LPT: If you have a bad itch, press your thumb into the itched area gently and rub it with a consistent motion in a circle, making the circle wider as the pressure gets greater. This is a medical technique that doctors use to help stop itching.

This is a rare technique taught in medical school to medical students to help doctors stop itching. Helping itching is a massive part of being a doctor, since doctors do so much to fix people’s nerves (less itching) and let people stop scratching (fixing the skin) and it helps people ignore pain (itching masks pain) so they don’t need pain killers. This is the method doctors use, which might be helpful to you<br><br>It’s called the “itch scratch cycle” and if you Google that phrase you will get different methods and ideas, but this is the one consistent technique that doctors would perform, and it works really well. Doctors will typically also apply a topical cream that can help increase blood flow to the area, such as capsaicin, but that’s not the point here. This is what you do with your hand to the itchy area to help stop the itch<br><br>Step 1<br><br>Identify the center of the itch and get your thumb to it and press it in fairly gently, about 1mm deep. This is the most important part, and the most challenging, as the thumb must be in the center of the itch on the skin of the patient<br><br>Step 2<br><br>Still having pressure on the thumb in the center, start to rub the thumb around in a very tight circle. The size of the circle is important, and it should be a small circle to start with and should not “slip” at all. The idea is to apply enough pressure to start to get friction going, and the heat from the friction will start to increase blood flow. You should press hard enough to make an impression in the skin, but not enough to make it blanch. Blanching is not dangerous, but it will feel painful<br><br>Step 3<br><br>Continue to rub your thumb in a circle in the center of the itch, but make the circle bigger. This will increase the blood flow to the area and should help to start to make the itch fade away<br><br>You may need to do this for several minutes to get it to fade away entirely. Sometimes the itch can be very resistant, or it may fade away quickly. If the itch is in a place that is difficult to reach during the day, like your back, and it only itches at night, you may need to ask someone to perform this for you. If you have to get someone else to do it for you, remember to be gentle and tell them if they’re pressing too hard. You can also use a back scratcher to do this for yourself in some areas. If you’re using a scratcher, don’t scratch, but instead press on the area with the scratcher and rub the scratcher in small, and then wider, circles<br><br>This is a technique that doctors use, and if this method does not work during a doctor appointment, we will move on to another method, but a scratcher is the second method and a follow up appointment is the third<br><br>Edit: Some people have asked in the comments about the cream and the type and how to use it. While I have no problem sharing the method doctors use, I can’t recommend treatments to anyone, and the specific cream used can vary widely between people. Some people find that coconut oil, aloe, or other creams will work for itching, and you can use those as well. What you want is to increase blood flow, so any cream that does this would be appropriate. Thanks everyone.