diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index 6d11ad0..256acc5 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -17,9 +17,9 @@ module.exports = function(md, options) {
   try {
     if (options.stripListLeaders) {
       if (options.listUnicodeChar)
-        output = output.replace(/^([\s\t]*)([\*\-\+]|\d+\.)\s+/gm, options.listUnicodeChar + ' $1');
+        output = output.replace(/^([\s\t]*)([*\-+]|\d+\.)\s+/gm, options.listUnicodeChar + ' $1');
       else
-        output = output.replace(/^([\s\t]*)([\*\-\+]|\d+\.)\s+/gm, '$1');
+        output = output.replace(/^([\s\t]*)([*\-+]|\d+\.)\s+/gm, '$1');
     }
     if (options.gfm) {
       output = output
@@ -58,14 +58,14 @@ module.exports = function(md, options) {
       // Remove HTML tags
       .replace(htmlReplaceRegex, '')
       // Remove setext-style headers
-      .replace(/^[=\-]{2,}\s*$/g, '')
+      .replace(/^[=-]{2,}\s*$/g, '')
       // Remove footnotes?
-      .replace(/\[\^.+?\](\: .*?$)?/g, '')
+      .replace(/\[\^.+?\](: .*?$)?/g, '')
       .replace(/\s{0,2}\[.*?\]: .*?$/g, '')
       // Remove images
-      .replace(/\!\[(.*?)\][\[\(].*?[\]\)]/g, options.useImgAltText ? '$1' : '')
+      .replace(/!\[(.*?)\][[(].*?[\])]/g, options.useImgAltText ? '$1' : '')
       // Remove inline links
-      .replace(/\[([^\]]*?)\][\[\(].*?[\]\)]/g, options.replaceLinksWithURL ? '$2' : '$1')
+      .replace(/\[([^\]]*?)\][[(].*?[\])]/g, options.replaceLinksWithURL ? '$2' : '$1')
       // Remove blockquotes
       .replace(/^(\n)?\s{0,3}>\s?/gm, '$1')
       // .replace(/(^|\n)\s{0,3}>\s?/g, '\n\n')
@@ -74,9 +74,11 @@ module.exports = function(md, options) {
       // Remove atx-style headers
       .replace(/^(\n)?\s{0,}#{1,6}\s*( (.+))? +#+$|^(\n)?\s{0,}#{1,6}\s*( (.+))?$/gm, '$1$3$4$6')
       // Remove * emphasis
-      .replace(/([\*]+)(\S)(.*?\S)??\1/g, '$2$3')
-      // Remove _ emphasis
-      .replace(/(_+)(.*?\S)(_+)/g, '$1$3$4$5')
+      .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 code blocks
       .replace(/(`{3,})(.*?)\1/gm, '$2')
       // Remove inline code