Life Hacks:
Sahil Bloom’s Most Powerful Life Hacks - a series:
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
Confucius
Here are some short, timeless insights for simplifying your world—"hacks" for your life, careers, relationships, health, money, and more...
38. Never keep score in life.
When you’re with friends, pick up the check now and then—it all evens out if they're real friends. Quid pro quo is a terrible way to live.
39. If you're struggling to fall asleep, try the 4-7-8 method.
Breathe in through your nose for a 4-second count, hold your breath for a 7-second count, and exhale for an 8-second count. It activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which triggers your body to turn to rest mode.
40. Go for a 15-minute walk every morning.
You don't need a fancy morning routine —just go for a walk. The sunlight, movement, and fresh air directly impact your mood, circadian rhythm, metabolism, digestion, and more. Leave the phone at home. Let your mind wander.
How to Soothe an Itchy Bug Bite:
Elizabeth Passarella
I’m one of the unfortunate souls who, for reasons still only loosely explained by science,
seems to taste delicious to mosquitoes. So was my father, who taught me as a child that
the best way to stop the itch was to press an “x” into the middle of the bite with my
fingernail. It hurt a little bit, but that was the point: The pain made me forget about the itch, at least temporarily.
Search online, and you’ll find a laundry list of tips to stop the itch, like pressing a hot
spoon onto a bite or using The Bug Bite Thing, a suction tool meant to draw mosquito
saliva out of your skin. People swear by ice, aloe, bandages and simple willpower to
resist the urge to scratch.
But what works? Experts say several hacks can provide relief.
Some involve medicine, others a little mental trickery.
Why are bites so itchy?
Female mosquitoes need blood to lay eggs. When they land on your skin in search of
yours, they inject saliva that contains proteins using “little serrated blades in the
proboscis”— their needlelike mouths — “that drill down into your skin,” said Dr. Allison
Gardner, an associate professor at the University of Maine who studies the management
of infectious diseases from ticks and mosquitoes. Those proteins numb the skin and dilate blood vessels, making feeding more efficient. Your body releases histamine as an immune response to the saliva. Histamine is the reason for itching and swelling, a signal your brain needs to investigate.
Can’t I just scratch it?
You can. It’s almost impossible not to. “When we scratch, we distract the brain from the
itch with another sensation, a mild pain,” said Dr. Lyda Cuervo Pardo, an immunologist
and associate professor at the University of Florida. “Our brains release serotonin, and
we feel better.”
This is the same reason the fingernail tactic, a hot spoon or the shock of a cooling spray
provides relief. “Itch, pain, tickling sensations and temperature all travel on the same
neural highway, so to speak,” said Dr. Heather Goff, an associate professor of
dermatology at UT Southwestern in Dallas. “When you flood that highway with other
traffic, you override the itch.”
Dr Cuervo Pardo said you can get stuck in an “itch-scratch cycle.” The mild pain from
scratching overrides the itch and tells your brain to release serotonin, a natural pain
reliever. But serotonin can also amplify the itch signals, making you scratch more. When
your skin is damaged from overzealous scratching, your body again responds with more
histamine, leaving you in a miserable loop, said Dr. Cosby Stone, an allergist and
assistant professor at Vanderbilt University.
What’s a better option?
Try an ice pack, cooling spray or even a menthol ointment like Vicks VapoRub for a
lingering tingly effect. A cooling agent layered with hydrocortisone will best soothe the itch in the short and long term. As for what cooling product to use, “anything that feels good” will work, Dr. Stone said. “You trick your brain into not noticing the itch, and cooling
agents also cause the blood vessels to constrict, which helps with swelling.”
A cold washcloth could also provide some welcome, gentle friction, Dr. Stone said, and a
Band-Aid can help ingredients penetrate the skin and keep your fingernails away, an
especially helpful trick for children.
Antihistamine pills like Zyrtec, Claritin or Allegra are more effective than topical creams,
as they calm the body’s immune response. You can even take an oral
antihistamine in preparation for a camping trip or every day of the summer, if you want.
“Having histamine blockers already in your system will mean less of a reaction, period,”
said Dr. Stone.
What about other gimmicks?
If you prefer hot to cold, Dr Goff said a heat pack or warm washcloth can override the itch
sensation like a cooling product can. However, she does not recommend a hot spoon, which could cause a minor burn.
She’s more sceptical about suction tools. “The amount of saliva a mosquito injects and
the hole it makes are both microscopic. I can’t imagine there’s even a physical hole to
suck something out of,” she said. That said, the sucking sensation serves as a mildly uncomfortable distraction in the same way a fingernail does — at least to me and my 6-
year-old, who tried it on our own bites.
A better use of your time and money might be avoiding mosquito bites in the first place.
Use an insect repellent and consider wearing long sleeves and pants while outside. Dr.
Gardner, who uses aloe and hydrocortisone to treat her own bites, wears a thin net over
her hat to cover her face when hiking or entering a mosquito habitat.
“It might not be a good fashion statement,” she said, “but it definitely helps.”