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Comment by kozak | Hacker News Reader

Looks similar to piezo "clickers" that are supposed to help against mosquito bites. But is the working principle based on temporarily damaging nerve endings? If so, is there a potential for a long-term negative effect with active use?

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I don't think there's enough heat energy involved to cause damage. They claim that the pain overrides your itch senses. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10309056/

The study you linked is about efficacy. It did not research the underlying medical reason why it helps.

I also thought about the piezo clickers I had many years ago, but I think the principle is different: from what I heard at the time, the clickers were supposed to use a small amount of electricity to break the molecules of the substance causing the itch/inflammation.

I've tried the clickers but the effect only lasts a short while.

I used the heater every day for about a week, no negative effect that I experienced.

Presumably this is more desensitising through an overload rather than damaging?

As I heard it, it's about chemistry. I forget the details. The mosquito injects something that ① keeps the blood flowing a little longer than it would otherwise, ② causes the body to react in a way that itches and ③ breaks down when heated. So to prevent the itching, you heat the area.

There's a verb for this heat process, but I can't remember it.

I think you are looking for denaturing. Some claim it denatures the proteins causing the itch. I can at least verify that for me it cuts down healing time but I do need to re-apply it a few times.

> There's a verb for this heat process, but I can't remember it.

Denaturation (of proteins): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denaturation_(biochemistry) .

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