Posts Tagged ‘Natural Response’
Hyperhidrosis
More and more people today try to follow an active lifestyle. Due to this, they are much more likely to be exposed to different people and activities than ever before. As our days get busier, we become less aware of our bodily functions, which also undergo increased activity as we encounter both physical and emotional stress on a regular basis. For most people, such stress causes the body to sweat.
Sweating is the body’s natural response to an intense situation. The nervous system immediately senses any stressors in the body’s immediate environment and signals the sweat glands to produce sweat. This helps the body, which naturally heats up during stressful moments, regulate its own temperature. This is most obvious when we are subjected to climates warmer than our own, when exercising, or when we feel nervous, angry, embarrassed, or afraid.
While sweating is perfectly normal, excessive sweating may be a sign of an underlying medical condition. Excessive sweating is normally defined as the state when the body produces more sweat than is needed to regulate the body temperature. Excessive sweating is also known by its medical term, hyperhidrosis.
Hyperhidrosis is a medical disorder characterized by excessive sweating at any part of the body. It is a medical condition that causes the sufferer to experience unpredictable and excessive sweating, even at cool and comfortable temperatures, or when they are at rest. Cases of hyperhidrosis usually affect specific parts of the body, such as hands, armpits and feet. Excessive sweating in the hands is called palmar hyperhidrosis; in the armpits, it’s called axillary hyperhidrosis; and in the feet, it’s called plantar hyperhidrosis. The sympathetic nervous system controls much of the sweating process, and any problem affecting it may affect the body’s perspiration system.
Hyperhidrosis can be primary or secondary. Primary hypehidrosis usually starts during or even before the individual’s adolescent stage. In primary hyperhidrosis, the affected part of the body may be the hands, feet, or armpits. Primary hyperhidrosis is also known as focal hyperhidrosis and can run in families. Often, sufferers ignore the symptoms of primary hyperhidrosis – according to studies, primary hyperhidrosis affects 2-3% of the population, and not even 40% of these sufferers seek medical advice regarding this disorder.
Secondary hyperhidrosis, on the other hand, may come unexpectedly. It can affect anybody at any age. This type of hyperhidrosis is the result of an underlying condition, such as a disorder of the thyroid or pituitary gland, diabetes mellitus, tumors, gout, menopause, certain drugs, or mercury poisoning. The symptoms of secondary hyperhidrosis may be more serious than primary hyperhidrosis.
Regardless of the type and reason for onset, hyperhidrosis poses a serious physical and psychological problem for the sufferer. The discomfort and embarrassment the condition brings may affect the individual emotionally, and may cause him/her to delay or even forego treatment. It’s important to set aside fears and see a dermatologist immediately once your levels of perspiration causes you to worry. Identified early, hyperhidrosis may necessitate only mild forms of treatment and be prevented from escalating any further.
Excessive Underarm Sweating
Excessive underarm sweating, or known in medical literature as primary axillary hyperhidrosis is one of the most common types of hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating).
Sweating is a natural response of the body to regulate its internal temperature. Sweating happens when the body is exposed to a warm environment, when one is engaged in physical activity, and when anxious or stressed. But excessive sweating for no apparent reason can be embarrassing. In the case of axillary hyperhidrosis, underarm sweat leaves a visible stain on clothes, and often, the underarms are damp and sticky.
There are two types of glands found in the armpit area – the apocrine and eccrine glands. Of the two, the eccrine glands are the ones mostly responsible for producing underarm sweat. Numerous eccrine glands are also found in the entire body, which likewise cause perspiration when the glands are stimulated. Whenever the eccrine glands are stimulated to produce sweat, body cells secrete a fluid that travels the coiled portion of the gland up through the straight duct before it breaks out onto the skin surface.
If you suffer from excessive underarm sweating, a dermatologist can best diagnose the severity of your condition. Be ready to discuss with your dermatologist your medical background, your family’s medical history, and when you first experienced severe underarm sweating. Don’t hesitate to tell your dermatologist how your condition affects you. The extent to which severe hyperhidrosis is affecting your normal day-to-day activities can be measured through a self-assessment questionnaire called Hyperhidrosis Disease Severity Scale (HDSS). Your honest self-assessment report should help your doctor determine the best options available for you.
In most cases, excessive underarm sweating can be effectively managed by using topical agents such as deodorants and antiperspirants. Deodorants act to control bad odor, while antiperspirants slow down the production of sweat by the glands in the armpit area.
The most common active ingredient in anti-perspirants (and deodorants) is aluminum chloride. According to Dr. Eric Hanson of the University of North Carolina’s Department of Dermatology, the aluminum ions (from antiperspirants) are absorbed by the cell linings of the eccrine gland ducts found at the opening of the top skin layer (epidermis). These ions are drawn into the cell along with water until it swells, squeezing the ducts closed such that sweat can’t pass out. A cell can only absorb so much fluid, or until it reaches its equilibrium. At this time, the water will have to revert back out of the cell through a process called osmosis, and swelling will subside. When this happens, anti-perspirants may be re-applied.
As a point of reference, over-the-counter antiperspirants usually have 10 to 25% concentration of the active ingredient (aluminum chloride). While the FDA requires no more than 15 to 25% of the active ingredient in antiperspirants, it should decrease sweating by at least 20%. Obviously, no prescription topical agents or antiperspirants are available in the market that has a higher percentage of concentration of the active ingredient than that allowed by the FDA. It is still best to discuss other alternative treatments available with your doctor if over-the-counter antiperspirants prove ineffective for you.
Some people who excessively sweat may need higher concentrations of aluminum chloride to prolong the swelling of the cells and eventually shrink the sweat glands so that they don’t produce sweat than is really necessary.


