What exactly is an itch, and why do we have to scratch it? I mean this in the literal sense.
"The itch sensation is a perception," says Dr. Zhou-Feng Chen, a professor at the Washington University School of Medicine Pain Center. "It's something that comes from your brain. When a mosquito bites you, or poison ivy touches your skin, your skin releases chemical factors that cause inflammation. So there must be itch receptors in your skin that pass the information to the spinal cord, and the spinal cord passes this information on to the brain. Just like when you go to New York, you have to go through several cities before you reach New York, from the skin to the brain there are several relay stations that pass the signal one by one."
No more similes, Doc. He wants it literal.
"The brain probably has an itch center, which will decode the information —Okay, this is an itch — and the brain will instruct the body to respond, to scratch. All animals have evolved some kind of a mechanism to get rid of anything attached to their skin. That's why the itchy sensation is such an ancient sensation."
Dr. Scott Moses, a physician who specializes in the treatment of chronic itching, notes, "There are a lot of adverse effects of itching and scratching. The itch is completely harmless when you don't scratch, but when you scratch, it causes all these different secondary effects that can spiral into more scratching. If you have to respond, don't scratch — rub."
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