Commonly known as excessive sweating, Hyperhidrosis is a commonly experienced disorder that causes distress to many. A large number of individuals suffer from this condition where one experiences excessive perspiration of the underarms, soles of the feet or the palms.
Many tend to start experiencing problems with the underarm in the late adolescence period. Whereas, the sweating of the palm and the sole start earlier around the age of 13. If this problem isn’t treated early enough, chances are that it will continue to bother you throughout your life.
Excessive sweating can be a socially embarrassing disorder that results in staining of clothes and complications in social interactions. Other problems include difficulty in holding a pen, getting a grip of the steering wheel and even shaking hands.
What are the Possible Causes of Hyperhidrosis?
While there have been correlations found between metabolic, neurologic and other systemic diseases and excessive sweating, most cases tend to occur in individuals who are healthy otherwise. It has been found that emotions and heat also trigger excessive sweating in many, while others tend to experience this nearly all through their waking hours irrespective of their current mood or external temperatures.
If you are experiencing mild or moderate symptoms of excessive sweating, non-surgical treatment is worth a shot. Most of these treatments essentially focus on managing the symptoms. Before you start with any treatment, make sure you understand its benefits and side effects from your doctor.
Topical Medications
With the help of a prescription, you will be able to gain access to topical medications that work much like OTC antiperspirants. The only difference being that these will be stronger, and hence more effective. This medicine needs to be applied in the affected area and left on for about 6 to 8 hours. However, the effects of this medicine last only for a few hours. One may experience some skin irritation on application of this medicine.
Aluminum Chloride Hexahydrate
If regular antipersiprants is just not helping with your hyperhidrosis, aluminum chloride hexahydrate is a common recommendation made by many doctors. With sufficient prescription strength of aluminum chloride, chances are that this medication will help solve your problem. Doctors will ask you to apply it for 7 to 10 nights in a row before you go to bed. Sometimes you may also be asked to continue for a period up to 14 days to maintain the improvement your condition is showing.
This treatment works best for underarm sweating, but is usually not as effective for palm and sole sweating. A common side-effect you need to be prepared for is irritation of the skin.
Lontophoresis
This modality of treatment was introduced over 50 years ago. While the exact working of this treatment is unclear, it is believed that it works by blocking the sweat duct. In this procedure, one uses water to conduct an electric current into the skin. This treatment requires a couple of sittings each week where each session lasts between 10 and 20 minutes. After an interval of 1 to 3 weeks, you may be asked to return of a follow up program. This treatment is not at all painful, and devices to conduct this treatment can be easily purchased based on a prescription from a doctor.
Oral Medications
If it is found that a certain emotion triggers your hyperhidrosis your doctor may recommend medications to control the patient’s reaction to specific external stimuli. Some patients are able to treat these conditions with anti-anxiety medications, antidepressants and other such oral medications.
Botox injections are also often prescribed for the treatment of hyperhidrosis. Speak to your doctor and understand the options you have at hand to identify an effective treatment modality.