MINNEAPOLIS — As winter finally makes its presence felt, so does a symptom of the frigid air. Dry skin is forming and many of you might treat it in a painful, yet relieving way. Why does dry skin itch ...

I remember it well: our dark winter of itch when the kids were small. It started with a note sent home—years before the pandemic—that my child had been exposed, not to a deadly virus but to lice.

Mosquito bites are itchy and we tend to scratch itchy things. The scratching feels good in the short term but tends to hasten and exacerbate swelling and inflammation. This leads to more scratching ...