Itched to Death? They May Be One and the Same
It happened to me coming out of anesthesia. After I had my son by c-section and then another minor surgery, I awoke to the most infernal itching on my face. I scratched and rubbed until my face swelled and my doctor asked if I had fallen! Chronic itching, which, of course, is not really what I had (it went away after about one miserable hour), which can occur in many medical conditions, from eczema and psoriasis to kidney failure and liver disease, is different from the fleeting urge to scratch a mosquito bite, according to newswise.com. "That’s because chronic itching appears to incorporate more than just the nerve cells, or neurons, that normally transmit itch signals," the Web site reports. Researchers found that in chronic itching, neurons that send itch signals "also co-opt pain neurons to intensify the itch sensation. Apparently, itching isn't so different from chronic pain, even in mice. “In normal itching, there’s a fixed pathway that transmits the ...