Recognizing Excessive Sweating and How to Overcome It

Excessive sweating without clear triggers can cause a person to feel disturbed and reduce their self-confidence. This condition should not be ignored because excessive sweating can be a sign of your health problems.

Sweating is one of the body's natural processes to adjust body temperature to the environment. You do this by removing the fluid containing salt through the sweat glands. Normally, the body sweats when the body is doing enough tiring activities, eating spicy food, having a fever, or experiencing certain emotions such as anger, shame, fear or nervousness. . Other cases of excessive sweating that tend to occur without triggering are called hyperhidrosis and usually occur due to certain diseases.

There are two types of excessive sweating or hyperhidrosis, namely primary focal hyperhidrosis or sweating in some parts and secondary generalized hyperhidrosis or excessive sweating throughout the body.

Primary focal hyperhidrosis

Someone with primary focal hyperhidrosis will experience excessive sweating in several places. For example, in the palm, sol, groin, armpit or just the head and face. Usually, the affected area is symmetrical, which means that when the right palm sweats a lot, the left palm does the same thing. The cause of this type of excessive sweating can be caused by problems in the functioning of the nervous system, but not because of disease.

Secondary generalized hyperhidrosis

This type of excessive sweating occurs in all parts of the body and usually occurs at night. This disease can be caused by certain diseases, such as thyroid disorders, tuberculosis, menopause, heart failure, stroke, cancer (lymphoma and leukemia), Parkinson's disease, diabetes, spinal cord injury, lung disease, anxiety disorders, alcoholism and pregnancy. In addition, some drugs and supplements can also cause excessive sweating. For example, antibiotics, blood pressure medications, dry mouth medications, and drugs used to treat mental health problems.

When to pay attention
Some people may feel annoyed with excessive sweating, while others may underestimate this problem. It is highly recommended to consult a doctor if you have the following symptoms:

The amount of sweat that comes out of the body more and more.
At night, you wake up with a very wet mattress caused by cold sweat coming out of the body.
You feel excessive sweating only occurs on one side of the body, for example only the groin.
All parts of your body experience excessive sweating, not only in certain parts.
Primary hyperhidrosis usually starts in adolescence and adulthood. But if you are middle-aged or elderly and you sweat a lot in one part of the body, it is advisable to do a medical examination.
If you feel not only excessive sweating, but also insomnia, increased thirst, fatigue, coughing or frequent urination.
Excessive sweating occurs without obvious triggers for 6 months or more.
Excessive sweating begins to interfere with daily activities.
Excessive sweating is accompanied by weight loss, chest pain, fever, rapid heartbeat, chest pressure, or shortness of breath.

Usually, the doctor will do several tests to determine the cause of the excessive sweating that you are feeling. The types of tests that can be done include physical examination, urine test, blood test, paper test, starch test, and thermoregulation test.

How to deal with excessive sweating

If you are sweating profusely and have a serious illness, you must defeat the cause. For example, if it is caused by a thyroid disorder, you have to treat or perform thyroid surgery. Or, if diabetics have blood sugar problems due to excessive sweating, efforts can be made to control blood sugar levels to eliminate excess sweating.

While the treatment of excessive sweating that occurs in certain body parts aims to reduce symptoms, for example by giving Botox injections to stop nerve activity that causes excessive sweating. In addition, it is possible to provide antiperspirants in the form of roll-on, spray, lotion or drugs that can inhibit the sweat glands.

Another way is to do surgery. This operation may involve the removal of sweat glands or dislocated chest that can cause excessive sweating. To reduce sweat production, it is also possible to remove fat tissue from areas with excessive sweating. In addition, iontophoresis can be performed, which consists of treatments using low voltage electrical stimulation to temporarily stop the function of sweat glands.

Excessive sweating can interfere with activities and reduce self-confidence. Although not all excessive sweating indicates that you have a dangerous disease, it is advisable to seek immediate medical attention if other symptoms accompany you or become increasingly and increasingly annoying.