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What's Causing your Hyperhidrosis
So what causes individuals to sweat excessively? It's easy to understand why some people would think that excessive sweating is due to larger or more numerous sweat glands. However, uncontrolled or profuse sweating is not related to the number, size or anatomy of sweat glands. In other words, individuals with hyperhidrosis have sweat glands of normal size, density (number of glands in a pre-defined area), location or appearance.
The cause of focal hyperhidrosis appears to be related to emotional sweating given that the latter is associated with sweating limited to regions such as the face, axillae, palms and soles. Emotional sweating also ceases during the sleeping hours. |
In focal hyperhidrosis, nerve signals are received from centers (or cell clusters) from within the cortex of the brain. These nerve signals or impulses generally are controlled, but in individuals with hyperhidrosis, the impulses keep coming. The signals eventually reach the sweat glands and these are stimulated by a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine (asset-ill-co-leen). Like a key fitting a lock, acetylcholine binds to receptors on the gland's surface. The binding of acetylcholine activates the sweat gland's cells to secrete sweat.
Not only do individuals with hyperhidrosis have a high basal output of perspiration, they also have an exaggerated response to emotional stimuli. In other words, they sweat more during normal circumstances and during periods of stress or emotion. In short, the cause of excessive sweating in areas such as the underarms, soles and palms is mostly related to overactive nerves leading to the sweat glands in these regions. |