Excessive Sweating Treatment

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.”

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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