There have been a few separate aspects of this ongoing skin condition, which I'm content to label broadly as a form of Eczema, that have puzzled me the most since I first began dealing with it in ernest during the Spring of 06. One of these is the discovery of the rather peculiar, brief but prominent rush of euphoria that manifests upon putting the affected part (foot, for instance) into rather hot water. Does anyone know what this phenom is or have a simple explanation for it? In my travels over the web the past year or so, I have found a few other people briefly mention that they too have experienced this phenom while doing battle with their own form of eczema. After browsing the web a few minutes ago searching on the questions - what is an itch?, and - why does scratching at times relieve an itch but not at other times? I was surprised to find that people attached to medical science freely admit these questions remain for them as unsolved mysteries.  

One of the explanations suggested that scratching somehow helps to promote endorphins being released near the site of the itch/scratch, but this explanation is qualified, saying it too is mostly an unproven scientific theory.

Bear in mind the situation I've been experiencing generally appears to not be related to the garden variety itch. For instance, a person might feel a momentary slight irritation on a spot on their body, then think "oh, I have an itch", reach a hand to that area, move a finger or two back and forth on that spot of skin, the itch seems to go away satisfied and that, often times, is pretty much all there is to it in that instance. That is basically my understanding of the classic itch, and this understanding does not know much more, like, theory on the itch-scratch cycle, other than to say, if such cycles really do manifest in people, then there must be some fairly commone ways and or reasons that these cycles are brought to a stop. The caliber of itch I'm referring to is nothing like the garden variety.  Think of it as more like several hundreds of classic itches, turbocharged, all occuring at the same moment around a larger area of skin, such as on and around most of the skin surrounding an entire foot, ankle and low shin; a figurative itch from hell. 

Somewhere along the way there was a moment during one particularly itchy night the thought came to me somehow, by random quirk of accident... perhaps intuitively.....or from Heaven....or maybe they are one and the same?... I dunno, but the thought came to me to apply some hot water to the situation. I did, filling up  a foot bucket with some quite hot water deep enough to submerse the entire foot and ankle in question, then plunged the offending foot in. Within a second I was feeling a sensation that I can only characterize as not at all unlike that sensed after a healthy sneeze..and perhaps even somewhat reminiscent to the big O, except, it was radiating from my foot, not sinus cavity, nor crotch. This sensation was a literal rush that started at the foot, mysteriosly bypassing most of the intervening body and reappearing at the back of the neck while rushing into the head. It lasted a good 10 to 15 seconds before it subsided. Once it has subsided, two circumstances seem to have set in. One, the itch from hell is gone and does not return generally for at least several hours; two, the mechansim of this rush seems to be out of order during the same interfal, roughly. Drawing an analogy on some of the theory out there, if endorphins are brought into play for some of the common types of itch/relief scenarios, and these are what help to provide that mild sense of "ahhh" for garden variety itches, maybe there are significantly more amounts of endorphins necessary to squelch the itch from hell,  and the plunging of the entire itching situation into hot water somehow encourages these amounts to show up, thus producing the resultant "AHHHHHHhhh" sensation.....anyone?