Normally, sweat can be profuse during intense sports activities or hot weather. At this time, the body secretes sweat to regulate body temperature and eliminate toxins.
If you sweat a lot when resting, without physical activity, in a cool space and in a normal mood… you may have hyperhidrosis. This is a disorder of the body caused by excessive stimulation of cholinergic receptors on sweat glands. The characteristic of the disease is that sweat is secreted more than the body’s needs, concentrated in the palms of the hands, armpits, feet… affecting daily activities.
Hyperhidrosis can be inherited from generation to generation. People whose parents or siblings have hyperhidrosis are at higher risk of developing this condition.
Doctor Hoai examines a patient with increased hand sweating. Illustration photo: Thu Ha
This condition does not pose a serious health threat but can lead to physical and mental problems. Some harmful effects of excessive hand and foot sweat include fungal infections, skin diseases (warts, boils, eczema), body odor, and emotional effects (depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, reluctance to communicate). next). Therefore, you should treat the disease.
The principle of treatment is to change lifestyle such as avoiding wearing tight clothes, limiting spicy and sour foods, using underarm absorbent pads, wearing socks that can absorb moisture, wearing shoes with super absorbent pads… You can change Improve the condition with less invasive methods such as applying medicine whose main ingredient is aluminum chloride. They effectively reduce sweating by clogging sweat glands in the hands, feet, and armpits.
When these measures are not effective, the patient is advised by the doctor about other methods such as systemic anticholinergic drugs, iontophoresis technology, and botulinum toxin (botox) injections. In the armpit area, advanced MiraDry technology has been recognized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to largely reduce sweat secretion.
In more severe cases or not responding to medical treatment, thoracoscopic sympathectomy is applied. The doctor makes a small incision of about 6 mm in the armpit area to place the endoscopic instrument into the chest, then cuts off the sympathetic nerve signals that control the area of increased sweating. This method thoroughly improves disease symptoms, without dangerous complications. One limitation of laparoscopic surgery is that patients may face the risk of compensatory sweating in other parts of the body.