Itching Connected to Burning Pain by Same Nerve Cells
Are you finding yourself itching your legs all too often? You’re already slathering on that lotion, but it doesn’t seem to help?
Surprisingly, the same nerve cells that tell your brain that it’s time to itch also tell your brain that your body is experiencing burning pains.
Klas Kullander, a professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Uppsala University examined how the nerve cells that alert the brain of heat pain affect mice. He concluded that when the nerve cells lost the ability to signal, the mice reacted less to heat and began to constantly itch.
According to Professor Kullander, these results connect the pain from a burn to monitoring sensitivity to itching; an important finding when itching is often overlooked.
Extreme itching is common after an operation or burn. Disorders such as eczema also lead to uncomfortable itching. With the knowledge leading from this study, new forms of treatment have a better chance of being developed. Professor Kullander and his coworkers hope to be able to develop techniques which will allow them to be able to stop the itch at its source.
