Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Localised, on both sides and gone in sleep means primary — everywhere, at night and new means: look for the cause first.
Also known as: hyperhidrosis · excessive sweating
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
One speaks of hyperhidrosis when clearly more sweat is produced than the body needs for cooling. Two forms are to be distinguished, and the distinction decides everything else. The primary form usually begins in the teenage years, affects defined places — palms, soles, armpits, less often the face —, appears equally on both sides and stops during sleep. It often runs in the family. The secondary form begins later, affects the whole body, makes one wet at night as well and has a cause behind it: an overactive thyroid, low blood sugars, hormonal changes, an infection, more rarely a disease of the blood — and very often medicines, among them several antidepressants and painkillers. What matters is not the amount of sweat but what it prevents in everyday life: paper that buckles, a hand one would rather not offer, a change of clothes at the office. It is a question neither of hygiene nor of nervousness. And there is a series of effective treatments that build on one another — from applying something in the evening through current baths and injections to tablets and procedures.
Aluminium chloride works overnight, when the glands are at rest, and is washed off in the morning. On damp skin and freshly after shaving it stings — the commonest reason for stopping, and avoidable this way.
If the sweating starts in adulthood, the cause surprisingly often stands on the medication list. A switch within the same group is sometimes enough — stop nothing on your own.
Tap-water iontophoresis is a water bath with a weak current, several times a week and later for maintenance. Devices can be obtained for home use — which makes the treatment fit into everyday life.
Botulinum toxin blocks the nerves that drive the sweat glands; the effect lasts several months. On the hands the treatment is more painful and can temporarily reduce grip strength — that belongs discussed beforehand.
Then it is not about the sweat glands but about the cause behind. Fever, weight loss and swollen lymph nodes alongside are reasons not to wait.
Permanently damp skin between the toes and in the folds encourages fungus and sore spots. Breathable shoes, changing socks daily and drying well are part of the treatment.
In the evening apply a product with aluminium chloride to dry skin and wash it off in the morning; wear breathable materials, change socks daily.
Pour hot water over a teaspoon of leaves, steep covered for ten minutes, drink lukewarm or gargle, two to three times a day.
Aluminium salts temporarily close the ducts of the sweat glands — they work best applied in the evening, when the glands are resting. Botulinum toxin blocks the signal to the gland for four to six months. The glands themselves stay, in number and function.
The body has two to four million sweat glands; an adult loses about 0.5 litres a day at rest, and up to two litres an hour in heat and at work. It counts as excessive when it lasts more than six months without reason, at least once a week, on both sides, and stops during sleep. Aluminium chloride needs three to seven applications to work; botulinum toxin lasts four to nine months and works after two to seven days.
Simmer one to two tablespoons of oak bark in half a litre of water for ten minutes, strain and pour into a bowl of lukewarm water.
That is the key distinguishing feature of the first form. Anyone who wakes soaked at night belongs in the other column — then a cause is looked for first.
Palms, soles, armpits, sometimes the face — and symmetrically. One-sided sweating is rare and has a workup of its own.
A start before the age of twenty-five, often with someone in the family, speaks for the constitutional form. A new start in adulthood does not.
Several commonly prescribed drugs drive sweating, among them some antidepressants, painkillers and remedies for hot flushes. The timing is the best clue.
Handshake, writing, holding a tool, choice of clothes, job interviews. These points belong named, because they decide the treatment — not millimetres on a test paper.
An overactive thyroid is the commonest graspable cause of the second form and usually goes with palpitations, restlessness and weight loss. It is readily treatable.
Sweating with trembling, ravenous hunger and palpitations that stops after eating speaks for a low blood sugar — especially with treated diabetes.
Shows how the sugar has run over weeks. With night sweats under diabetes treatment it is worthwhile together with the question of night-time low sugars.
Belongs alongside when the sweating comes at night with fever, weight loss or swollen lymph nodes. This combination is not left to wait.
Makes sure the muscle lets go again after tensing. A lack favours cramps, twitching and inner restlessness — and the blood value reflects the store poorly.
Sets the excitability of muscle and nerve. A low value causes weakness and cramps, a high one is dangerous for the heart rhythm — here one measures rather than guesses.
Sets off the tensing in the muscle in the first place. A low value causes tingling around the mouth and in the fingers and cramping of the hands.
With heavy sweating both are lost together. Drinking only water dilutes the sodium further — with long exertion salt belongs with it.
Effective when deficient; effects on sleep and stress plausible but moderate. Too much causes loose stool.
Sweat glands are driven by the sympathetic system — an overactive drive = hyperhidrosis.
All three stimulate the sweat glands directly — the effect starts within minutes and lasts one to two hours. That explains sweating after coffee better than any predisposition.
Sage tea and sage preparations are the traditional use for heavy sweating.