Reminder! Don’t take skin itching lightly, it may be a “danger signal” sent by the body!

Itching is a very common manifestation of physical discomfort. When the human body has skin allergies, various types of dermatitis, climatic reasons, etc., skin itching is very common and many of us experience it frequently.

However, did you know that itchy skin is sometimes a "signal" that something is wrong with our health? When the body suffers from some diseases, it is likely to cause itchy skin. Although the itching caused by these different diseases can be treated symptomatically, the fundamental solution to the problem lies in finding the primary disease and then treating the cause.

Liu Li, head nurse of the General Surgery Minimally Invasive Center of Hunan Provincial Second People's Hospital (Provincial Brain Hospital), reminds the public that when unexplained or long-term skin itching occurs, they should go to the hospital in time to find out the cause and receive targeted treatment in a timely manner.

1. Digestive system

In the digestive system, some diseases of the liver and gallbladder can often cause itching, and sometimes even indicate very serious diseases, such as hilar cholangiocarcinoma and common bile duct stones that are often seen in general surgery minimally invasive centers. When patients have obstructive jaundice, the bile salt concentration in the serum and skin increases, which stimulates the nerve endings and causes jaundice and itching of the patient's skin throughout the body.

2. Urogenital system

Many diseases of the urinary and reproductive system can also cause itching. For example, patients with chronic nephritis, especially those who have entered the stage of renal failure, cannot excrete toxins in the blood. These metabolic wastes are retained in the body in large quantities and excreted from the body surface with sweat, which can cause persistent itching throughout the body. Women with irregular menstruation, increased leucorrhea, ovarian lesions, vaginal trichomoniasis, and fungal infections that cause vulvar inflammation can all experience vulvar itching.

3. Endocrine system

Hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, diabetes, endocrine disorders, etc. of the endocrine system may also cause itching. For example, patients with hyperthyroidism are prone to sweating, their skin is relatively moist, and they sweat more in hot weather; patients with hypothyroidism, on the contrary, have dry and rough skin, which causes itching; diabetic patients have high blood sugar levels, which reduces the body's immunity and resistance to disease, making them susceptible to bacterial and viral infections and inducing skin itching; endocrine disorders also often cause itching, such as when women are pregnant, the estrogen and progesterone levels increase, which may cause pregnancy itching.

4. Blood system

There are also many diseases in the blood system and nervous system that can cause itching. For example, polycythemia vera is often accompanied by systemic skin itching; 15% to 20% of patients with iron deficiency anemia also experience systemic or local itching; neurasthenia, cerebral arteriosclerosis, cerebral edema, etc., which reduce the anti-itch threshold of central receptors, can all lead to skin itching.

5. Multisystem tumors

Itching caused by malignant tumors is also common in clinical practice, because cancer cells and metabolites stimulate nerve endings, causing systemic skin itching. For example, patients with gastric cancer and liver cancer will gradually intensify the itching as the disease progresses; tumors of the lymphatic system are often accompanied by systemic itching; rectal and colon cancers are mostly anal itching; and leukemia, lung cancer and esophageal cancer are accompanied by widespread skin itching; patients with brain tumors may experience obvious and persistent itching on the face and nose if the tumor infiltrates to some parts of the body.

Hunan Medical Chat Special Author: Liu Li, General Surgery Minimally Invasive Center, Hunan Second People's Hospital (Provincial Brain Hospital)

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(Edited by YT)