What exactly causes an itch???

Mini-itchypellets, byproducts of histamine.

For me it's the anticipation of a delicious stratching.

I read once (paraphrasing, it was a while back) that an itch is actually a form of pain, and the urge to scratch and actually scratching the itch is the introduction of another pain that cancels out the first. The pain of scratching is preferable to the pain of the itch, so the brain overides the itch and cancels it.

boy, I sure said that badly, didn't I?

No, Chai Tea, that was well said. There is a perspective in psychology that pleasure is the REDUCTION in the strength of a drive. I have a drive for sex, food, urination. The satisfaction, from this perspective, comes from the reduction of the sex urge, the hunger and bladder pressure.
I think that is true as far as it goes, but what about the aesthetic drive?

well...that where the pain/pleasure line is drawn.

Most of us find the feeling of a back scrathing marvelous, but not if too hard, that goes over the line. The proper amount of pain in this case is pleasurable.

Others pain/pleasure border is way different, hence the steady market for nipple clips.

ow.

not for me thanks.

Wow, that sounds like foreskin clips.

"An itch is an irritant...The same fibers that send itching signals are also used to send pain signals to the brain, which once led some scientists to believe that itching was a form of light pain. That notion has since been dispelled by research, which showed that pain and itching elicit opposite responses. Pain causes us to withdraw and itching causes us to scratch.

As soon as we feel an itch, our first natural response is to scratch the spot of the itch with our fingernails. The reason for this response is simple -- we want to remove the irritant as soon as possible. Once you've scratched the area of irritation, you are likely to feel some relief. When your brain realizes that you've scratched away the irritant, the signal being sent to your brain that you have an itch is interrupted and therefore no longer recognized by the brain.

Even if you don't remove the irritant, scratching will at least cause pain and divert your attention away from the itching. The irritant that caused the itching is very small, maybe only a few microns in length, so it disturbs only a few nerve endings. When you use your fingernail to scratch the spot where the irritant is, you not only remove the irritant but you irritate a lot more nerve endings than the irritant"

Cut and pasted from "howstuffworks", but not as interesting as discussion of sex drives !

Henry Miller relates a tale about itching.He wrote the when Conrad Moricand met a tribe of savages somewhere down south they took it into their heads to kill him to put him out of the misery they thought he was in due to only having one arm.

They relented but he had to demonstrate that he could scratch everywhere before they would do so which they obviously did for him to be in Montemart getting pissed with
'ol Henry and relating the story.Savages are not as resourceful as wot we is eh fresco.

I might be interested in a discussion on the topic you mentioned at the end of your informative post.
What do you have in mind to get the ball rolling.

That's if Henry didn't make it up of course which wouldn't surprise me in the least.

JLN wrote-



Do you mind?

Is it really necessary to bring up urination and bladder pressure?You'll be wanting the ladies toilets doors removed next.

What do you wish to know about the aesthetic drive?

Spendius,

Well we could either discuss the proposition that:

"Sex is the best fun you can have without laughing"
(Ken Dodd ?)

or, the proposition:

''Sneezing is better than sex. It's a mini-instant orgasm. You keep your clothes on, you don't get involved, you can do it in public and when you're done, perfect strangers bless you."
(Dr Mark McMahon San Fransisco dentist/comedian)

I got into sneezing once fresco.

I took a bit of snuff to get at it faster but it doesn't work long term.You get blase with constant repetition.

Mr Dodd was a bit Wirral peninsula detached bungalow with full central heating and neatly trimmed gardens bourgeois type of thing.

But I would never say that sneezing was "better" than sex unless it was the lady who sneezed at the crucial moment and that is funny.On reflection I mean.

I was once in a railway carriage on the way back from Blackpool late at night and the other passengers all got out at Kirkham and............oh-it will take too long to tell.

"The irritant that caused the itching is very small, maybe only a few microns in length"

OK, but what ARE the micron-sized irritants themselves? THAT'S the question.

why not google?

Dric

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003217.htm

What kind of "itch" are you asking about?

fresco-

Thanks for the link.

It doesn't mention nervousness as when a politician is asked a difficult question on Newsnight or a celebrity on a chat show.The side of the nose or the chin seem to be the most vulnerable spots.

Or the cliche about scratching the head when puzzled.

Can you explain these?

The itch? I am just guessing but... The cellular response is similar to an SOS sent to a nerve receptor that the cell is dry or damaged. The nerve sends a message to the brain that it has received this and the brain sends back likely a histamine type response that the area needs specific attention... In scratching/treating the area it sends a message back (interrupting pain) to the brain that the area has been attended to. The brain then stops sending the histamine response. If the cell does not receive attention then it will continue to send the SOS.

Some cells just get confused and send this SOS even when they are not really in any apparent danger.

Shea butter is one of the best natural ways to treat an itch... (other than prescription medication)

I once saw a ginger-tom get enraged with a flea on it's back it couldn't shift by the usual methods.It tried jumping six feet from a standing start straight up.That must have been some itch.

Thanks for the link, Fresco. I checked it out, but didn't get the answer I had hoped.
And Chai Tea, I tried askjeeves.com and got a page with a few answers, but the ultimate conclusion was:
"there still is no completely satisfactory answer to the question."

Thanks for your comments!
Dric