Why do i itch so much

10 reasons your skin itches uncontrollably and how to get relief

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You can search by location, condition, and procedure to find the dermatologist that’s right for you.

What is a dermatologist?

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8 reasons your groin itches and how to get relief

Diseases & conditions

Coronavirus Resource Center
Acne
Eczema
Hair loss
Psoriasis
Rosacea
Skin cancer
A to Z diseases
A to Z videos

DIY acne treatment
How dermatologists treat
Skin care: Acne-prone skin
Causes
Is it really acne?

Types & treatments
Childhood eczema
Adult eczema
Insider secrets

Types of hair loss
Treatment for hair loss
Causes of hair loss
Hair care matters
Insider secrets

What is psoriasis
Diagnosis & treatment
Skin, hair & nail care
Triggers
Insider secrets

What is rosacea
Treatment
Skin care & triggers
Insider secrets

Types and treatment
Find skin cancer
Prevent skin cancer
Raise awareness
Español

Featured

Monkeypox: What you need to know

Monkeypox is a contagious disease that causes a rash. A board-certified dermatologist explains what the rash looks like and when to seek medical care.

When to treat molluscum contagiosum

This contagious skin disease will usually clear on its own, but sometimes dermatologists recommend treating it. Find out when.

Everyday care

Skin care basics
Skin care secrets
Injured skin
Itchy skin
Sun protection
Hair & scalp care
Nail care secrets

Basic skin care
Dry, oily skin
Hair removal
Tattoos and piercings

Anti-aging skin care
For your face
For your skin routine
Preventing skin problems

Bites & stings
Burns, cuts, & other wounds

Itch relief
Poison ivy, oak & sumac
Rashes

Shade, clothing, and sunscreen
Sun damage and your skin
Aprenda a proteger su piel del sol

Your hair
Your scalp

Nail care basics
Manicures & pedicures

Featured

Practice Safe Sun

Everyone's at risk for skin cancer. These dermatologists' tips tell you how to protect your skin.

Relieve uncontrollably itchy skin

Find out what may be causing the itch and what can bring relief.

Darker Skin Tones

Skin care secrets
Hair care
Hair loss
Diseases & Conditions

Acne
Dark spots
Light spots
Razor bumps

Caring for Black hair
Scalp psoriasis
Weaves & extensions

Central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia
Frontal fibrosing alopecia
Hairstyles that pull can cause hair loss

Acanthosis nigricans
Acne keloidalis nuchae
Hidradenitis suppurativa
Keloid scars
Lupus and your skin
Sarcoidosis and your skin
Skin cancer
Vitiligo

Featured

Fade dark spots

Find out why dark spots appear and what can fade them.

Untreatable razor bumps or acne?

If you have what feels like razor bumps or acne on the back of your neck or scalp, you may have acne keloidalis nuchae. Find out what can help.

Cosmetic treatments

Your safety
Age spots & dark marks
Cellulite & fat removal
Hair removal
Scars & stretch marks
Wrinkles
Younger-looking skin

Featured

Laser hair removal

You can expect permanent results in all but one area. Do you know which one?

Scar treatment

If you want to diminish a noticeable scar, know these 10 things before having laser treatment.

Botox

It can smooth out deep wrinkles and lines, but the results aren’t permanent. Here’s how long botox tends to last.

Public health programs

Skin cancer awareness
Free skin cancer screenings
Kids' camp
Good Skin Knowledge
Shade Structure grants
Skin Cancer, Take a Hike!™
Awareness campaigns
Flyers & posters
Get involved

Lesson plans and activities
Community grants

Featured

Free materials to help raise skin cancer awareness

Use these professionally produced online infographics, posters, and videos to help others find and prevent skin cancer.

Dermatologist-approved lesson plans, activities you can use

Free to everyone, these materials teach young people about common skin conditions, which can prevent misunderstanding and bullying.

Find a dermatologist

Find a dermatologist
What is a dermatologist?
FAAD: What it means
How to select a dermatologist
Telemedicine appointments
Prior authorization
Dermatologists team up to improve patient care

Featured

Find a Dermatologist

You can search by location, condition, and procedure to find the dermatologist that’s right for you.

What is a dermatologist?

A dermatologist is a medical doctor who specializes in treating the skin, hair, and nails. Dermatologists care for people of all ages.

10 Unexpected Reasons Why Everything Itches You

February 19, 2021LikbezHealth

Even a slight itch can signal serious health problems.

Most often, itchy skin has a very obvious cause. You may have been bitten by mosquitoes (mosquitoes, lice, bed bugs or beach bugs). Or you ate strawberries, which you always have a rash on - and hello, familiar allergic scratches. Or maybe you have dermatitis, and then the itching is accompanied by redness, peeling, or thickening of the affected skin.

But sometimes it happens that day after day you itch, and why is not clear. In this case, itching, no matter which part of the body it affects, can be the first symptom of very unpleasant diseases. And it would be worth it not to miss them.

When to see a doctor

Experts from the American research organization Mayo Clinic recommend ^{Itchy skin (pruritus) to visit a therapist or dermatologist if itching is seemingly unreasonable:}

lasts longer than two weeks and does not go away despite the fact that that you are trying to actively care for your skin and avoid likely allergen products;
is so intense that it makes you scratch even in public places or interferes with sleep;
manifests itself in sudden attacks;
affects the entire body, not limited to specific areas;
is accompanied by other physiological changes - weakness and fatigue, weight loss, fever (even if slight), increased urge to urinate, constipation or diarrhea.

Even one of the symptoms listed above is a serious reason to consult a doctor. The doctor will help you figure out what exactly is happening with your skin. Perhaps the reason is not in it at all.

Why everything itches in you

Doctors do not hide the fact that it is not always possible to determine what exactly caused itching. However, such cases are rare. Much more often, the causes of ^{Why So Itchy are still found: however, sometimes not quite where the patient himself suspects. Here are common conditions that can make you itch for no apparent reason.}

1. Side effect of certain medications

This itching is often accompanied by skin reactions such as redness or rash. But in some cases, the skin all over the body just itches. In such side effects are seen:

certain medicines for the treatment of hypertension;
gout agents, eg allopurinol;
preparations with estrogen - the same oral contraceptives;
amiodarone is a drug prescribed for cardiac arrhythmias;
prescription opioid painkillers;
simvastatin is a drug used to lower cholesterol levels.

2. Pregnancy

According to WebMD's ^{Why So Itchy, one or two women out of every 10 pregnant women experience some form of itchy skin.}

3. Neurological disorders

Itching without rash, especially if accompanied by tingling and crawling sensation, may be an early symptom of the following disorders:

herpes zoster;
multiple sclerosis;
nerve damage;
stroke;
Tumors of the brain and spinal cord.

4. Mental disorders

This cause can be suspected by the specific nature of the itching: such people feel as if something or someone is crawling on their skin. Therefore, they itch, often scratching the epidermis to the point of blood. Compulsive (obsessive) scratching can accompany such mental illnesses:

depression;
anxiety disorders;
obsessive-compulsive disorder;
psychosis;
trichotillomania (an obsessive condition in which a person unconsciously pulls out hair on the head or body).

5. Diabetes mellitus

Skin itching is one of the earliest and most characteristic symptoms of this disease.

6. Diseases and disorders in the liver

Itching in this case is associated ^{Skin itching associated with cholestasis with the fact that bile stasis occurs in the diseased liver. And even its cells are completely destroyed (this happens with hepatitis, developing cirrhosis). All this leads to an increase in the content of bile acids and the pigment bilirubin, which irritate the skin: it itches.}

7. Diseases of the kidneys

If the kidneys do not work properly, then, in particular, nitrogenous compounds are formed in the epidermis. The body gets rid of them with sweat. But, remaining on the skin, such sweat causes irritation and itching.

8. Problems with the thyroid gland

Any malfunction of the thyroid gland affects the metabolism. The result of this is often dry skin, which provokes itching.

9. Iron deficiency

Due to iron deficiency, the body cannot produce the required number of red blood cells - erythrocytes and the most important protein, hemoglobin, which carries oxygen. This is how anemia develops. Pale and sometimes itchy skin is one of the symptoms of this disorder.

10. Some types of cancer

Unexplained itching is a rare symptom of cancer. But this is possible. For example, ^{Surprising Reasons Itchy can make you itch:}

polycythemia is a tumor process in the circulatory system;
pancreatic cancer;
Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Given the seriousness of these diseases, it is quite obvious that if you are itching and do not understand why, it is important not to delay the visit to the therapist.

Your itch may just be an allergic reaction to your favorite synthetic shirt or a new laundry detergent. It will be enough to identify the allergen - and you will forget about scabies. But when it comes to more unpleasant conditions, an important rule applies here: the sooner you detect the disease and start treatment, the more successful it will be. Therefore, deal with the causes of itching as quickly as possible. It's in your best interest.

Itching, its causes and methods of treatment

Itching often becomes one of the main symptoms of many diseases - sometimes ordinary dry skin, or - a symptom of severe oncological diseases, often causing insomnia and psycho-emotional discomfort of a person.

Many patients evaluate the severity of their disease by the intensity of itching, and not by the severity of skin manifestations.

Despite numerous studies, the mechanisms of pruritus remain largely unclear. Previously, itching was considered as a special form of pain, but at present, most scientists are of the opinion that itching is an independent sensation. This is supported, for example, by the fact that itching can be caused only in the superficial layers of the skin, corneal mucosa and mucous membranes bordering the skin, while pain occurs in various organs and parts of the body. In addition, you can cause any degree of itching without pain and vice versa.

Types of itching

Based on modern concepts of the mechanisms of the occurrence of itching, 4 types of itching are distinguished:

Pruritoceptive pruritus occurs when the skin becomes inflamed, damaged, or dry (itching from scabies, urticaria, insect bites).
Neuropathic pruritus occurs with damage to the nervous system and is often associated with sensory disorders (eg, brain tumors).
Neurogenic is pruritus that occurs without signs of damage to the structures of the nervous system (for example, pruritus with bile stasis).
A special form is psychogenic itching - severe, prolonged, not accompanied by any skin diseases. The basis of this state is, as a rule, a depressed emotional state.

It should be noted that the nature of itching in different diseases is different. So, for example, with atopic dermatitis, numerous scratching is formed, and with urticaria, on the contrary, despite intense itching, scratching is usually not observed. Itching with scabies tends to get worse in the evening and at night. Herpes patients describe their itching as a burning sensation, and aquatic itching (on contact with water) is characterized by a tingling sensation.

Treatments for pruritus

General recommendations for patients with pruritus include a diet free of spicy, salty foods, coffee and alcohol, avoidance of overheating and contact with hot water, irritating fabrics and chemicals (washing powders, cleaning products, etc.) , as well as alkaline soaps that increase dryness of the skin. Regularly (up to several times a day) it is recommended to apply moisturizers (based on petroleum jelly or glycerin) and coolants (for example, menthol cream) to itchy areas. In inflammatory processes of the skin, local steroids are used, as well as the latest non-hormonal agents - calcineurin inhibitors (tacrolimus and pimecrolimus), which have a pronounced anti-inflammatory and antipruritic effect and, unlike hormonal agents, do not cause such undesirable side effects as, for example, atrophy ( thinning) of the skin.

However, the success of pruritus therapy largely depends on the ability to eliminate the conditions that caused it. Specialists of the Department of Dermatovenereology of EMC pay special attention to this problem. During the treatment, the patient is offered a detailed examination according to the protocol of the AWMF-Leitlinie (Association of Scientific Medical Societies in Germany e.V.). The experience of highly qualified doctors helps to identify the causes of itching, which, combined with a comprehensive, individually selected treatment, allows you to achieve maximum results in therapy; an important factor is also the use of a wide range of possibilities and methods of examination - both laboratory and instrumental.

In case of intense itching, specialists prescribe oral antihistamines. They reduce the increase in capillary permeability caused by histamine, tissue swelling and itching. The most modern drugs - II and III generations - have a long-term effect and almost do not cause side effects from the nervous system (lethargy, drowsiness, etc.).

Antihistamines are most effective for urticaria, atopic dermatitis, but they can also be used for itching of other origins. In severe cases that cannot be treated with antihistamines, drugs are used to reduce nervous excitability - antidepressants, neuroleptics, etc.

In recent years, a large number of reports have appeared in the foreign literature about the successful use of anticonvulsants (gabapentin, pregabalin) in chronic itching. The most effective use of this group of drugs for brachioradial, senile (senile) and neuropathic itching.

For cholestatic pruritus resulting from bile stasis, cholestyramine is used, the action of which is to absorb bile acids.

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