We kinda always knew this to be the case.
But now we have the facts to back it up!
A new study from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri has published their latest scientific findings and it has found to be true what your momma always said!
That scratching an itch is just going to make it that much more itchy!
The study was published on the site Neuron and the way their results were found was through mice.
[ Related: Canadian Man Claims To Have Found A Dead Mouse In His McDonald’s Coffee Cup├óΓé¼┬ª After He Already Drank The ENTIRE Thing! ]
Some were injected with serotonin, something humans produce, and others weren’t.
They were all then given a chemical that makes their skin itchy, and the ones who had the serotonin definitely scratched A LOT more!
Here’s what the director of the school’s Center for the Study of Itch, Zhou-Feng Chen, said:
“Scratching can relieve itch by creating minor pain. But when the body responds to pain signals, that response actually can make itching worse.”
He continued to say:
“First you scratch, and that causes a sensation of pain. Then you make more serotonin to control the pain. But serotonin does more than only inhibit pain. Our new finding shows that it also makes itch worse by activating GRPR neurons through 5HT1A receptors.”
If you want to cut through all of that scientific jargon – we’ll scratch that proverbial itch for ya!
Basically don’t scratch our backs and we won’t scratch yours, and in the end – we’ll all be much more comfortable for it!!!