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:

hyperthyroidism
infection
low blood sugar
diabetes
gout
drugs and medication
alcoholism
obesity
pregnancy
menopause
heart failure
diabetes
Parkinson’s disease
rheumatoid arthritis
chronic arsenic intoxification
withdrawl from a chemical substance

There are myriad conditions and medications that can cause secondary hyperhidrosis, so it is important to discuss your health history with a doctor if you are suffering from secondary hyperhidrosis.

Different Treatments for Primary and Secondary Hyperhidrosis

Sufferers of primary hyperhidrosis may have lived with it a long time, or excessive sweating may start suddenly, with no clear catalyst. People with primary hyperhidrosis generally find no relief for their heavy sweating from over the counter or popular antiperspirants. They have to find antiperspirants that are made for excessive sweating or primary hyperhidrosis. Furthermore, the type of sweating a person suffering from hyperhidrosis experiences is not just a small nuisance, but an intolerable amount of sweat! However, specialty and prescription antiperspirants can be effective and many people with hyperhidrosis find varying levels of relief with these products.

The symptoms of secondary hyperhidrosis can be treated similarly in the short term, but further investigation with a doctor is needed to determine how to correct the underlying problem.

There IS hope for people suffering from hyperhidrosis, both secondary and primary and one needs to gather as much information from trusted sources as possible to attack the sweating problem.

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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.

The above are small factors that usually don’t create a great difference in the amount of sweating. However, when it comes to little activities that don’t quite count as exercise, the obese tend to sweat much more than is needed. Small amounts of activity, such as walking or moving one’s arm repeatedly can generate more matabolic heat that turns into excessive sweat. The same can be said with anger, stress, nervousness and frustration which for the obese, can lead to quick bout of sweating.

Sweating, Your Emotions and Clothing

The sweatiest person on the subway platform is probably the one who just ran for a train and missed it, Dr. Crandall said.

In the above example, that person woud be stressed, hot from running and frustrated, therefore the combination of the emotional and the physical are most often the things that lead to excessive sweating bouts.

When it comes to clothing and sweating, less, more revealing clothing is not always the better choice.

In studies during World War II, researchers sat volunteers on wooden boxes in the California desert, some wearing standard olive drab military fatigues, some in light tan summer uniforms, and some “near naked.” The unclothed “soldiers” sweated about 30 percent more than the others — an indication of how much heat their unprotected skin was absorbing from the environment.

Also, dark clothing or a layored look can hide a bout of excessive sweating and may also keep you cooler. So wearing that skimpy outfit in the city won’t help your sweating, it might make you sweat even more and well, make you less safe. Vigorous fanning, pacing and/or stressing about things you
can’t control won’t help your sweating situation either.

Global Warming and Sweating

So the world’s getting hotter and well, what’s going to happen with our specie’s sweating? Well the New York Time’s experts say that our bodies will simply go into high gear to adapt and that, bacically we’ll become more efficient at distributing heat within ourselves.

The process is called heat acclimation and is routinely seen in athletes training in hot weather. At first their internal temperatures climb, they sweat profusely, lose large quantities of salt in their sweat and feel miserable. But as the days pass they sweat even more, their salt loss diminishes, both skin and internal temperatures drop, and their endurance improves.

At least in part, heat acclimation reflects bigger, juicier sweat glands: in monkeys exposed to continuous heat and humidity, individual sweat glands more than doubled in volume after only two months.

Remember that army experiment in the desert? Well the subjects in that California desert took only about a week to develop higher sweat rates, low pulse rates and low rectal temperatures. The subjects also reportedly could work more comfortably and with a better sense of “well-being” after a week in the desert excessively sweating. The subjects became “desertworthy” in the words of the scientists who ran the experiments.

Dr. Crandall points out that global warming is most likely to be a less of a change and less thermally dramatic for the individual person than say a person moving from “Canada to Florida.” Said persons who would perform such a move will eventually and most likely quickly develop larger, more efficient sweat glands and of course, slightly moister skin.

Sweating, the Future and Technology

The world will indeed become a sweatier place if nothing is done about global warming and nerds, scientists and engineers are getting prepared. A few years ago, a team of the previous, nerds, scientists and engineers at the United States Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado finished work on a dummy or mannequin, if you will, christend “Adam,” that actually perspires like a human and of course, can complain like one as well.

Adam’s slim carbon frame is covered with 120 separate temperature-sensing and sweating zones; water seeps from an interior two-quart reservoir out through his porous skin. He is wirelessly connected to a computer whose software forms his hypothalamus. Other software based on human reactions to a range of temperatures provides estimates of his comfort in various situations.

Adam was devised to help reduce automobile fuel consumption by evaluating ways to limit air-conditioner use. Fully dressed in a car parked in the hot sun, he gets as wet on his back and rear end as any human driver, and just as irritable. Programmers can also rev up his metabolic rate to provide a good, sweaty simulation of road rage, said one of his creators, John Rugh, a senior mechanical engineer.

This expensive dummy as helped decide what clothes to put on astronauts underneath their spacesuits and devices. Adam has also helped improve the conditions of soldiers who are injured in hot or warm environments. Ironically enough, this dummy that complains, is, well, currently unemployed and “looking for other work mimicking the human experience in temperature extremes,” Mr. Rugh said.

All and all, a well written and entertaining article on sweating…

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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.”

Fur inhibits sweat-induced cooling, and furry animals generally have other ways to lose heat. In humans, Dr. Jablonski argues, sweat glands evolved as body hair vanished, allowing optimal cooling of the enlarging hominid brain and an active lifestyle even in the blazing sun.

So some time after we humans oozed out of the primordial pool and started to crawl, we developed sweating after we lost our fur. Of course, unless you believe that the earth is only some 16,000 years old and we we’re all made from mud and magic, then our sweating was just designed into existence to serve us and of course, sometimes annoy us, like the new testament versus the old, rathful testament.

Humdity and Sweating

Ever notice that even though it’s not that hot but a little bit humid, but yet, you sweat a lot? If you suffer from hyperhidrosis this situation could even be worse as the humidity wil either trigger an excessive sweating bout or worsen a sweating instance.

Humidity reduces evaporation and makes everyone sweatier. A breeze enhances evaporation and makes skin cooler (unless the air is so hot the body absorbs its heat instead). Dehydration markedly reduces sweat production. So does sunburn.

Sweating Glands and Sweating

This is the interesting part that we’ve never heard of…

But individual sweat patterns still vary enormously. Age, sex, genes, weight and shape play a role, said Craig Crandall, a thermoregulation expert at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Presbyterian Hospital, both in Dallas. So does nonexercise activity, and so, according to a pivotal set of sweat studies done during World War II, does clothing, although not in the way one might predict.

Some people have fewer than two million sweat glands; some have as many as four million. Heavy sweaters may have glands five times average size; their big glands are more sensitive to nerve stimuli and make more sweat.

We never heard the that heavy sweaters have larger sweat glands and possibly more sweat glands in general. So does that mean the size and the amount of sweat glands could possibly be linked to hyperhidrosis? And if it somehow is, then why hasn’t anyone heard of this fact? You’d think it’d be in Wikipedia or something. Is there any research on this? We’ve never heard of gland qualities and amounts being linked to hyperhidrosis. Inquiring excessive sweaters want to know!

We’ll continue with our analysis of the New York Times sweating article with the next post…

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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.

Possible Diseases or Conditions That Maybe Causing Excessive Sweating with Your Child

Excessive Sweating and Diabetes

Excessive sweatng is one of the many symptoms of diabetes in children. For parents, common symptoms of diabetes in young children besides too much perspiration, include drinking a lot, urinating a lot, and losing weight. If your child is not doing any of those things, then his or her sweating is probably not from suffering from diabetes.

Excessive Sweating and Congestive Heart Failure

Sweating while feeding can be a symptom of congestive heart failure and should be dealt with as quickly as possible as it is a serious condition. These infants may get tired while feeding, and have a fast respiratory rate, a frequent cough, and a generally poor weight gain. If your baby had a heart problem, you would expect other symptoms besides excessive sweating.

Excessive Sweating and Hyperthyroidism

The condition of having an overactive thyroid, or hyperthyroidism, can also lead to excessive sweating. Excessive sweating with hyperthyroidism makes sense considering the other symptoms: Major clinical weight loss (often accompanied by a ravenous appetite), intolerance to heat, fatigue, weakness, hyperactivity, irritability, apathy, depression, polyuria, and once again, excessive sweating. Additionally, young patients may present with a variety of symptoms such as palpitations and arrhythmias (notably atrial fibrillation), shortness of breath (dyspnea), loss of libido, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. However for elderly, these classical symptoms may not be present and they may be present only with fatigue and weight loss leading to apathetic hyperthyroidism.

Excesssive Sweating, Children and Kids Conclusion and Pointers

Even if kids seem to be having no other symptoms for the particular disease you’re studying, a visit to your pediatrician or doctor for a physical exam and a general review of your child’s health is always very wise, sound and safe idea.

Overbundling or putting to many clothes on your child and keeping the house too warm can also lead excessive sweating in children.

If you have positively ruled out other medical conditions then parents should seek holistic, natural or less intrusive approaches (antiperspirants)to treating excessive sweating. Of course any long-term condition, such as less severe hyperhidrosis, that cannot or should not be remedied by medical or surgical procedures should be a candidate for more holistic or natural treatments. Consult the experts, your doctors, health professionals and online resources before adopting any remedy of course.

A sample holistic treatment includes taking 2 teaspoons of vinegar and 2 teaspoons of honey first thing in the morning.

Sage can also used for excessive sweating and hyperhidrosis. Usually sage products are ingested orally. Sage, as herbal product, should not be used for a long period of time. A treatment period of no longer than 2 to 4 weeks is recommended for the use of sage for sweating. If the perspiration persists or worsens, then consult your health professional.

A little extra excessive sweating entertainment about Tom Cruise…

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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.

The timeline of these unfortunate events related to the excessive sweating treatment is that these side effects usually occur within the first week of the injection of the hyperhidrois treatment. Some of these side affects may be transient, however they may last a grueling two to three whole months. It is also often times the case that axillary hyperhidrosis patients tell of stories of severe pain around the armpit and chest region, near where the hyperhidrosis treatment had been injected. Furthermore, this localized region around the sweating treatment area may experience tenderness and/or bruising. With the previous in mind, it is to be expected that the muscle tissue feels weak in the localized area of the Botox injection, but more often than not, the adjacent muscles become weak as well, possibly due to the spread of the toxin for the patients sweating condition.
adjacent muscles may also occur due to spread of toxin.

Hard Statistics for Use of Botox for Primary Axillary Hyperhidrosis:

The most frequently cited adverse situations (3 – 10% of patients) following injection of BOTOX® in double-blind studies included extreme injection site pain and hemorrhage, non-axillary sweating (the spread of the sweating problem to other areas), infection, pharyngitis, flu syndrome, headache, fever, neck or back pain, pruritus, and a severe increase in anxiety.

The data reflect 346 patients exposed to BOTOX® 50 Units and 110 patients exposed to BOTOX® 75 Units in each axilla.

Due to the fact that clinical experiments are operated with widely varying or different conditions, undesirable events observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not be predictive of rates in the field or upon release into the world.

Botox for Hyperhidrosis Interactions with Other Drugs:

Co-administration of BOTOX® and aminoglycosides or other active substances interfering with neuromuscular transmission (e.g., curare-like compounds) should only be carried out with extreme prejudice as the effects of the toxin may be increased and/or brought to the toxins extreme potential.

The effect of administering different botulinum neurotoxin serotypes at the same time or within several months of each other is yet unknown and should be taken note of. Extreme neuromuscular weakness may be increased by the occurrence of another botulinum toxin prior to the resolution of the effects of a previously administered botulinum toxin for axillary hyperhidrosis. Meaning that once botox is administered for the stopage of armpit excessive sweating, the patient should take extreme precautions as to the exact timeframe at which he or she may administer the procedure for their excessive sweating again.

In conclusion, while it is stated often that Botox for excessive sweating is for excessive situations with hyperhidrosis, there have been case where the patient has simply used Botox for more vain, cosmetic and less severe reasons. The situation with past and future misuse of the treatment for axillary hyperhidrosis is the scary drawback of Botox as an option for extreme cases of excessive sweating. Simply stated, less severe cases of excessive sweating may be treated with this very harsh and expensive treatment for axillary hyperhidrosis.

REFERENCES

Information gained by Allergan, Inc. 1999.

Allergan, Inc. Arandomized, multicenter, double-blind, parallel clinical trial to study the safety and efficacy of BOTOX® (botulinum toxin type A) purified neurotoxin complex manufactured from neurotoxin complex batch BCB2024 to that was created from neurotoxin complex batch 79-11 in blepharospasm subjects. 1997.

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