Excessive Sweating Treatment Blog

Hyperhidrosis, the medical term for excessive sweating, can be caused by other medical conditions or can itself be the condition. These two different types of hyperhidrosis are called primary hyperhidrosis and secondary hyperhidrosis.

Primary hyperhidrosis is the medical condition of excessive sweating while secondary hyperhidrosis is excessive sweating that is caused by a different medical condition or
medication (external forces that cause the excessive sweating).

Two Types of Hyperhidrosis, Two Different Sets of Symptoms

Generally, someone suffering from primary hyperhidrosis will experience very localized sweating, such as heavy armpit sweat, sweaty palms, sweaty feet, or sweating on other specific, sometimes seemingly random, parts of the body. Everybody knows that everybody sweats and that it is the body’s way of cooling down, but sufferers of primary hyperhidrosis sweat even in the absence of heat or physical activity. If you experience constant sweating in the face, thighs, armpits, palms, or feet, you may be suffering from primary hyperhidrosis.

People suffering from secondary hyperhidrosis usually experience a less localized, whole-body type of sweating that may occur only at night - a symptom less common with primary hyperhidrosis. The following conditions may contribute to secondary hyperhidrosis:

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After a long recess, which we apologize for, we’re continuing our New York Times sweaty article analysis.

The article continues with average temperatures in people as it relates to sweating and the times of day. Body temperatures and menopause in women are both discussed in the begining of the second half of the article. Everyone’s inside body temperature hovers around 98.6 degrees fahrenheit with slight differences usually due to one’s genetics. The body’s temperature is set by one’s hypthalamus, which is the area in the brain that serves as one’s thermostat. People generally run a little “cooler in the morning, a little warmer in the late afternoon.”

Women run about half a degree higher after ovulation. With menopause the female thermostat becomes notoriously trigger-happy, imagining excess heat where none exists and generating unnecessary sweat.

Here the New York Times brings up the faulty inner thermostat in women at the onset of menopause that causes hyperhidrosis. Excessive sweating often does occur for women after menopause and is quite common and can add more discomfort for women in a very difficult time. But men may not have it easy as they go through the reverse of sweating symptoms.

Men may be more thermally stable, but not for long: beginning about age 60 both sexes sweat less, even if they are in good physical condition, and even if they become seriously overheated. Thus the statistics that during heat waves the elderly are at highest risk of heat stroke.

Excessive sweating is the norm with extreme heat and humid conditions and if it does not occur, it can be deadly for those with a broken and worn down inner thermostat.

Obesity and Sweating

Perspiration and weight issues are a complicated mixture according to the article’s expert, Dr. Crandall. The excess weight may of course prevent the inner organs from feeling the very hot temperatures on the skin but the reverse is also true, the sheer bulk of tissue can prevent the heat from escaping from the inner organs, causing all sorts of problems for the overweight individual.

Carrying more weight generates more metabolic heat to get rid of. That means more sweat, but research suggests that large people cannot grow more sweat glands to cope with the extra heat load. Radiation of heat from skin to air may become especially important in their heat control.

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We read an interesting and well researched article on sweating in the New York Times and would just like to share some of the articles more interesting sweating points.

Sweat is our interior coolant, part of a uniquely human biologic machine. The machine drips and occasionally stalls: long waits on torpid platforms can inspire glum reflections on how it will hold up as the planet heats up. But experts counsel optimism: the system is sturdy, adjustable and even reproducible by engineers working to make our future sweaty selves more comfortable.

Indeed, for those of us who have hyperhidrosis, this interior coolant seems to come from a giant, unlimited tempermental sweat reservoir inside. Excessive sweating sufferers tolerance for heat isn’t the issue, as hyperhidrosis causes the body to sweat in all circumstances accross all types of people. Overheating is only one cause among many for excessive sweating…

But we have little tolerance for even brief overheating: the brain malfunctions with six or seven degrees of fever, and an internal temperature of 110, barely a dozen degrees above normal, is often cited as the upper limit compatible with life. So a good internal air-conditioner is essential, both to dissipate the heat generated by the body’s metabolism and to relieve the heat absorbed from miserable summer weather.

The trigger for hyperhidrosis sufferers is broken and the safety lock, is unfortunately turned off. So the excessive sweating is unpredictable, however, often times it occurs during stress. The New York Times article goes further into the history of sweating and is a rather interesting read.

“It is plain old unglamorous sweat that has made humans what they are today,” writes the evolutionary anthropologist Nina G. Jablonski in her recent book “Skin.” “Without plentiful sweat glands keeping us cool with copious sweat, we would still be clad in the thick hair of our ancestors, living largely apelike lives.”

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Growing up is tough enough on its own, having excessive sweating while young is just added misery to an increasingly difficult situation. The onset of hyperhidrosis usually occurs in the very early teens, often times puberty and excessive sweating go hand and in sweaty hand, pun intended.

Hyperhidrosis in young kids is usually due to circumstances besides hyperhidrosis in of itself. Kids usually sweat a lot on their own, therefore excessive sweating shouldn’t ever lead to panic. Often times, safe holistic treatments can be used to decrease discomfort and the excessive perspiration. In the case where you instinctively feel that something is wrong, where your gut makes you feel that there is a real problem, take heed and consult some experts. In this particular case, put holistic solutions for sweating on hold, and then explore every possible medical condition where excessive sweating could be a symptom.

First off, there are a few medical reasons that infants and young kids may have excessive perspiration. Rushing to a diagnosis to any of the possible conditions is never a good idea, but if excessive sweating persists, then by all means, check for more symptoms of disease or condition that you think applies to the sweating.

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Botox for hyperhidrosis can only truly be regarded as the last line of defense in sweating stopage. It’s sort of like fixing a damn that’s been built with toothpicks by freezing the river behind the damn. You might stop the flood, however, everything dies in the river, and six months later, your excessive sweating comes back like a lawyer you just hit with your car. Botox for axillary hyperhidrosis is expensive, nonpermanent and lastly, loaded with risks and side effects. Remember, Botox after all is a toxin, botulinum toxin to be specific.

To start out grimly, Botox treatments for hyperhidrosis there have been semi-rare spontaneous fatalities. Sometimes these deaths are associated with dysphagia, pneumonia, and/or other significant debility or anaphylaxis, after the hyperhidrosis procedures with botulinum toxin, or Botox for hyperhidrosis, as it is commonly known.

There also have been quite a number of incidents where adverse events involving the cardiovascular system, which consists of arrhythmia and myocardial infarction, caused fatal outcomes for the hyperhidrosis patients. However, it is to be noted that some of these excessive sweating patients had risk factors such as cardiovascular disease. What is really disturbing is that to this day, the exact relationship of these events to the hyperhidrosis treatment of botulinum toxin injection has not yet been fleshed out, so to speak. They simply cannot figure out how these fatalities happend or where the hyperhidrosis procedure went wrong.

These situations have been reported since the hyperhidrosis remedy has been advertised, however a direct causal relationship to the botulinum toxin injected for axillary hyperhidrosis is yet to be discovered: skin rashes (including erythema multiforme, urticaria and psoriasiform eruption), pruritus or sever itching of often times undamaged skin, and many allergic reactions. Did we mention that Botox is a toxin? However, hyperhidrosis for some individuals is so severe that they’ll risk all fo the above and below to be averted of there extreme sweating problems. (more…)

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