Hyperhidrosis

“How do you sweat?” This question was often asked instead of greeting in the Ancient Rome. Moderate sweating was considered to be a guarantee of robust health. Nevertheless such a question to a person suffering from hyperhidrosis was inappropriate and taken at least for humiliation.

— What Is Hyperhidrosis?

Hyperhidrosis is a disease characterized by an excessive uncontrolled sweating.

Patients complain of constant intensive groundless sweating in the area of armpits, palms or feet. It quite often declares itself in all three areas and even in the adjacent ones!

 

Sweat exudes streaming along the body and makes hands and feet constantly wet. Especially difficult and unpleasant for both patients and people around ones is the secretion of sweat with objectionable odour (osmidrosis) resulting from the addition of bacterial and fungous floras.

 

Every day patients waste a lot of time trying to reduce signs of hyperhidrosis. They are forced to constantly change their clothes, take shower as often as possible, wipe sweat, and conceal napkins and absorbent articles under loose clothes which are mostly dark.

Following constant effect of sweat upon skin, irritation and dermatitis may arise. Patients always feel anxiety and lack of self-confidence. They are depressed.

 

Patients suffering from hyperhidrosis are limited in the choice of occupation. Moreover, this state has a negative influence on their professional activity and career growth. In everyday life the state of increased sweating considerably lowers the quality of life.

According to the research of the American Academy of Dermatology, about 3% of the USA population suffers from marked primary hyperhidrosis. There is no such a calculation in Ukraine, but unfortunately the number of patient does not reduce though. If we make a re-calculation in respect of the amount of inhabitants of Ukraine, we shall see that about 1.5 million people suffer from primary hyperhidrosis. The number is striking.

 

There are two types of hyperhidrosis: primary, which is also called idiopathic, groundless, and secondary one. Secondary hyperhidrosis is the state based upon some other disease accompanied sometimes by increased sweating (insular diabetes, hyperthyroidism, tuberculosis, stroke etc).

 

Hyperhidrosis can be also divided into local and generalized. Local hyperhidrosis is as a rule characterized by excessive sweating in the area of armpits, palms and feet. Generalized hyperhidrosis can declare itself in any area of body and it usually is a symptom of some underlying disease.

 

We deal with primary groundless local hyperhidrosis. It is proven that the secretion of 500-1 500 ml of sweat per day is normal for a person. Under hyperhidrosis condition, 1 500 ml of sweat exudes per hour on average!

 

Where from and how can such amount of sweat exude? People have two types of sweat glands: eccrine and apocrine. Apocrine glands are mostly located in the perineum, arm-pits and peripapillary area. Along with sweat they exude a pheromone which creates the unique body odour. Eccrine glands are spread throughout the entire body surface. Their density varies from 600 cm2 in the palms and area of armpits to 60 cm2 in the back.

Both the number of glands per 1 cm2 and their volume are known to increase in patients suffering from hyperhidrosis.

— Chemical Composition of Sweat

98-99% comes to water; 1-2% is the salts of sodium, potassium and calcium, sulphates, phosphates, copper, manganese, iron, amino acids, cholesterol, hormones etc.

— Why does Such Disease as Primary Hyperhidrosis Arise?

Nowadays modern medicine gives no answer to this question. However, more than 50% of patients’ parents are known to suffer from this disease.

The first signs of the disease can be evident from childhood and sharply increase in adolescence. Stress, hormonal rearrangement (pregnancy, climax, etc) can give impetus to their onset.