Hyperhydrosis the Excessive Sweating Disorder

Hyperhydrosis is excessive sweating. Persons affected by hyperhydrosis will sweat even in cool air.

As I discussed before, when you sweat it keeps the body cool. It is a protective factor in the warm sunlight. Sweating is also normal when you are exercising fast and getting your heartbeat right up there as you are doing it. And not to mention, sweatiness occurs when you are feeling really anxious, angry, or scared. This is all normal.

But when sweating occurs without a certain trigger that instigates it, the sweat glands of the body are abnormal, and working overtime.

Let us take a look at the two types of hyperhydrosis.

1. Primary hyperhydrosis is the excessive sweatiness that appears under the arms, the feet and and palms of the hands.

2. Secondary hyperhydrosis occurs all over the body, or is maybe just in one place.

Sometimes other conditions in the body will cause these sweating problems. A few of them are:

1. Acromegaly which is a pituitary gland disorder in the brain.

2. Some cancers depending upon what type the cancer is.

3. Medications will do this sometimes as a side effect.

4. Some heart diseases will cause excessive sweating since this is central to the nerve system regulations.

5. Hyperthyroidism may cause hyperhydrosis. I've never read about hypothyroidism being a cause.

6. Lung problems and diseases

7. The female mensopausal period will bring this on.

8. Certain injuries to the spinal cord

9. It is possible that having a stroke could cause sweatiness since it affects nerves in many ways.

10.The shaking disorder known as Parkinson's Disease greatly affects nerves and can bring on sweating.

The symptoms are sweating all the time no matter what.

The doctor's will evaluate your problem by doing a couple things. There is a test using an iodine solution. He or she will apply this solution to the sweaty area. Once the area dries, he will need to apply starch. The combination of the iodine and starch together will become a dark blue with a lot of sweat.
There is a second test called the paper test. The doctor or nurse will put some specially treated paper in your sweaty area. The nurse will then see what the weight of the paper is. The heavier, the more you sweat.

Doctors will ask other details about your sweating problem such as when it happens, were you upset when it happened, etc., as well as other troublesome body signs such as running a fever, or losing weight for no reasons.

Treatments for this problem include several options depending on how severely you have the disorder and where mostly. Doctors can:

Suggest a good deodorant which has more aluminum chlorida hexahydrate that absorbs perspiration better. This will help cure the excessive sweating under the arm area.

There is a procedure which has been FDA approved and called Iontophoresis. This procedure takes both your hands and your feet placing them under the water. A little jolt of electricity is passed through. The jolt will keep on increasing until you can feel a tingle. It takes about 30 minutes until treatment finishes. This is also done over several sessions in order to solve the sweating problem.

Medications known as anticholinergics are many times very helpful to persons with sweat gland problems. These drugs send messages to sweat glands to not over-stimulate.

Some people have botox treatments for this problem when the underarm areas cannot be controlled with the stronger deodorant. The injections of botox injected under the arm will block those nerves which cause you to sweat profusely.

If all else fails, and the sweatiness is still profuse, there is a procedure known as endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy. It is a surgical procedure so most doctors will do other things first before presenting the affected person with this option.