Health Corner – Excessive Sweating (Hyperhidrosis)

What is Excessive Sweating (Hyperhidrosis)

Remit2Home Blog – Health Corner – Hyperhidrosis

Hyperhidrosis is a medical condition in which a person sweats excessively and unpredictably. People with hyperhidrosis may sweat even when the temperature is cool or when they are at rest. It is a common disorder that produces a lot of unhappiness. Many people suffering from this condition are unaware of its symptoms and therefore think they have a severe sweat problem rather than a specific malady.
Untreated, these problems may continue throughout life. Sweating is embarrassing, it stains clothes, and it complicates business and social interactions. Severe cases can have serious practical consequences as well, making it hard for people who suffer from it to hold a pen, grip a steering wheel, or shake hands. It is associated with a significant quality of life burden from a psychological, emotional, and social perspective. As such, it has been referred to as the ‘silent handicap’. At least 3% of the global population suffers from excessive sweating and it affects both sexes equally, and all races.

Remit2Home Blog – Health Corner – Hyperhidrosis

Causes

Persons with hyperhidrosis appear to have overactive sweat glands. When excessive sweating affects the hands, feet, and armpits, it is called primary or focal hyperhidrosis. Although neurologic, metabolic, and other systemic diseases can sometimes cause excessive sweating, most cases occur in people who are otherwise healthy. Heat and emotions may trigger hyperhidrosis in some, but many who suffer from hyperhidrosis sweat nearly all the time, regardless of their mood or the weather.

Types of Hyperhidrosis

Primary focal – When your excessive sweating is not caused by any other medical condition or is not a side effect of any drugs that you may be under you are suffering from primary hyperhidrosis.

Secondary – This type of excessive sweating (also called generalized hyperhidrosis) is caused by a usually unrelated medical condition or is a side effect of a particular drug.

Treatments

1. Over-the-counter antiperspirants – Home remedies like these are usually tried first because they are readily available
2. Prescription-strength antiperspirants – those containing aluminum chloride hexahydrate
3. Iontophoresis – a device which passes direct electricity through the skin using tap water
4. Microwave destruction – a device destroys the sweat glands purportedly causing minimal damage to other tissues
5. Oral medications – from the group of medications known as anticholinergics, which reduce sweating
6. Botox (botulinum toxin) – approved in the US by the FDA for treating excessive axillary (underarm) sweating
7. Surgery – cervical sympathectomy, or interruption of certain nerve pathways, as a last resort

Data Source – Read more about this here:

http://www.medicinenet.com/hyperhidrosis/article.htm
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007259.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperhidrosis

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