Sweaty palms?

My hands and feet sweat. Profusely sometimes. Is this a disorder of sorts? Why does it happen? Is there some vitamin supplement or lifestyle change I can take/do to stop this? It's quite embarrasing at times when I need to shake hands, etc.

Hi there,

Excessive sweating of the hands and the feet is also called hyperhidrosis. This condition is manifested by the excessive sweating of these body locations: palmar (hands), axillary (armpits), plantar (feet), facial (face) and truncal (trunk).

Causes of Hyperhidrosis
The cause of hyperhidrosis is based upon the origin of the stimulus causing the sweating response.

These triggers may come from the;
Cortex: (Brain)
Emotional response
Mental
Sensory

Hypothalamic Area (area of the brain that controls temperature, hunger and thirst)
Exercise,
Thermoregulation,
Systemic diseases - infections, etc

Medullary Area (area of the brain that controls involuntary functions, like breathing)
Chiari malformations (malformation of the brain) can cause localized hyperhidrosis
Infarction (stroke)

Spinal Cord
Syringomyelia is a disease of the spinal cord that can also cause rare hyperhidrosis,
Spinal cord mass lesions (such as tumors) can cause it

Axon reflex: (local nerve reflexes)
Hyperhidrosis can occur bordering painful skin lesions such as venous ulcers

Compensatory Mechanism:
Post-sympathectomy (surgical interruption of nerves)
Ross syndrome

Endocrine System: (Hormonal)
Hyperthyroidism - excessive activity of the thyroid
Hyperpituitarism - excessive secretion of the pituitary gland
Increased release of catecholamine (shock, fight-or flight response)

Primary or Idiopathic Hyperhidrosis - Cause unknown, usually appears in localized areas:
Axilla - underarms
Palms of hand
Soles of feet

Hyperhidrosis Treatment

Topical Treatment
The most commonly used topical lotion is Drysol, which is an aluminum chloride solution. For treating sweaty hands it is limited. It has a better success rate for the treatment of axillary sweating. There are commercial preparations such as Maxim which has a higher PH causing less irritation to the skin. Patients should try these methods before embarking on the surgical option

Device Treatment
Drionic is the commercial name given to a machine that uses electric currents through the skin in order to disrupt the function of the sweat glands also known as iontophorosis. In this case the person immerses his hands or feet in the drionic machine for a certain time. This has to be repeated quite often in order to get the desired results. This can be obtained commercially from www.drionic.com

Psychological Approaches
Psychological approaches such as psychotherapy, biofeedback, hypnosis all have been tried with very limited if at all success.

BOTOX

Surgery presented a more effective solution. A procedure known as sympathectomy has been applied for many years as a treatment for hyperhidrosis. This technique had many problems. The operation was long and often involved long-term disability, pain and high complication rates.

Recent developments have made a painful and complicated sympathectomy a thing of the past. In the last several years the endoscopic approach has revolutionized sympathectomies. A surgeon needs to make only a small cut in order to insert a small camera and instrument. With this treatment of choice, we can eliminate hyperhidrosis in a very short time on an outpatient basis with superb cosmetic results.



Hope this helps...

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