The burrowing mite Sarcoptes scabiei can cause an intense skin reaction complete with very severe itching if you're exposed to the mite and become infested. While caffeine can provide a distraction, provided you drink it in large quantities, it won't do anything to treat the underlying scabies infestation.
Scabies
Scabies is caused by a burrowing mite that lives in your skin. While that alone seems sufficient to cause discomfort, you don't actually feel the mite burrow. Instead, the discomfort of a scabies infestation results from your immune system reaction to the mites and their detritus. Typically, explains PubMed Health, mites spread via person-to-person contact, and spread more easily to those with suppressed immune systems. Outbreaks are common in day care centers and nursing homes.
Caffeine
The caffeine molecule stimulates your sympathetic nervous system, also known as the "fight or flight" branch of the nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for helping you to respond to threats, and when activated, it diverts blood to the large muscles of your limbs and increases your heart rate and respiratory rate. In addition to these effects, caffeine also causes you to feel more attentive, for which reason it's a popular legal stimulant drug.
Treating Scabies With Caffeine
There is no scientific evidence to suggest that you can treat scabies with caffeine, regardless of whether you take the caffeine internally or apply it topically. Caffeine could potentially cause you to forget about your itching temporarily; this is because caffeine can make you feel distracted or "wired," which helps to keep you from thinking about your itching. Aside from this temporary effect, however, caffeine use won't do anything about the scabies infestation itself.
Effective Treatments
To treat scabies, you need to use a cream that will kill the mites, explains MayoClinic.com. There are several available topical preparations, though they're only offered by prescription, so you should see your doctor if you think you've contracted scabies. Because the dead mites remain in the skin and continue to activate the immune system, you'll still itch for some time after the mites themselves have been eradicated.
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