Brief Answer:
Kindly send details of the condition.

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

Welcome and thanks for posting your query to the forum. I can understand your concern for the itching problem in your sister.
In view to help you best I request you to kindly provide certain important points :

- Is the itching problem a continuous process or any improvement in the same in last 3 to 4 years.

- Any eruptions or red areas along with itching.

- Is the itching mild or moderate or severe.

- Any blood tests or any dermatological consultation.

Any other important thing which you feel important to correlate with the condition.

Hope to hear soon from your side.

With regards,
Dr Sanjay Kanodia
MD-DERMATOLOGY

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Brief Answer:
"Non specific pruritus" : may require blood tests

Detailed Answer:
Hello young fellow,

Welcome again to the forum and thanks for posting important details.

After analyzing the complete details with diligence it appears that your sister has the condition which is known as "Non specific pruritus" or simply known as "NSP".

Before I proceed further let you understand about your problem. To tell you Medically - Our blood contains multiple type cells including red blood cells and white blood cells.

Specifically these white blood cells provide immunity to our body which are of further multiple types. Whenever anything in body is not suitable or offending to body then the number of white blood cells increases transiently.

Particularly these cells which increase are eosinophils and basophils which are also known as mast cells. These cells contain granules which have a specific chemical known as histamine.

So as soon as any offending factors come in contact there is bursting of the mast cells. There fore this histamine is released and we experience variable degree of itching which can remain for a very transient period to upto multiple hours.

It can remain for more than 12 hours too depending on the intensity of the offending factor.

The type of offending factor are innumerable including our food, environmental factors including temperature variation, heat, humidity, cold, dust and even simple of fragrances in air and multiple of other related things and very importantly stress too.

In my patients I generally go for routine blood tests - complete hemogram with serum biochemistry including blood sugar and urea creatinine along with liver function tests. In some cases I might prefer for hormonal analysis. You can meet a dermatologist near you and can discuss the complete problem in detail.

For the treatment part - it is quite simple and treated with drugs which inhibits the histamine release also known as Antihistamines. I myself prefer Loratadine ( Alaspan or Lorfast) in my patients as it is very simple medicine without any side effects of sedation. In my patients I start with 2-3 tablets/day, as soon as good effect is maintained then reduce to one to two in few weeks and then alternate days in next few weeks.

Once there is least of itching for few weeks then taper off to 2-3 tablets per week for few months and then stop it.

I hope these information will help you in dealing your sister's condition better. If you have any further queries I will be glad to help you.

With good health wishes,

Dr Sanjay Kumar Kanodia
MD - Dermatology

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