September 26, 2024 • 28 mins
Finally, an episode that scratches at all those answers you've been craving (in the most satisfying way.) Did an itching epidemic really halt the Revolutionary War? What happens when you scratch an itch and look in the mirror? And can tiny electrocutions really help your itchy skin?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will, What's that Mango? I was
looking through the Ignoble Prizes, which released this week, and
for those who don't know, these are funny prizes that
honor academic papers that are so surprising that they make
(00:23):
people laugh and then think. And one of the articles
that caught my attention was a Peace Prize that they
gave out for studying the pleasure ability of scratching an itch.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I do love that they gave out a Peace prize
for this, but like, what did the scientists actually find
in a study?
Speaker 1 (00:39):
So apparently they were looking into when you itch, what
areas that you can scratch our most satisfying. So they
looked at a few areas and triggered scratching in people
in those places, and they came to the conclusion that
the places where a little scratching is most satisfying is
on your back.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I could have guessed that a backscratch obviously feels amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
But the other place of high pleasure your ability was
the ankle. If you get a mosquito bite, for instance,
on your ankle, scratching it results in the most satisfaction,
and apparently the higher the scratch on your foot, like
the closer it is to the ankle, the more satisfying
it is.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
You know, I think if you had asked me, like
where the most pleasurable place to scratch an itch was,
the ankle might have been tenth on my list. But
now that you're saying it, and especially when you say
mosquito bite, I actually sort of get it.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
It makes sense.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, well, I'm so lucky it enough to quiz you
on all the other.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Places that you I can name the others, actually I'll
put to I'll email you a list.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
But all this reading about itching and scratching made you
want to look into the science of itches, like why
do we itch? Why does it feel so good to scratch?
And what's our body trying to tell us from all
of this? So let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
pal Mangas shot Ticketerter and sitting behind that big booth,
and he's always up to something interesting. This week, he's
got a whole bunch of posters behind him, and actually
these appeared to be homemade but very professional posters behind him,
(02:27):
one of them of Itchy and Scratchy from The Simpsons,
one of them the character poison Ivy from Batman. Sorry,
that one took me a minute. And then I think
that's a poster of the musician Lee scratch Perry.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Is that the okay? All right?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
All because we are doing an episode on itching, So
well done, Dylan. That's our wonderful producer, Dylan Fagin.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Actually, you know, before we start talking about this, I
love that he's got that Itchy and Scratchy poster up there.
And I read this thing about how sometimes the Simpson
writers used to use the Itchy and Scratchy cart tune
just for inside jokes. And there's this one episode where
the writers added a character called Puuci to the mix,
so it was like Itchy and Scratchy and Poucy because
(03:09):
apparently a focus group had recommended that they add another character,
and the whole show ends up being a disaster. But
what I didn't realize was that it was basically making
fun of the fact that I think this was in
the eighth season. The execs at Fox asked the Simpsons
writers to add a teenager to the family because they
thought it would I guess make the show more lively
(03:30):
or something. And the Simpsons writers refused, but they decided
to mock it on the show in Itchy and Scratchy,
which I just think it.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
So fun.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Anyway, I had to throw that tangent in there. But
let's get started, all right.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Well, one of the things that I wanted to look
into is why we say we're itching to do something,
like when we're eager to do something, and it actually
comes back to Latin so weirdly, on our skin, we
have these special itch sensing nerve endings and when they
get stimulated, this is whether it's by mechanical, thermal, or
chemical mediators, we get an itching sensation. So those nerve
(04:06):
endings are called pre receptors. And in fact, the scientific
word for itching is proitis.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I actually love when the scientific words for things are
so different, Like apparently the scientific word for burping is eructation.
Is it? Really?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I did not know that?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
So tell me a little bit about proritis, all right.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Well, Proitis comes from the Latin word periray, which means
to itch or to long for it's hard to say,
but that's what it means.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
So the idea of longing and desire is linked with
this physical sensation of itching.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, that's exactly right. And you know it makes sense
because when you have an itch, you feel like you
have to scratch it. Actually, the first recorded definition of
an itch came from a German physician named Samuel Hoffenreffer
back in sixteen sixty. So he defined an itch as quote,
any unpleasant sensation that elicits the desire or reflex to
scratch or put another If you're scratching something, then the
(05:02):
sensation that provoked it is, by definition an itch.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Can you talk about that itch pain relationship a little more?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
There's a complex relationship between itching and pain. The pure
receptors I mentioned before are on the end of specialized
nerve cells called sea fibers, and these sea fibers are
identical to those associated with the sensation of pain, but
they are functionally different because they only convey the itch sensation.
So when they're stimulated on the skin, these sea fibers
(05:29):
carry signals along the nerve to the spinal cord and
onto the brain of course, and that's where they're processed
and that generates this scratching or rubbing reflex response to
that itch.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
But why is our reflex to scratch it?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, scratching it interferes with the sensations arising from these
pure receptors, And this is the interesting part. They do
this by stimulating various pain receptors in the same areas,
so the pain is almost like a salve for the itching.
And you know, it's not just scratching that will stop
an itch, like other pain full stuff like heat or capsation.
Of course, the hot stuff and peppers or even electrical
(06:05):
shocks can stop itching. I don't know that you'd want
to take it to that length, but turns out that
does work. But you know, pain can stop an itch.
But it's unclear whether the pain and itching are separate
sensations or like the same sensation. But I don't know,
just less.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Can you talk about that relationship a little more.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
There's basically two theories about how this works. So there's
the intensity theory and the specificity theory. So the intensity
theory states that the skin is studded with this array
of nerve endings called no susceptors. Now, their job is
to relay information about the presence of potentially damaging stimuli
to the spinal cord and the brain, and so a
(06:44):
weak assault on these neurons result in an itch, while
a fully fledged attack results in pain.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
So, like you said, the same sensation but less.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I nailed it, and I'm glad you understand it now.
But you know, the specificity theory states that some neurons
are responsible for pain while a different set cares about
an itch. Or alternatively, it could be that there's a
single set of neurons responsible for no susception, but that
they somehow tell the difference between stimuli that are itchy
and those that hurt.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
But you would never scratch something that's just hurting you, right,
Like you don't stub your toe and then scratch at
it to stop.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
The pain, right, I mean, there are distinct sensations that
elicit these very distinct reactions. So when something hurts, our
body responds, you know, with their withdrawal reflex. But you know,
think about it. You put your hand over a fire,
the pain makes you yank it back, but the scratching
reflex brings attention toward rather than away from, the affected skin.
(07:42):
And you know this is probably evolutionary, like if you're
looking closer at a quick scratch, or even just mindlessly
scratching at something, it's pretty effective at removing an insect
or other unwanted material from your skin or your hair.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
So it actually works.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, that's interesting about a scratch drawing attention to your
skin or your body.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, And so here's how it works. Like, when something
bothers the skin, like a mosquito bite, the cells release
a chemical, usually a histamine, as an immune response to this,
and that release provokes the nosusceptors in the skin to
send a message to the spine, which then relays the
message through a bundle of nerves called the spinathalmic tract
(08:21):
all the way up to the brain. So, in two
thousand and nine, this group of researchers use the histamine
injection to make the legs of their non human primates
itch while an electrode monitored what happened inside those tracks.
And as soon as the histamine was injected, the neurons
started firing faster. So when the researchers offered up a
few scratches, those neurons slowed their fire. And what those
(08:44):
electrodes showed them was that the scratching actually does its
work in the spinal cord rather than the brain.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
So I'm actually glad that you brought up that spine
itch connection because I saw something about that in my
research and decided to look into it a little more.
But before we get into that, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking all
things itchy. So, Mango, you were just about to talk
about the connection between the spine and itches.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, So this discovery comes from two thousand and seven,
when a professor and researcher named Jufeng Chen at the
Washington University School of Medicine led a team that was
looking into the role of a specific receptor called GRPR.
It's the gastrin releasing peptide receptor, and he was trying
to figure out what it had to do with itching. Now,
no one had really studied itch as separate from pain
(09:45):
before two thousand and seven, but Chen and his team
were looking at mice that were missing the GRPR gene
to see if they reacted differently to pain stimuli than
normal mice did. And while they didn't react any differently
to pain when they stimulated the GRPR normal mice, the
mice starts scratching themselves as if they had this really
bad itch, and that's how they figured out that the
(10:06):
pain sensation and the itch sensation are mediated by separate
sets of genes in the spinal cord, which means potentially
that drugs can actually be used to suppress the itch
sensation without affecting the pain sensation. And that's particularly important
because pain can be kind of this like protective queue
that warns of danger. So it'd be great to have
(10:27):
this anti itch medication that doesn't compromise our pain sense
and capability.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, I mean that makes sense. It's best to be
less itchy and safe ideally.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, but Chen didn't stop there. So ten years later,
in twenty seventeen, his teammate another really interesting discovery about itchiness.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I keep itching, just talking about itching. It's almost like
when you're in a place and you're not supposed to laugh,
and then you can't help but laugh. That that is
the experience I'm having.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
I don't know about you, manh Yeah, totally. I want
to scratch my head so badly, right, Yeah, And it's
funny because us, you know, his team actually was the
ones that discovered that itchiness is contagious. So they did
this experiment with two different groups of mice. And I'm
not sure why it's always mice. It's never like a
group of frat guys who lives in Williamsburg. But the
(11:14):
researchers bred one group of mice to be chronically itchy,
and then they put the itchy mice in a cage
next to normal mice, and then they recorded hours and
hours of both sets of mice, and when they analyzed
the footage, they discovered that the normal mice, just by
observing the chronically itchy mice scratching, scratched themselves twice as much. Basically,
the normal mice became twice as itchy.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Imagine what fund we could have making other people scratch themselves,
Mango like, all we have to do is stand around
them for hours scratching ourselves.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
It sounds like a really good use of time. But
it turns out there are other ways to get people
to itch too. So in nineteen ninety nine, German researchers
found that just listening to a lecture about itching made
the audience itch and start to scratch themselves. And the
aim of the lecturers is to present an itch inducing lectures.
So they showed all these slides that induce scratching, right,
(12:05):
like pictures of fleas mites, allergic reactions. Then they showed
slides that induced relaxation and a sense of well being.
So they showed like pictures of baby skin and soft
down and a mother with a child in her arms,
and they discovered a few fascinating things. So first the
self reported itch sensation and all this observed scratching increased
(12:26):
after they showed those first set of pictures. But after
hearing the lectures discussed the next set of things and
showing those other pictures, the observed scratching decreased. So you
can actually lower the itch sensation when you show calm
soothing pictures.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I've never really thought about it, like working in reverse,
So you could potentially soothe an itch by looking at
calming images.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah, but I guess the question is like, would you
want to do that?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
What do you mean?
Speaker 1 (12:54):
So? I mean, itch remedies are great, but sometimes itching
is medically necessary, right, and sometimes isn't the best feeling
of the world, like a really good backscratch. I mean,
people have been talking about this forever. In a nineteen
forty eight paper in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. This
neurophysiologist George Bishop wrote, quote, scratching an itch with a
(13:15):
violence that would cause pain elsewhere maybe experienced as one
of the most exquisite pleasures. And the poet Ogden Nash
once said, quote, happiness is having a scratch for every itch.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I mean, that's definitely true. But you know, like the
pleasure and pain cocktail of an itch is, it's pretty complicated.
Like patients with exema have reported that they scratch not
until the itch has subsided, but until it no longer
feels good to scratch, So it's a little different.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yeah, that makes sense, although it seems like, you know,
that could exacerbate the skin conditions.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Right, Yeah, not only that, but chronic itching can cause
psychological distress, and this is something we really don't think
about that much, but there's a stigma associated with skin
disorders and scratching. So one study interviewed adults with chronic
itching conditions, and almost all of them said that itching
had profound emotional effects, such as depression or guilt or
(14:08):
panic and you know, sometimes feeling isolated because the resulting
scratching elicited such negative responses from other people, and it
might even have historical roots, like in early European medical practices,
and itch wasn't just equated with an effectious disease. It
also conveyed these moral lapses, like like a lack of
hygiene or social inferiority.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
So there was a lot wrapped up in it.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense about the social
history that you know. I this just reminded me of
a story when Henry was like three years old. We
had this couple over to our house for dinner, and
we were all sitting downstairs and we put Henry to bed,
or we thought we'd put Henry to bed, and then
like he walks down completely naked. He's like years old,
and he goes, guys, I got exama. Oh no, I
(14:56):
don't even know how we learned the word examon and
where his clothes were, but it was Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Like weirdly that sort of thing is not socially acceptable
to just walk into a room naked and announce that.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
So it's just I see what we're talking about here.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
But I mean, you know it, you think back to
when humans learn to associate certain things with disease, like
around scratching or as we're talking about here that can
actually trigger a physical disgust response, which is unfortunate, but
that is what happens.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, it seems like something everyone should be able to
empathize with because wind to scratch an itch is universal.
But obviously there's acceptable scratching and unacceptable scratching, right right, And.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Then there's this itches that don't respond like even to
excessive scratching, meaning you could scratch and scratch and never
actually get at these.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Itches, yeah, which sounds like torture. No, I really does.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And there's actually something called a neuropathic or neurological itch
which is a type of itch under the skin that
you actually can't scratch to relieve because it's caused by
nerve damage rather than issues related to the skin, and
it can be caused by things like diabetes or shingles,
brain lesions, or liver diseases. There's you know a host
(16:08):
of other things that can lead to this, and you know,
the itch tends to be chronic and difficult to treat,
and there's really not much you can do about it.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah. I remember there was like a New Yorker piece
about a woman who had an itch on her skull
and she just couldn't stop scratching at it, and it
just like led to all sorts of issues, which just
sounds miserable, but you know, there are also things that
are kind of the opposite of that. In the nineteen fifties,
there was this scientist named J. R. Traver who suffered
from a condition called delusional parasitosis. It's this condition where
(16:37):
people have become convinced that they're infested with parasites, which
leads to itching, and trav refused to accept that this
was just a delusion, so she published a paper about
her experience combating what she called skin mites. She visited
tons of doctors, used dangerous pesticides on herself, tried to
scratch the phantom mites out with fingernails, and it went
on for her whole life. Traver's actually started to itch
(17:00):
und her fortieth birthday and continued scratching at these delusional
itches until she died forty years later. Now, unfortunately, since then,
other people with delusional parasitotosis have pointed to travers work
as evidence that in fact they do have an itchy
parasitic infection and not a psychiatric condition, which it actually is.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Well, I mean that also just sounds like torture.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yeah. I imagine thinking your body was covered in mites
for forty years, it would be like constant scabies, right.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, I actually speaking of that you were talking about
you looked into scabies, right, Like, can you actually explain
it a little for uce.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I feel like it's one of.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Those words that's used without people actually understanding it.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah, and weirdly, I've heard of people getting it recently.
But scabies is a skin condition that causes almost this
like unbearable itchness, and it's caused by tiny mites that
do burrow into your skin. Like. The mites have been
around forever, but it wasn't until the eighteen thirties eighteen
thirty four at the Hospital Saint Louis in Paris, that
(18:00):
the mites were discovered as the cause of scabies, and
at the time about sixty five percent of the beds
in the hospital were occupied by patients suffering from scabies.
It was a Corsican student named sf Ernucci who had
been taught by peasant women of his home island how
to extract the mites with a pin, and he showed
the method to the doctors at the hospital.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
So people actually had to be hospitalized for scabies.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah, it can be really debilitating. And scabies was also
a big problem during the American Revolution. This was before
they discovered the cause with skin mites. They called it
the itch. And in fact, it happens at Valley Forge
when George Washington is there and he issues this general
order that proclaims, quote being also informed, many men are
rendered unfit for duty by the itch. The Commander in
(18:48):
chief orders and directs the regimental surgeons to look attentively
into this matter, and as soon as the men who
were affected with this disorder properly disposed in huts, to
have them anoided for it. I mean, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
It's amazing that the itch was enough of a concern
in the middle of a very bloody war, Like it
just speaks to how bad these afflictions are. And so
I think one of the central questions of life, mango
and here it is to scratch or not to scratch?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yeah, one of Hamlet's lesser known soilquy.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, it was a really powerful one. So we all
have this reflex to scratch an itch. But it's a
big question, like to scratching help or hurt us? And
it's a question. Scientists are actually looking into this study
as recently as twenty twenty three. It was at Harvard
Medical School, and it showed for the first time that
a common skin bacterium Staphylococcus eras or S RAS, can
(19:40):
cause an itch by acting directly on nerve cells. So
this helps explain why common skin conditions like exima and
atopic dermatitis are often accompanied by persistent itch. So in
these conditions, the equilibrium of micro organisms that keep our
skin healthy is often thrown off. Balance allows this you know,
(20:01):
bacteria to flourish, and so it can cause an itch
by instigating a molecular chain reaction that culminates in the
urge to scratch.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
But why would a microbe like cause us to itch?
Evolutionary speaking, like, what's in it for the bacterium.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
It's a good question.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
I mean, researchers say that the pathogens may be hijacking
the itch, sensation and other neural reflexes to their advantage. So,
for example, previous research has shown that the TB bacterium
directly activates vagual neurons to cause cough, which might enable
it to spread more easily from one host to another.
There's another researcher that speculates that quote the itch scratch
(20:41):
cycle could benefit the microbes and enable their spread to
distant body sites and to uninfected host That's interesting.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I feel like you always hear people say don't scratch,
it'll make it worse, But what it actually means is like,
you'll make a better home for the bacteria. But you know,
sometimes scratching an itch is just a really harmless, joyful pastime.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
I mean, I'm guessing you're going somewhere with this, So
what do you mean exactly by that?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
So have you ever heard of ruyi?
Speaker 3 (21:09):
I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
It's basically a very fancy backscratcher. A rue was a
ceremonial scepter used by Chinese nobles and monks, and it's
revered by Chinese people for its symbol of good fortune
and longevity. But originally it was just designed as a
backscratching instrument.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
So wait, so noblemen would take this scepter, this important
symbol of good fortune, and just start scratching themselves with it.
That just seems pretty casual.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yeah, so not exactly. The ruiz popularity peaked during the
King dynasty and It was first used by the common
folk before Chinese emperors and imperial officers took a fancy
to it, and then to suit the imperial taste and
exquisite rui was manufactured by the nation's top craftsmen. But
over time the ruiz stopped being used as a backscratcher,
(21:55):
and just because of its beautiful craftsmanship, it rose in
status as almost this preferred choice of imperial gifts.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
So the ruy jumped classes from like practical tool for
their commoners to this symbol of grand Europe.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah. But one other cool thing is that in Chinese,
ru means quote everything goes well. And I feel like
that's the best way to articulate the feeling you get
when you're like scratching an it.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yeah, when you're locked in on a good scratch, it
really is a beautiful moment. Like we should focus on
that for just a second, Like everything goes well when
that happens.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
So the first time I wanted to scratch because it
feels good, not just because I'm feeling itchy, but right exactly,
I feel like I've got to get you a rui.
But before I do that, why don't we do a
quick fact though, so here's when to get us started.
In twenty sixteen, neurologists from Germany's University of Lubec discovered
(22:52):
that you can soothe an itch by tricking your brain
with a mirror. So if you look into a mirror
while itching and scratch the opposite side, itch will subside
as if you're actually scratching at the point of the itch.
And apparently the trick can be used to help people
who have severe skin problems to stop them from further
hurting areas where their skin is healing.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
All right, well, here's a question that a lot of
cat owners want answered. Why do cats love clawing at
your furniture? And I guess the question I would ask
is why do you have a cat? But either way,
it turns out there, yeah, there's so many questions here,
but it turns out there are more than a few reasons.
So one is the scrape off the nail tip so
that they can grow fresh, sharper nails. And another is
(23:33):
that apparently all that scratching works like a massage, So
after sleeping for sixteen hours a day, all that pawing
and clawing helps them work out the kinks and their
back muscles actually but the main reason, according to cat scientists,
is it's territorial. So the scratching leaves marks to let
other cats and humans know who really owns the sofa,
(23:54):
as well as a personal scent that comes off from
their papads.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
I mean, the territorial stuff makes sense, But like, I
never thought of like scratching as like recovery for cats
who are sleeping a lot.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Yeah, I totally didn't. Didn't think about that either.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
So did you know that certain fruits and vegetables can
make your mouth itch? And this is according to New
York mags the cut It's related to allergies, So if
you're allergic to tree pollen, there's a good chance that
carrots and kiwis will be a problem. If you're allergic
to summer grasses, tomato and watermelon can make your mouth itchy,
And if you have trouble with autumn weeds, apples and
(24:29):
bananas have proteins that trigger those same allergies.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, I hadn't thought about it, but I feel like
i'd actually get that from certain certain foods like pineapple.
After I ate it sometimes I just feel like something
has like cut up my tongue.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Do you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yeah, I don't know if that's the same thing, but
think I'm just trying to say I relate to it.
I'm just trying to relate to what you're saying, Mago.
But all right, well I got another one. So in
the run up to the Olympics, the French released a
scratch and sniff stamp featuring that back get the wonderfully
Aromatic stamp released on the feast day of Saint Honore,
the patron Saint of bakers, along with an official statement
(25:06):
from the Post Office that proclaimed, quote, the baguette, the
bread of our daily lives, is the symbol of our
guesstronomy and the jewel of our culture. But as The
New York Times joked, there is no word on if
a croissant stamp will follow.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
I feel like, just like smelling fresh bread from a
sticker would make me want to buy, like a loaf
of fresh bread.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Like totally good marketing.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
So here's something I learned from our old palas and
mental flaws. The phrase from scratch, like baking something from scratch,
weirdly comes from sports. So the idea of starting from
scratch came from a scratch line that was scratched into
the ground as the starting line for a race, and
it kind of evolved to starting at the very beginning
to eventually starting without help. So when you bake something
(25:50):
from scratch, you're starting from the origin.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
That makes sense, all right.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Well, here is a really crazy one about a man
named Bill Morgan from Melbourne, Australia. In nineteen ninety nine,
Bill had a heart attack and fell into a coma
for about two weeks. He was just thirty seven years old,
but somehow he miraculously woke up from it and to
celebrate his survival, he went out and bought a scratch
lottery card and I guess in Australia you can win
(26:16):
other prizes, but he won a car worth about twenty
seven thousand dollars. Anyway, when the local news heard about
the incident, the story of him coming back to life
and winning the lottery, they asked him to recreate this
for a news segment. So they filmed him going into
a shop buying a ticket and scratching the foil and
when he did he won again. This time he won
(26:38):
a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars jackpot.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Is that not nuts?
Speaker 1 (26:42):
That is nuts? It's almost like worth the coma.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Yeah, exactly, there's a short list of things that are
worth the coma.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
But yeah, you're probably right on this one.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
I actually had a fact about scratch lottery tickets too.
It's about these two artists who make sculptures from discarded
scratch off tickets to represent discarded dreams. So they use
like forty thousand dollars of discarded tickets to make a
dream car sculpture, and they use another seventy thousand dollars
of discarded tickets to build a dream home. But I
honestly don't think I can beat that coma fact. It's
(27:13):
too good. So I'm gonna hand you the trophy right now.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
I need to warn you I got a bunch of coma.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Facts for future episodes because I just feel like they
always they always take it.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
But thank you.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
It is nice to end an episode about scratching it
and feeling this satisfied. So we'll be back again next
week with a brand new episode of Part Time Genius
in the meantime from Dylan, Mary Mango, and me.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
This show is hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongas
Chatikler and researched by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy.
Today's episode was engineer and produced by the wonderful Dylan
Fagan with support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive
produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry, with
(28:09):
social media support from Sasha Gay, Trustee Dara Potts and
Viney Shorey. For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will, What's that Mango? I was
looking through the Ignoble Prizes, which released this week, and
for those who don't know, these are funny prizes that
honor academic papers that are so surprising that they make
(00:23):
people laugh and then think. And one of the articles
that caught my attention was a Peace Prize that they
gave out for studying the pleasure ability of scratching an itch.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I do love that they gave out a Peace prize
for this, but like, what did the scientists actually find
in a study?
Speaker 1 (00:39):
So apparently they were looking into when you itch, what
areas that you can scratch our most satisfying. So they
looked at a few areas and triggered scratching in people
in those places, and they came to the conclusion that
the places where a little scratching is most satisfying is
on your back.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I could have guessed that a backscratch obviously feels amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
But the other place of high pleasure your ability was
the ankle. If you get a mosquito bite, for instance,
on your ankle, scratching it results in the most satisfaction,
and apparently the higher the scratch on your foot, like
the closer it is to the ankle, the more satisfying
it is.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
You know, I think if you had asked me, like
where the most pleasurable place to scratch an itch was,
the ankle might have been tenth on my list. But
now that you're saying it, and especially when you say
mosquito bite, I actually sort of get it.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
It makes sense.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, well, I'm so lucky it enough to quiz you
on all the other.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Places that you I can name the others, actually I'll
put to I'll email you a list.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
But all this reading about itching and scratching made you
want to look into the science of itches, like why
do we itch? Why does it feel so good to scratch?
And what's our body trying to tell us from all
of this? So let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
pal Mangas shot Ticketerter and sitting behind that big booth,
and he's always up to something interesting. This week, he's
got a whole bunch of posters behind him, and actually
these appeared to be homemade but very professional posters behind him,
(02:27):
one of them of Itchy and Scratchy from The Simpsons,
one of them the character poison Ivy from Batman. Sorry,
that one took me a minute. And then I think
that's a poster of the musician Lee scratch Perry.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Is that the okay? All right?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
All because we are doing an episode on itching, So
well done, Dylan. That's our wonderful producer, Dylan Fagin.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Actually, you know, before we start talking about this, I
love that he's got that Itchy and Scratchy poster up there.
And I read this thing about how sometimes the Simpson
writers used to use the Itchy and Scratchy cart tune
just for inside jokes. And there's this one episode where
the writers added a character called Puuci to the mix,
so it was like Itchy and Scratchy and Poucy because
(03:09):
apparently a focus group had recommended that they add another character,
and the whole show ends up being a disaster. But
what I didn't realize was that it was basically making
fun of the fact that I think this was in
the eighth season. The execs at Fox asked the Simpsons
writers to add a teenager to the family because they
thought it would I guess make the show more lively
(03:30):
or something. And the Simpsons writers refused, but they decided
to mock it on the show in Itchy and Scratchy,
which I just think it.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
So fun.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Anyway, I had to throw that tangent in there. But
let's get started, all right.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Well, one of the things that I wanted to look
into is why we say we're itching to do something,
like when we're eager to do something, and it actually
comes back to Latin so weirdly, on our skin, we
have these special itch sensing nerve endings and when they
get stimulated, this is whether it's by mechanical, thermal, or
chemical mediators, we get an itching sensation. So those nerve
(04:06):
endings are called pre receptors. And in fact, the scientific
word for itching is proitis.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I actually love when the scientific words for things are
so different, Like apparently the scientific word for burping is eructation.
Is it? Really?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I did not know that?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
So tell me a little bit about proritis, all right.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Well, Proitis comes from the Latin word periray, which means
to itch or to long for it's hard to say,
but that's what it means.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
So the idea of longing and desire is linked with
this physical sensation of itching.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, that's exactly right. And you know it makes sense
because when you have an itch, you feel like you
have to scratch it. Actually, the first recorded definition of
an itch came from a German physician named Samuel Hoffenreffer
back in sixteen sixty. So he defined an itch as quote,
any unpleasant sensation that elicits the desire or reflex to
scratch or put another If you're scratching something, then the
(05:02):
sensation that provoked it is, by definition an itch.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Can you talk about that itch pain relationship a little more?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
There's a complex relationship between itching and pain. The pure
receptors I mentioned before are on the end of specialized
nerve cells called sea fibers, and these sea fibers are
identical to those associated with the sensation of pain, but
they are functionally different because they only convey the itch sensation.
So when they're stimulated on the skin, these sea fibers
(05:29):
carry signals along the nerve to the spinal cord and
onto the brain of course, and that's where they're processed
and that generates this scratching or rubbing reflex response to
that itch.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
But why is our reflex to scratch it?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, scratching it interferes with the sensations arising from these
pure receptors, And this is the interesting part. They do
this by stimulating various pain receptors in the same areas,
so the pain is almost like a salve for the itching.
And you know, it's not just scratching that will stop
an itch, like other pain full stuff like heat or capsation.
Of course, the hot stuff and peppers or even electrical
(06:05):
shocks can stop itching. I don't know that you'd want
to take it to that length, but turns out that
does work. But you know, pain can stop an itch.
But it's unclear whether the pain and itching are separate
sensations or like the same sensation. But I don't know,
just less.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Can you talk about that relationship a little more.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
There's basically two theories about how this works. So there's
the intensity theory and the specificity theory. So the intensity
theory states that the skin is studded with this array
of nerve endings called no susceptors. Now, their job is
to relay information about the presence of potentially damaging stimuli
to the spinal cord and the brain, and so a
(06:44):
weak assault on these neurons result in an itch, while
a fully fledged attack results in pain.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
So, like you said, the same sensation but less.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I nailed it, and I'm glad you understand it now.
But you know, the specificity theory states that some neurons
are responsible for pain while a different set cares about
an itch. Or alternatively, it could be that there's a
single set of neurons responsible for no susception, but that
they somehow tell the difference between stimuli that are itchy
and those that hurt.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
But you would never scratch something that's just hurting you, right,
Like you don't stub your toe and then scratch at
it to stop.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
The pain, right, I mean, there are distinct sensations that
elicit these very distinct reactions. So when something hurts, our
body responds, you know, with their withdrawal reflex. But you know,
think about it. You put your hand over a fire,
the pain makes you yank it back, but the scratching
reflex brings attention toward rather than away from, the affected skin.
(07:42):
And you know this is probably evolutionary, like if you're
looking closer at a quick scratch, or even just mindlessly
scratching at something, it's pretty effective at removing an insect
or other unwanted material from your skin or your hair.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
So it actually works.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, that's interesting about a scratch drawing attention to your
skin or your body.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, And so here's how it works. Like, when something
bothers the skin, like a mosquito bite, the cells release
a chemical, usually a histamine, as an immune response to this,
and that release provokes the nosusceptors in the skin to
send a message to the spine, which then relays the
message through a bundle of nerves called the spinathalmic tract
(08:21):
all the way up to the brain. So, in two
thousand and nine, this group of researchers use the histamine
injection to make the legs of their non human primates
itch while an electrode monitored what happened inside those tracks.
And as soon as the histamine was injected, the neurons
started firing faster. So when the researchers offered up a
few scratches, those neurons slowed their fire. And what those
(08:44):
electrodes showed them was that the scratching actually does its
work in the spinal cord rather than the brain.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
So I'm actually glad that you brought up that spine
itch connection because I saw something about that in my
research and decided to look into it a little more.
But before we get into that, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking all
things itchy. So, Mango, you were just about to talk
about the connection between the spine and itches.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, So this discovery comes from two thousand and seven,
when a professor and researcher named Jufeng Chen at the
Washington University School of Medicine led a team that was
looking into the role of a specific receptor called GRPR.
It's the gastrin releasing peptide receptor, and he was trying
to figure out what it had to do with itching. Now,
no one had really studied itch as separate from pain
(09:45):
before two thousand and seven, but Chen and his team
were looking at mice that were missing the GRPR gene
to see if they reacted differently to pain stimuli than
normal mice did. And while they didn't react any differently
to pain when they stimulated the GRPR normal mice, the
mice starts scratching themselves as if they had this really
bad itch, and that's how they figured out that the
(10:06):
pain sensation and the itch sensation are mediated by separate
sets of genes in the spinal cord, which means potentially
that drugs can actually be used to suppress the itch
sensation without affecting the pain sensation. And that's particularly important
because pain can be kind of this like protective queue
that warns of danger. So it'd be great to have
(10:27):
this anti itch medication that doesn't compromise our pain sense
and capability.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, I mean that makes sense. It's best to be
less itchy and safe ideally.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, but Chen didn't stop there. So ten years later,
in twenty seventeen, his teammate another really interesting discovery about itchiness.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I keep itching, just talking about itching. It's almost like
when you're in a place and you're not supposed to laugh,
and then you can't help but laugh. That that is
the experience I'm having.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
I don't know about you, manh Yeah, totally. I want
to scratch my head so badly, right, Yeah, And it's
funny because us, you know, his team actually was the
ones that discovered that itchiness is contagious. So they did
this experiment with two different groups of mice. And I'm
not sure why it's always mice. It's never like a
group of frat guys who lives in Williamsburg. But the
(11:14):
researchers bred one group of mice to be chronically itchy,
and then they put the itchy mice in a cage
next to normal mice, and then they recorded hours and
hours of both sets of mice, and when they analyzed
the footage, they discovered that the normal mice, just by
observing the chronically itchy mice scratching, scratched themselves twice as much. Basically,
the normal mice became twice as itchy.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Imagine what fund we could have making other people scratch themselves,
Mango like, all we have to do is stand around
them for hours scratching ourselves.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
It sounds like a really good use of time. But
it turns out there are other ways to get people
to itch too. So in nineteen ninety nine, German researchers
found that just listening to a lecture about itching made
the audience itch and start to scratch themselves. And the
aim of the lecturers is to present an itch inducing lectures.
So they showed all these slides that induce scratching, right,
(12:05):
like pictures of fleas mites, allergic reactions. Then they showed
slides that induced relaxation and a sense of well being.
So they showed like pictures of baby skin and soft
down and a mother with a child in her arms,
and they discovered a few fascinating things. So first the
self reported itch sensation and all this observed scratching increased
(12:26):
after they showed those first set of pictures. But after
hearing the lectures discussed the next set of things and
showing those other pictures, the observed scratching decreased. So you
can actually lower the itch sensation when you show calm
soothing pictures.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I've never really thought about it, like working in reverse,
So you could potentially soothe an itch by looking at
calming images.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah, but I guess the question is like, would you
want to do that?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
What do you mean?
Speaker 1 (12:54):
So? I mean, itch remedies are great, but sometimes itching
is medically necessary, right, and sometimes isn't the best feeling
of the world, like a really good backscratch. I mean,
people have been talking about this forever. In a nineteen
forty eight paper in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. This
neurophysiologist George Bishop wrote, quote, scratching an itch with a
(13:15):
violence that would cause pain elsewhere maybe experienced as one
of the most exquisite pleasures. And the poet Ogden Nash
once said, quote, happiness is having a scratch for every itch.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I mean, that's definitely true. But you know, like the
pleasure and pain cocktail of an itch is, it's pretty complicated.
Like patients with exema have reported that they scratch not
until the itch has subsided, but until it no longer
feels good to scratch, So it's a little different.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yeah, that makes sense, although it seems like, you know,
that could exacerbate the skin conditions.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Right, Yeah, not only that, but chronic itching can cause
psychological distress, and this is something we really don't think
about that much, but there's a stigma associated with skin
disorders and scratching. So one study interviewed adults with chronic
itching conditions, and almost all of them said that itching
had profound emotional effects, such as depression or guilt or
(14:08):
panic and you know, sometimes feeling isolated because the resulting
scratching elicited such negative responses from other people, and it
might even have historical roots, like in early European medical practices,
and itch wasn't just equated with an effectious disease. It
also conveyed these moral lapses, like like a lack of
hygiene or social inferiority.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
So there was a lot wrapped up in it.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense about the social
history that you know. I this just reminded me of
a story when Henry was like three years old. We
had this couple over to our house for dinner, and
we were all sitting downstairs and we put Henry to bed,
or we thought we'd put Henry to bed, and then
like he walks down completely naked. He's like years old,
and he goes, guys, I got exama. Oh no, I
(14:56):
don't even know how we learned the word examon and
where his clothes were, but it was Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Like weirdly that sort of thing is not socially acceptable
to just walk into a room naked and announce that.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
So it's just I see what we're talking about here.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
But I mean, you know it, you think back to
when humans learn to associate certain things with disease, like
around scratching or as we're talking about here that can
actually trigger a physical disgust response, which is unfortunate, but
that is what happens.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, it seems like something everyone should be able to
empathize with because wind to scratch an itch is universal.
But obviously there's acceptable scratching and unacceptable scratching, right right, And.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Then there's this itches that don't respond like even to
excessive scratching, meaning you could scratch and scratch and never
actually get at these.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Itches, yeah, which sounds like torture. No, I really does.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And there's actually something called a neuropathic or neurological itch
which is a type of itch under the skin that
you actually can't scratch to relieve because it's caused by
nerve damage rather than issues related to the skin, and
it can be caused by things like diabetes or shingles,
brain lesions, or liver diseases. There's you know a host
(16:08):
of other things that can lead to this, and you know,
the itch tends to be chronic and difficult to treat,
and there's really not much you can do about it.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah. I remember there was like a New Yorker piece
about a woman who had an itch on her skull
and she just couldn't stop scratching at it, and it
just like led to all sorts of issues, which just
sounds miserable, but you know, there are also things that
are kind of the opposite of that. In the nineteen fifties,
there was this scientist named J. R. Traver who suffered
from a condition called delusional parasitosis. It's this condition where
(16:37):
people have become convinced that they're infested with parasites, which
leads to itching, and trav refused to accept that this
was just a delusion, so she published a paper about
her experience combating what she called skin mites. She visited
tons of doctors, used dangerous pesticides on herself, tried to
scratch the phantom mites out with fingernails, and it went
on for her whole life. Traver's actually started to itch
(17:00):
und her fortieth birthday and continued scratching at these delusional
itches until she died forty years later. Now, unfortunately, since then,
other people with delusional parasitotosis have pointed to travers work
as evidence that in fact they do have an itchy
parasitic infection and not a psychiatric condition, which it actually is.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Well, I mean that also just sounds like torture.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yeah. I imagine thinking your body was covered in mites
for forty years, it would be like constant scabies, right.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, I actually speaking of that you were talking about
you looked into scabies, right, Like, can you actually explain
it a little for uce.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I feel like it's one of.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Those words that's used without people actually understanding it.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah, and weirdly, I've heard of people getting it recently.
But scabies is a skin condition that causes almost this
like unbearable itchness, and it's caused by tiny mites that
do burrow into your skin. Like. The mites have been
around forever, but it wasn't until the eighteen thirties eighteen
thirty four at the Hospital Saint Louis in Paris, that
(18:00):
the mites were discovered as the cause of scabies, and
at the time about sixty five percent of the beds
in the hospital were occupied by patients suffering from scabies.
It was a Corsican student named sf Ernucci who had
been taught by peasant women of his home island how
to extract the mites with a pin, and he showed
the method to the doctors at the hospital.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
So people actually had to be hospitalized for scabies.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah, it can be really debilitating. And scabies was also
a big problem during the American Revolution. This was before
they discovered the cause with skin mites. They called it
the itch. And in fact, it happens at Valley Forge
when George Washington is there and he issues this general
order that proclaims, quote being also informed, many men are
rendered unfit for duty by the itch. The Commander in
(18:48):
chief orders and directs the regimental surgeons to look attentively
into this matter, and as soon as the men who
were affected with this disorder properly disposed in huts, to
have them anoided for it. I mean, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
It's amazing that the itch was enough of a concern
in the middle of a very bloody war, Like it
just speaks to how bad these afflictions are. And so
I think one of the central questions of life, mango
and here it is to scratch or not to scratch?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yeah, one of Hamlet's lesser known soilquy.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, it was a really powerful one. So we all
have this reflex to scratch an itch. But it's a
big question, like to scratching help or hurt us? And
it's a question. Scientists are actually looking into this study
as recently as twenty twenty three. It was at Harvard
Medical School, and it showed for the first time that
a common skin bacterium Staphylococcus eras or S RAS, can
(19:40):
cause an itch by acting directly on nerve cells. So
this helps explain why common skin conditions like exima and
atopic dermatitis are often accompanied by persistent itch. So in
these conditions, the equilibrium of micro organisms that keep our
skin healthy is often thrown off. Balance allows this you know,
(20:01):
bacteria to flourish, and so it can cause an itch
by instigating a molecular chain reaction that culminates in the
urge to scratch.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
But why would a microbe like cause us to itch?
Evolutionary speaking, like, what's in it for the bacterium.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
It's a good question.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
I mean, researchers say that the pathogens may be hijacking
the itch, sensation and other neural reflexes to their advantage. So,
for example, previous research has shown that the TB bacterium
directly activates vagual neurons to cause cough, which might enable
it to spread more easily from one host to another.
There's another researcher that speculates that quote the itch scratch
(20:41):
cycle could benefit the microbes and enable their spread to
distant body sites and to uninfected host That's interesting.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I feel like you always hear people say don't scratch,
it'll make it worse, But what it actually means is like,
you'll make a better home for the bacteria. But you know,
sometimes scratching an itch is just a really harmless, joyful pastime.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
I mean, I'm guessing you're going somewhere with this, So
what do you mean exactly by that?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
So have you ever heard of ruyi?
Speaker 3 (21:09):
I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
It's basically a very fancy backscratcher. A rue was a
ceremonial scepter used by Chinese nobles and monks, and it's
revered by Chinese people for its symbol of good fortune
and longevity. But originally it was just designed as a
backscratching instrument.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
So wait, so noblemen would take this scepter, this important
symbol of good fortune, and just start scratching themselves with it.
That just seems pretty casual.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yeah, so not exactly. The ruiz popularity peaked during the
King dynasty and It was first used by the common
folk before Chinese emperors and imperial officers took a fancy
to it, and then to suit the imperial taste and
exquisite rui was manufactured by the nation's top craftsmen. But
over time the ruiz stopped being used as a backscratcher,
(21:55):
and just because of its beautiful craftsmanship, it rose in
status as almost this preferred choice of imperial gifts.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
So the ruy jumped classes from like practical tool for
their commoners to this symbol of grand Europe.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah. But one other cool thing is that in Chinese,
ru means quote everything goes well. And I feel like
that's the best way to articulate the feeling you get
when you're like scratching an it.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yeah, when you're locked in on a good scratch, it
really is a beautiful moment. Like we should focus on
that for just a second, Like everything goes well when
that happens.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
So the first time I wanted to scratch because it
feels good, not just because I'm feeling itchy, but right exactly,
I feel like I've got to get you a rui.
But before I do that, why don't we do a
quick fact though, so here's when to get us started.
In twenty sixteen, neurologists from Germany's University of Lubec discovered
(22:52):
that you can soothe an itch by tricking your brain
with a mirror. So if you look into a mirror
while itching and scratch the opposite side, itch will subside
as if you're actually scratching at the point of the itch.
And apparently the trick can be used to help people
who have severe skin problems to stop them from further
hurting areas where their skin is healing.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
All right, well, here's a question that a lot of
cat owners want answered. Why do cats love clawing at
your furniture? And I guess the question I would ask
is why do you have a cat? But either way,
it turns out there, yeah, there's so many questions here,
but it turns out there are more than a few reasons.
So one is the scrape off the nail tip so
that they can grow fresh, sharper nails. And another is
(23:33):
that apparently all that scratching works like a massage, So
after sleeping for sixteen hours a day, all that pawing
and clawing helps them work out the kinks and their
back muscles actually but the main reason, according to cat scientists,
is it's territorial. So the scratching leaves marks to let
other cats and humans know who really owns the sofa,
(23:54):
as well as a personal scent that comes off from
their papads.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
I mean, the territorial stuff makes sense, But like, I
never thought of like scratching as like recovery for cats
who are sleeping a lot.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Yeah, I totally didn't. Didn't think about that either.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
So did you know that certain fruits and vegetables can
make your mouth itch? And this is according to New
York mags the cut It's related to allergies, So if
you're allergic to tree pollen, there's a good chance that
carrots and kiwis will be a problem. If you're allergic
to summer grasses, tomato and watermelon can make your mouth itchy,
And if you have trouble with autumn weeds, apples and
(24:29):
bananas have proteins that trigger those same allergies.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, I hadn't thought about it, but I feel like
i'd actually get that from certain certain foods like pineapple.
After I ate it sometimes I just feel like something
has like cut up my tongue.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Do you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yeah, I don't know if that's the same thing, but
think I'm just trying to say I relate to it.
I'm just trying to relate to what you're saying, Mago.
But all right, well I got another one. So in
the run up to the Olympics, the French released a
scratch and sniff stamp featuring that back get the wonderfully
Aromatic stamp released on the feast day of Saint Honore,
the patron Saint of bakers, along with an official statement
(25:06):
from the Post Office that proclaimed, quote, the baguette, the
bread of our daily lives, is the symbol of our
guesstronomy and the jewel of our culture. But as The
New York Times joked, there is no word on if
a croissant stamp will follow.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
I feel like, just like smelling fresh bread from a
sticker would make me want to buy, like a loaf
of fresh bread.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Like totally good marketing.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
So here's something I learned from our old palas and
mental flaws. The phrase from scratch, like baking something from scratch,
weirdly comes from sports. So the idea of starting from
scratch came from a scratch line that was scratched into
the ground as the starting line for a race, and
it kind of evolved to starting at the very beginning
to eventually starting without help. So when you bake something
(25:50):
from scratch, you're starting from the origin.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
That makes sense, all right.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Well, here is a really crazy one about a man
named Bill Morgan from Melbourne, Australia. In nineteen ninety nine,
Bill had a heart attack and fell into a coma
for about two weeks. He was just thirty seven years old,
but somehow he miraculously woke up from it and to
celebrate his survival, he went out and bought a scratch
lottery card and I guess in Australia you can win
(26:16):
other prizes, but he won a car worth about twenty
seven thousand dollars. Anyway, when the local news heard about
the incident, the story of him coming back to life
and winning the lottery, they asked him to recreate this
for a news segment. So they filmed him going into
a shop buying a ticket and scratching the foil and
when he did he won again. This time he won
(26:38):
a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars jackpot.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Is that not nuts?
Speaker 1 (26:42):
That is nuts? It's almost like worth the coma.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Yeah, exactly, there's a short list of things that are
worth the coma.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
But yeah, you're probably right on this one.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
I actually had a fact about scratch lottery tickets too.
It's about these two artists who make sculptures from discarded
scratch off tickets to represent discarded dreams. So they use
like forty thousand dollars of discarded tickets to make a
dream car sculpture, and they use another seventy thousand dollars
of discarded tickets to build a dream home. But I
honestly don't think I can beat that coma fact. It's
(27:13):
too good. So I'm gonna hand you the trophy right now.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
I need to warn you I got a bunch of coma.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Facts for future episodes because I just feel like they
always they always take it.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
But thank you.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
It is nice to end an episode about scratching it
and feeling this satisfied. So we'll be back again next
week with a brand new episode of Part Time Genius
in the meantime from Dylan, Mary Mango, and me.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
This show is hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongas
Chatikler and researched by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy.
Today's episode was engineer and produced by the wonderful Dylan
Fagan with support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive
produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry, with
(28:09):
social media support from Sasha Gay, Trustee Dara Potts and
Viney Shorey. For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Part-Time Genius News
Host
Will and Mango
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