If you’ve noticed that you constantly suffer from sweaty palms and feet — even when you aren’t nervous, anxious or hot — you might suffer from hyperhidrosis, which is an idiopathic disease that involves the sweat glands. There are several different types of hyperhidrosis, ranging from palmar (palms) to plantar (feet) to truncal (the trunk) and facial (the face). The palmar and plantar versions of hyperhidrosis are the most common.
Hyperhidrosis is not only a medical condition, but can also have secondary effects, including embarrassment. Since most people who have hyperhidrosis develop during their childhood or adolescence, they might be nervous or anxious in social situations in which contact is common. Sufferers of hyperhidrosis might avoid shaking the hands of others or coming into skin-to-skin contact. It can also be dangerous if you have plantar hyperhidrosis because if you walk around without shoes or socks, you run the risk of slipping on tile or hardwood floors.
There isn’t a common denominator among people with hyperhidrosis — unless it is a secondary condition — so anyone, anywhere can suffer from this disease. It isn’t caused by an inorganic stimuli, which means that the patient didn’t do anything to “bring it on”, and most people don’t even realize that they have a disease; they just think that they have sweaty palms and feet.
One of the problems with treating hyperhidrosis is that most of the drugs available on the market cause far too many side effects to warrant their use. Plus, they don’t always work sufficiently to make the patient want to continue taking the drug. For example, if you suffer from sweaty palms and feet, you aren’t going to want to trade those symptoms for chronic diarrhea and stomach ulcers, which are two main side effects of psychotropic drugs.
Many people who suffer from hyperhidrosis are advised to get a Botox injection into your sweat glands, which may reduce or even eliminate the symptoms. However, severe bruising at the site of the injection is common with Botox treatments. Otherwise, it is quite safe, and the bruising will disappear within two or three days.
Hyperhidrosis can be an embarrassing and annoying disease that will effect millions of people each year. If you think that you might be suffering from hyperhidrosis, you can usually be diagnosed by a family care practitioner. Once you know that hyperhidrosis is the problem, you can seek alternate treatments or try Botox injections to relieve the symptoms.
A temporary remedy for hyperhidrosis is to pat baby powder on your feet, hands, armpits, thighs or anywhere else you are affected by hyperhidrosis. The baby powder will absorb the sweat and will keep symptoms at bay until you find another solution. There is no cure for hyperhidrosis and it is almost always a lifelong condition. In some cases, it is a secondary illness to a more serious disease, so make sure you are healthy in every other regard.
