much is that? Your body is covered with enough skin to cover the floor of your bathroom - and if you don't mop and dust regularly, it might be doing just that! It's been estimated that 90 percent of all household dust is dead skin cells. - disinformation

That might sound pretty disgusting until you realize that shedding dead skin cells is what healthy bodies do. You won't lose too many cells and become skinless. New cells move out to take the place of shed dead cells. When the cells move to the outside layer, they die and harden. That's normal too. The outside layer of your skin is made up of dead skin cells. Because the cells are dead, they easily rub off on your clothing and bed sheets, when you towel dry, and when you scratch.

Itchy Itch

All this talk of dead skin cells might make you itch. As you go throughout your day you probably experience at least one itch or two. Some itching is helpful. If an ant is crawling up your bare leg, you'll eventually sense it in the form of an itch. It's a built in warning system saying get this potentially harmful substance off of me. So you scratch away the ant if you're not looking, or brush it off if you do.

The medical word for itching is pruritus - defined as an unpleasant sensation on your skin that makes you want to rub or scratch the spot for relief. Itching can be mild or so severe that some people lose sleep, become depressed, or damage nerve endings by excessive scratching.

Possible Causes

The limited research suggests that itching is a neurological response caused by any number of things:

• Allergy (such as dust or certain foods)
  
   
• Cancer (such as a cancerous mole or Hodgkin's disease)
  
   
• Chronic disease (such as kidney or liver disease, AIDS)
  
   
• Dry skin (common among the elderly)
  
   
• Drug reaction (such as to histamines)
  
   
• Hormonal imbalance (such as thyroid)
  
   
• Skin disease (such as dermatitis or chicken pox)
  
   
• Multi vitamin overdose
  
   
• Neurologic conditions (such as pinched nerves)
  
   
• Parasite infestation (such as scabies or lice)
  
   
• Stress
   

What to Do

If your itching is distracting, annoying, frequent, or severe you should contact your health care team or a dermatologist to determine the cause. This type of itching generally has an underlying cause that requires medical treatment to eliminate or at least lessen the itching.

For mild itching - as well as in conjunction with medical treatment - you can implement the following ways to relieve itching.

• Gently rub the itchy area. Scratching with your fingernails will only make you itch more and could damage your nerves and skin.
  
   
• Moisturize with a mild or medicated lotion. Some people find warm olive or mineral oil to be soothing.
  
   
• Bathe in warm - not hot - water.
  
   
• Use a mild soap only on odoriferous areas, and then completely rinse. Avoid the use of soap if you can.
  
   
• Pat, don't rub, yourself dry.
  
   
• Wear lightweight clothing.
  
   
• Choose natural fibers such as cotton. Some people find wool itchy and irritating.
  
   
• Turn the thermostat down. Cooler environments lessen itching.
  
   
• If the itch is caused by poison ivy or other oozy, blistery conditions, try taking a cool oatmeal bath and applying calamine lotion.
   

Itching can be annoying or even debilitating, but it is treatable.

Sources:

1. Pruritus, National Cancer Institute, 2003. Available online at: http://www.meb.uni-bonn.de/cancer.gov/CDR0000062748.html. Accessed March 3, 2003.

 

2. Pruritus, American Academy of Dermatology, 2002. Available online at: http://www.aad.org/pamphlets/Pruritus.html. Accessed March 5, 2003.