What to Do If You Have Itchy Skin No Rash?

• Dry skin is usually accompanied by a dry skin rash and/or itchy skin rashes. Those that aren’t are difficult to trace, making it important to understand, commonly, what causes dry skin
• Obstetric cholestasis, a skin condition that 1 percent of pregnant women suffer, is one cause of dry itchy skin
• Some dry skin remedies include a good dry skin lotion like calamine lotion, or other skin moisturizer products

Itchy skin is something all of us have felt at one time or another. Most of the time, that itching is accompanied by rashes, hives, or bug bites which suggest the cause of our problems. However, there are some cases of itchy skin no rash causes. These problems can be frustrating to the sufferer especially when the scratching becomes unbearable but there are things you can do.

Identify the Cause

While the rash associated with most itchiness can make tracing the cause easier, itchy skin no rash can pose problems for dermatologists and physicians. Understanding some of the common causes could help and is important for choosing the appropriate treatment. For example, women who have an iron deficiency may find their skin itching a great deal, especially when they are menstruating. The itchy skin no rash treatment in this case would be iron supplements and that would cure the underlying cause.

About 1% of pregnant women suffer from a condition called Obstetric Cholestasis which can cause itchy skin thanks to a build-up of bile in their body. Medication can reduce the level of bile and stop the itchiness but the condition does increase the risks of delivering a stillborn baby so consulting a physician is very important.

In other cases, itchy skin no rash can have less severe causes. Very dry air can cause itching without a rash, over-washing the skin with soap (especially for older adults) can increase itchiness, and stress can be a psychogenic cause for the itching.

Dealing with the Itch

Regardless of the underlying cause and the itchy skin no rash treatment needed for it, you do want to get the itching under control because scratching is only going to make the situation worse. Scratching can lead to skin infections, as well as inflammation. In some patients, too much scratching can cause the skin to build up a resistance to the action so scratching must become more intense to relieve the itch.

To slow down the itch, regardless of the itchy skin no rash causes, oatmeal baths and calamine lotion are still going to be two of your best tools. Icing the area can numb the nerve endings so you don’t feel the need to scratch. Keeping it wet can also help. Trimming your fingernails very low so you aren’t able to scratch and wearing gloves or mittens can also be helpful.

When these methods don’t work to stop the itchiness, your doctor or dermatologist may be able to give you a prescription strength cortisone medication that could help with the condition.

If you do scratch and cause your skin to become inflamed, you can take over-the-counter medications, such as Advil or Alleve to reduce the inflammation.

Other Considerations

While minimizing the itching and the scratching are important, you always need to get to the underlying cause of the problem. Blood tests may be able to show if there are specific health conditions causing the itchy skin no rash. Don’t hesitate to seek a second opinion if your primary physician does not take your problem seriously. Rule out all other health possibilities before assuming the cause may be psychogenic in nature.

The information supplied in this article is not to be considered as medical advice and is for educational purposes only.