A MOSQUITO touches down on your arm, and next thing you know, there’s that red bump — and it is unbearably itchy.

    Scratching is nothing more than a distraction — a pleasurable way to direct your attention to something other than the itchu. “You’re not accomplishing anything medically,” says Dan Wasserman, a dermatologist in Naples, Florida.

    What you are doing: potentially damaging the skin you’re scratching. You also face the risk of post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, which is essentially a brown spot that can occur when you injure your skin through excessive scratching, says Wasserman. The worst potential outcome: You end up with an infection, since “one of the dirtiest places on our body is our fingernails,” he says.

    Then, is there another quick route to relief, without the potential for permanent damage? Yes, and it’s another form of distraction: slapping the bite. This is a noxious stimuli — that is, one that causes a little pain — which is effective at taking your mind off your misery. “The nerve stimulation will actually cause a shock or pain,” Wasserman explains. “[This] kind of overwhelms the itch.” Of course, the resulting relief will only last so long. So if you’re able to access a pharmacy, dose up on Benadryl or Claritin. And if your itching requires something stronger, ask your doctor for a high-potency steroid cream.

    (SD-Agencies)