There’s a reason itchy feet and palms are differently annoying.
Many moons ago, your TMR eds asked readers to describe medical specialties in five words.
One of the more amusing submissions was for dermatology: “Two thousand rashes, three creams.”
Turns out, things might be a little bit more complicated than that.
Take itching skin, for example. Not only is it the single biggest driver of visits to the dermatologist, but by some estimates up to 20% of folks in developed countries endure some form of dermatitis.
And one of the biggest challenges for treating these conditions is our limited understanding of how itching mechanisms actually work.
For example, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Biological Sciences have recently published findings which suggest there are different itch mechanisms for hairy skin compared with non-hairy skin.
Writing in the journal PNAS, Assistant Professor Liang Han and colleagues report that there are two different types of stimuli from the nervous system that trigger the itch sensation: chemical and mechanical.
The researchers identified a specific neuron population that controls itching in the smoother, tougher skin, called glaborous skin, on the palms of hands and soles of feet.
“The actual neurons that send itch are different populations. Neurons that are in hairy skin that do not sense itch in glabrous skins are one population, and another senses itch in glabrous skins,” the researchers said.
Why does this matter? Well, controlling itch in non-hairy skin is firstly more difficult, and secondly itching in these skin areas is also more distressing for those sufferers.
The hope is that this discovery may lead to the development specific treatments that will turn off the itch-inducing neurons in glabrous skin.
If you see something that scratches your itch (or vice versa), email us at felicity@medicalrepublic.com.au.
