Sweating

Hyperhidrosis is excesive sweating far beyond what the body needs to do normally to control our body temperature.

Everyone sweats to some extent. This is an important process to help the body to control its temperature and hydrate the skin. It is usually tightly controlled so that just enough moisture is released which will then evaporate from the surface of the skin. This action helps to keep us cool. We sweat more when exercising and this can result in our bodies becoming damp because the moisture cannot evaporate fast enough.

Excessive sweating results in moisture laying on the surface of the skin instead of evaporating like it normally would. For people with hyperhidrosis this causes them problems with needing to wash more frequently and change wet clothes, sometimes several times a day. It can occur on any part of your body but most often is found under your arms, on the palms of hands, soles of feet, forehead and upper lip and trunk of the body.

For most people the usual causes of sweating might be exercise, some foods, especially spicy foods, types of clothing and possibly stress.  For those suffering from hyperhidrosis there may be no apparent trigger to their incressed sweating.  Indeed, someone with hyperhidrosis is just as likely to sweat too much when it is cold as when it is hot and stress is not normally a trigger.

What treatments are available?