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Interesting - it reads like it's the same approach I've taken for stopping poison ivy itching, and my sister users for her eczema itching. If you put the affec
by hnbear 3y ago
Interesting - it reads like it's the same approach I've taken for stopping poison ivy itching, and my sister users for her eczema itching.
If you put the affected area under the hottest water you can, you cause the nerves to effectively burn out, overloading the signal to prevent the itch from triggering.
Especially for poison ivy it worked wonders when you have a bad rash, although you shouldn't put hot water on (opening the skin pores) if there's any chance you still have the oil on you, as it'll just get deeper in. This is for the days after once you're suffering.
Being a Brit and moving to the US I had no idea what poison ivy is, and learned the hard way. Standing under the hot shower and burning the ivy itch away causing a feeling that's basically pure ecstasy. It's an incredible feeling of relief, coupled with every nerve going nuts.
Could also be something specific to mosquito bites, I've read the denaturing argument too. My brother in law swears by holding a lit cigarette tip just above the bite to have a similar effect. It never worked particularly well for me, but bathing area with hot water always works for a bit.
The link actually links to the actual "science" page - https://just-heat-it.co.uk/pages/study https://just-heat-it.co.uk/pages/study which is page on a study of the effect.
> The treatment of insect bites using heat-based devices such as heat it® leads to significant itch and pain relief. This is proven by the world's most comprehensive study on the effectiveness of thermal insect bite healers.
> "Efficacy of Concentrated Heat for Treatment of Insect Bites: Results of a real-world study" - Metz M et al. | Published June 26, 2023 in Acta Dermato-Venereologica by the Society for Publication of Acta Dermato-Venereologica.
The paper itself is here: https://medicaljournalssweden.se/actadv/article/view/11592/19095 https://medicaljournalssweden.se/actadv/article/view/11592/1...
Conclusion:
> This study shows that concentrated heat induced by a heating device reduced pruritus caused by insect bites and stings, even if the insect bites occurred more than 6 h previously. Across more than 12,000 treatments registered, less than 1% of participants reported side-effects. Further investigation of these side-effects showed that none posed a serious risk to the participant.
But, it doesn't go into the possible reasons why.
- cyco130 3y agoI quit smoking six years ago but before that I used the lit cigarette tip trick for decades. It worked very well for me.
- gumby 3y ago> you cause the nerves to effectively burn out, overloading the signal to prevent the itch from triggering. Saturate not burn out! If you killed those nerves you’d end up regretting it as anyone with Hanson’s disease (Leprosy) unfortunately finds out.
- hnbear 3y agoThank you, much better word that’s what I actually meant to say.
- phaedrus 3y agoThere's gradations of poison ivy reactions. I'm so allergic to it that turns into bubbles on bubbles like a cluster of fish eggs. (I don't think I'd want to put hot water on that.) My late father was so sensitive to poison ivy that it skips the bubble phase and melts the skin and flesh off his body. One time he got poison ivy on his hand, and it resembled the scene from Terminator Genisys when the good T-800, "Pops," holds the T-1000 under the acid shower and lost the flesh covering on its cyborg arm.
- hnbear 3y agoI get what looks like strings of little clear bubbles and very red skin, sometimes the bubbles on bubbles too. The hot water is more for the underlying skin. Seriously, it feels amazing.
- xerox13ster 3y agoFor a while I had a gnarly case of AF between my two biggest toes that was resistant to over the counter cream and I wasn't able to get to a doctor for a bit. Running the hottest water I could get in my apartment over my foot was a bliss I had never known, and truly hope to never know again. It would be so intense I would get visual flashes. Nothing worked quite the same, I always assmumed it was a rush of endorphins to the location to attempt to protect us from feeling burning pain. Given that we both felt sensations of ecstasy and endorphins are involved in pain relief, it makes sense ot me that having the endorphin rush for the heat pain relieves the itching as well, increasing our expected return for the endorphin output, causing acute feelings of ecstasy and bliss?
- hnbear 3y agoI don’t enjoy the poison ivy, it’s horrific, but the showering ecstasy is really incredible. As a non-drug person it’s what I imagine some hard drug to feel like. Deeply intense, shivering, full body bliss.