It turns out your mother was only half right about scratching that itch. While researchers have confirmed that scratching does indeed worsen skin inflammation, they’ve also uncovered an unexpected twist: the same scratching that inflames your rash may actually help protect you from harmful bacteria.
Scratching a minor skin infection can actually help your body’s immune system control the bacteria.
The Itch-Scratch Cycle
Using a mouse model of allergic contact dermatitis—a type of eczema that causes itchy, swollen rashes—researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found out why scratching worsens skin inflammation.
“We figured out that the mechanism is that by scratching the skin, you activate the pain neurons and then the pain neurons are really important in triggering the inflammation in the skin,” Dr. Daniel Kaplan, professor of dermatology and immunology at the University of Pittsburgh, told The Epoch Times….