overview
Hyperhidrosis (Hi-Pur-Hi-DROE-Sis) is an unusually excessive sweating that is not necessarily related to heat or exercise. You can sweat so much that it gets through your clothes or drips off your hands. Along with disrupting normal daily activities, this type of profuse sweating can cause social anxiety and embarrassment.
Treatment for hyperhidrosis usually helps, starting with prescribed antiperspirants. If antiperspirants aren’t helping you, you may need to try different drugs and therapies. In severe cases, your doctor may suggest surgery to remove the sweat glands or to separate the nerves that are responsible for overproducing sweat.
Sometimes an underlying cause can be found and treated.
symptom
Most people sweat when exercising or exercising in a hot, anxious, or stressed environment. The excessive sweating in hyperhidrosis far exceeds this normal sweating.
The type of hyperhidrosis, which typically affects the hands, feet, armpits, or face, causes at least one episode a week during waking hours. And sweating usually occurs on both sides of the body.
The reasons
Sweat glands
Sweat glands Open the popup dialog
Sweating is your body’s mechanism to cool itself off. Your nervous system automatically triggers your sweat glands when your body temperature rises. Sweating also occurs normally, especially on your palms when you’re nervous.
The most common form of hyperhidrosis is called primary (essential) focal hyperhidrosis. In this type, the nerves responsible for signaling your sweat glands become overactive, even if they weren’t triggered by physical activity or a rise in temperature. With stress or nervousness, the problem gets worse. This type usually affects your palms and soles, and sometimes your face.
There is no medical cause for this type of hyperhidrosis. It can have a hereditary component as it sometimes runs in families.
Secondary hyperhidrosis occurs when excessive sweating is due to an illness. It’s the less common type. Your whole body is more likely to sweat. Conditions that can cause profuse sweating include:
diabetes
Menopause hot flashes
Thyroid problems
Hypoglycemia
Certain types of cancer
Heart attack
Nervous system disorders
Infections