tres can you yes Chris my back yeah
right there yeah yeah down a little bit
okay yeah oh yeah that's it don't stop
[Music]
hey guys Tara here with an answer to one
of life's greatest mysteries
why is scratching an itch always make it
worse every one of us has been bitten by
a mosquito at some point it actually
happened to a friend of mine last week
and he ended up scratching it so hard he
created an open wound the size of a dime
which is disgusting but we've all been
there well some of us most of us get a
bug bite we scratch it for a while and
then in a few days it goes away and we
never think about it again but believe
it or not there are millions of people
out there who suffer from chronic
itching conditions like eczema and even
cancer or kidney failure can worsen it
and in many cases it can have a serious
impact on someone's life while it boils
down to serotonin serotonin is a
neurotransmitter that regulates tons of
different functions in your body your
mood your memory your sleep your
appetite even blood clotting it produces
feelings of happiness and well-being but
it also controls pain and that's where
the itching part comes in Chu Fang Chen
is a researcher at Washington University
and he's been conducting studies over
the years to see what produces the urge
to itch his most recent one involved
mice who were genetically engineered to
produce no serotonin and he found that
when those mice were injected with a
chemical to induce itching they had
almost no urge to scratch meaning that
the urge to scratch an itch begins as
soon as serotonin leaves your brain and
reaches the irritated spot so whenever
we scratch an itch were actually doing
so because the pain of scratching
temporarily overrides the itchy feeling
the problem is that that pain causes
your brain to release more serotonin
which intensifies the itch even more so
it's essentially a feedback loop where
you're constantly scratching harder and
harder to get rid of the itchy feeling
but all you're doing is really making it
even more itchy it makes sense but it
does bring up another interesting
question why does serotonin cause an
itchy sensation to begin with
well according to Chen it has to do with
GRP are neurons which are a group of
brain cells known to increase itchy
sensations a serotonin starts rushing to
the part of your body that's irritate
it's wires basically get crossed and it
activates those GRP are neurons which
intensifies the achieve and more chen
believes that people who suffer from
chronic itching could find relief once a
therapy is developed to block the
receptor that caused the serotonin to
activate those neurons
until then the best solution seems to be
lots of anti-aging cream and of admits
the softer the better my suggestion not
his what do you guys think
have you ever scratched an itch so hard
it made you bleed and how did that work
out for you feel free to share your
experiences with us in the comments down
below and as always thank you guys for
watching