How scratching can stop an itch

Scientist believe that the know why scratching an itch may cause relief. It appears to them as though when you feel an itch, and scratch it, you are blocking activity in some spinal cord nerve cells. The interesting thing with this theory and their research is that they've found it to only be true when there was an itch to itch.

Based off previous research the scientist were able to focus in on the spinothalamic tract, which is a specific part of the spinal cord that they believe plays a key role on itchiness, and relief of it.

Professor Gil Yosipovitch, an expert on itching, said that the findings could be very significant, as it can help people that suffer from chronic itch.

What's interesting to me is that something that most of us think of as rather simple, like scratching an itch, turns out to be a very complicated physiological process. What I find funny is that there is a professor that claims to be an expert on itching. But what is especially interesting, is that scratching an irriation, like an itch, results in relief. But scratching a painful thing, does not result in relief, even though both sensations travel through the same pathway.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7976606.stm