Excessive Sweating
Many people experience an abnormal escalation in perspiration in many parts of the body essential for the regulation of internal body temperature. Such a situation is generally known as excessive sweating. The amount that a person is sweating depends upon the number of sweat glands present on an individual’s body. Sweat glands release a salty liquid called as sweat. The more the sweat glands, more the person is likely to sweat. Number of sweat glands in females is higher than in males but sweat glands of males are much more active. Around puberty, glands become fully active. Since it is a natural way to regulate temperature of the body, people tend to sweat more when it is hot outside. They may also sweat more when exercising or when experiencing nervousness, fear, anger or embarrassment.
Those suffering from excessive sweating generally have overactive sweat glands. This leads to significant discomfort, emotional and physical. Excessive sweating may affect certain body parts like armpits, hand, feet. For some people there may not be any detectable cause for continuous sweating. It may be due to over activity of nerves that send signals to the sweat glands to produce more and more sweat. Some people may have sweating problem of medical conditions like gout, over activity of thyroid gland, rheumatoid arthritis, parasites, lymphoma, tuberculosis, hypoglycemia, liver disease, damage to the nerves because of diabetes or spinal cord injuries, vitiligo or psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, panicky attacks, tension and stress. People suffering from this problem might also have reddening of skin, rashes etc. medications often used for prostate cancer, AIDS, etc also causes excessive sweating.
Sweating of the hands known as palmar hyperhydrosis is quite normal and tends to ease up once the tensed or high-anxiety moment gets over. To decrease sweating, one is required to cut down the release of sweat from the sweat glands for which antiperspirants can be used. Antiperspirants when applied on the skin cause the sweat to thicken up, thereby plugging and clogging up the ducts of sweat glands which help to reduce sweating and body odor. Antiperspirants are often used under the arms and consist of aluminum metal salts like aluminium chloride. These have to be frequently reapplied otherwise it might lead to opening of ducts again and allowing sweating to occur. The other ways to overcome sweating is liposuction which includes removal of apocrine sweat glands. Iontophoresis is another way in which electric currents are passed through the skin which leads to disruption of the sweat glands and prevents their working for quite a long time. The electric current sends shocks to the glands and it stops them to produce sweat until they recover completely. By using this treatment dryness is achieved which lasts for several weeks. Medication may also be taken that works to disrupt or block the working of neurotransmitter, acetylcholine that is released from stimulating sweat glands. Some more medications that can be used are antihistamines, tranquilizers and antihistamines. A small amount of botulinum toxin injected into small areas of the skin also helps to get rid of this problem.
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