Why that constant itch could be a sign of kidney disease, poor liver function, thyroid problems - or even cancer By Cara Lee Published: 07:05 EDT, 17 October 2024 | Updated: 07:13 EDT, 17 October 2024 e-mail View comments For more than 50 years Martyn Pring's life was dominated by an 'uncontrollable' urge to itch - and nothing doctors suggested seemed to help. It began after a bout of German measles when he was two, and from then on Martyn, now in his sixties, would regularly be overcome by an urge to scratch at his skin until it was raw and bleeding. The sensation affected every part of his body except his face, regularly interrupting his sleep, and even as an adult he would have to wear mittens to bed to try and stop his incessant scratching.
'I was tried on every emollient cream [medical moisturiser], lotion and medicine out there but nothing worked,' says Martyn, a university researcher and author, who lives with his wife in Swanage, Dorset. 'I was hospitalised with the itching for two weeks on more than one occasion. Martyn Pring suffered chronic itching for more than 50 years, from the age of two 'I would be covered in bandages and bathed in emollient creams [medical moisturisers] and I was so tightly bandaged I had to stay in bed.
'But the itching always returned.' It was in 2018 – more than five decades after the itching, diagnosed as eczema, began – that his dermatologist suggested Martyn go on a clinical trial of a new treatment called dupilumab (brand name Dupi.
