Causes of Excessive Sweating

Tue, Oct 20, 2009

Excess Sweat

While you might blame the oppressive heat and humidity for your palms being greasy, a short trip to the aspect of Excessive Sweating might just change all of this. The bad news deepens further – Even doctors have very little idea as to why Excessive sweating occurs in people! Some doctors put it to genetics, and some blame it on the Sympathetic nervous system. Causes vary, and knowing about them is intriguing enough, in a sense.

Four out of every ten men surveyed had the problem of excessive sweating. This number went up by two in cases of women. These were the findings of a health survey conducted by a leading health organization. The surprising point was – about 75% people who suffered from this relatively naïve disorder of excessive sweating had no clue what caused this problem. Naïve huh – Think twice!

What are the causes of excessive sweating?

  • Over activity in the nervous system – It is quite unusual to attribute excessive sweating to anything in the nervous system. But as it turns out, over-activity in the Thoracic Sympathetic Ganglion chain results in a person to sweat profusely. Just so you know – The Thoracic Sympathetic Ganglion Chain can be found running through the vertebra inside the chest cavity.

  • Hyperhidrosis – Whether local or general, which are the two forms of this disorder that results in excessive sweating, is considered to be one of the most prominent causes of excessive sweating. Typically, hyperhidrosis results in sweating in the face, trunk and the extremities.

  • Oversweating in elderly people – A lot of times, you will find elderly people sweat profusely, especially in the upper half of the body. This is observed as a trend, specifically in elderly women. This is attributed to people aging, and the hormonal imbalances that comes along with the age.

  • Other health conditions – For quite some time, a lot of people thought that excessive sweating was caused by conditions like Thyroid, Anxiety and other disorders. Subsequent research conducted on these facets of excessive sweating has nullified these thoughts. In fact, it has been proven that severe palmar hyperhidrosis, which shows up as severe hand sweating, happens even when the person is in a very relaxed state.

  • Illnesses – Obesity, Hyperthyroidism, and Psychiatric Disorders are also claimed to be some of the reasons why people sweat profusely. Don’t be surprised if you see some guys sweating hard on seeing Exorcist – II on their Television sets!! For all such people, fear is a major cause for which they sweat excessively.

Over-sweating is definitely not a fatal disorder, not by any stretch of imagination. But it has the potential to cause some very annoying moments in our lives. Think about it – Would you want your hands to be greasy and full of sweat, when you are about to shake hands with your client on closing a deal?

Understanding the causes of excessive sweating is often a good start for people to fix this rather irritating problem. This disorder will definitely not steal away some minutes from your life, but yes, it can matter a lot to you at critical junctures.

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