diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index f025845..033093f 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ module.exports = function(md, options) {
       htmlReplaceRegex = new RegExp(
           '<' +
           joinedHtmlTagsToSkip +
-          '[^>]*>', 
+          '[^>]*>',
           'ig'
       );
     }
@@ -74,10 +74,8 @@ module.exports = function(md, options) {
       .replace(/^(\n)?\s{0,}#{1,6}\s*( (.+))? +#+$|^(\n)?\s{0,}#{1,6}\s*( (.+))?$/gm, '$1$3$4$6')
       // Remove * emphasis
       .replace(/([\*]+)(\S)(.*?\S)??\1/g, '$2$3')
-      // Remove _ emphasis. Unlike *, _ emphasis gets rendered only if 
-      //   1. Either there is a whitespace character before opening _ and after closing _.
-      //   2. Or _ is at the start/end of the string.
-      .replace(/(^|\W)([_]+)(\S)(.*?\S)??\2($|\W)/g, '$1$3$4$5')
+      // Remove _ emphasis
+      .replace(/(_+)(.*?\S)(_+)/g, '$1$3$4$5')
       // Remove code blocks
       .replace(/(`{3,})(.*?)\1/gm, '$2')
       // Remove inline code