PRIMATES &
HUMAN EVOLUTION
Don't scratch your itch; groom it
There is a better way to get rid of your itches than to scratch them away.
Scratching temporarily overpowers the itch, but damages the skin and settles nothing.
Your itch is a symptom of a deeper problem.
This page shows how to use grooming techniques to end this situation.
Tap an image to enlarge it
All these animals are scratching
except the last one.
The gorilla is a primate
and primates can groom
because they have flat nails.
3
Grooming gorilla
© Steven Straiton
3
Scratching reindeer
© Eric Kilby
Scratching rhino
© Lorraine R
3
Scratching polar bear
© contemplative imaging
Scratching rabbit
© John Benson
3
Scratching pelican
© Iain A Wanless
Scratching horse
© StarWatcher307
3
Scratching kangaroo
© Norm Hanson
Scratching lama
© Niall Kennedy
3
Scratching elephant
© Bentley Smith
Scratching heron
© Sasha Vasko
3
Scratching deer
© Mara
Scratching duck
© John Haslam
3
Scratching cat
© hehaden
Scratching cow
© garden beth
3
Scratching tiger
© Ryan Poplin
Scratching bear
© Lake Clark National Park
What to do when you itch
The correct response to an itch is to apply pressure on the skin, not to scratch.
Left: Scratching - Right: Pressure grooming
Scratching, or repeatedly scraping your skin, doesn't suppress the cause of your irritation.
The sting is only temporarily relieved; and that's because touching your skin anesthetizes it.
Nothing has been accomplished because the itch is situated beneath the surface; deep in the folds of your skin.
Responding quickly to a skin irritation is definitively the right thing to do, but you have to do the correct gestures if you want to reach your itch.
Instead of scratching the surface, peck your skin with pressure strokes.
HOW TO REACT TO ITCHES
1- Press your nail into your skin, for 1 or 2 seconds, repeatedly over the itching area.
2- Try to refine your position with every press until you feel that your nail is exactly on top of your itch.
3- When you reach that precise spot; stay right where you are, increase the pressure on your finger and lengthen your strokes to 5 seconds.
In places where you itch; only use pressure grooming strokes.
Superficial grooming is too similar to scratching and should be avoided in those areas.
NOTE
Scratching is the wrong response to itch
Animals resort to all kinds of scratching techniques to relieve their itches.
Just think how badly outfitted you would be to respond to an irritation if you were equipped with pointed claws, webbed toes or hooves.
For animal with claws, scratching must be a fairly perilous adventure, even if they pull them in.
Primates nails have evolved gradually, starting with the index fingers (called toilet claws) to extend to all digits.
Nails let you explore and mend the itching area, rather than brutally ravaging the skin.
Touching your skin will desensitize it for a while.
When you groom or scratch, an anesthetic effect takes place that causes a temporary loss of sensation in the immediate area around where your nail strikes.
When you scratch, only the anesthetic effect takes place because the source of the itching is not removed.
You feel relieved, but you've done nothing at all.
At any occasion the itching will return.
But just wait; it's preparing that terrible ache, that chronic pain, that disability that will ruin your future days.
You don't scratch for long before your nails penetrate the epidermis.
You hurt your skin.
However, when you scratch the same location over and over again, your skin may get badly irritated and your itch may get worse.
Don't do it.
Groom your skin instead to locate the itch precisely.
Peck the area with your nail to crush the entangled skin.
Itch is low level pain
Itch
Old
definition:
An irritating skin sensation causing a desire to scratch
New
definition:
Low level pain causing
a desire to groom
PARASITES
When you see an animal scratching, you immediately conclude that it is infested by fleas or another parasite.
This may be true in many cases.
Yet, scientists know that they see their laboratory rodents scratch even in a parasite free environment.
In your case, when your finger hits your skin in search of the cause of an itch; insects are easily found and eliminated.
LESIONS, CUTS AND BURNS
Damaged skin is readily recognizable when you investigate the itching area with your finger and nail.
While exploring, you can usually feel some differences in texture and evenness between the healthy and the wounded areas; along with the acute pain that injured skin produces.
You want to let the skin heal and you should not touch it.
SKIN FOLDS
When you reach the itching spot and that no insect or wound can be found; folded skin is generally the culprit.
If this is the case, the itch should fade and disappear when you touch and work on your skin, not increase.
Itch and pain have always been considered as two distinct phenomenons.
But, grooming the skin proves that the two sensations are simply different stages in the evolution of the same cutaneous deformation.
Itching is low level pain.
If left unattended, it will develop into full-blown pain.
The itch and the pain both come from the same folds and their crossings in the skin.
Folded skin feels like it is being pinched continuously.
Itch is a perfectly well-designed natural sensation, telling you where your body needs attention.
It is not to be ignored.
Your body is urging you «Groom me there!»
When your nail explores the itching location, it will find a fold crossing.
It is best to groom the spot immediately because the itch may not come back for a while.
Home
HOW TO GROOM
SKIN CARE
FOLDS
Hair and fur
Mirror usage
Folds in the skin
Nails and fingers
An introduction to folds
The main skin folds
SKIN THEORY
How to react to itch
HUMAN EVOLUTION
A pain-free old age
PRIMATES
BEAUTY
The primate family
Are you vain?
Facial expressions
FAREWELL
My story