My hands are always sweating. Is it due to physical weakness or illness?

Audit expert: Zhang Yuhong

Zhengzhou Central Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University

Chief Physician of Dermatology

In social situations, people often shake hands to show respect to others. But do you know that such a simple thing as shaking hands is very difficult and embarrassing for some people? They are people with hyperhidrosis of the hands.

It may be difficult for some friends to understand that sweaty hands are a normal thing, right? Isn't it okay to just wipe off the sweat?

Wrong! In fact, the seemingly harmless hyperhidrosis of hands has a huge impact on the patients' lives. **Hands of patients with hyperhidrosis are always sweaty and sticky even in the dry winter; **When writing, the paper gets soaked before the words are finished, and the handwriting becomes blurred. What's more troublesome is that the sweaty hands make it difficult to unlock the phone with fingerprints...

Source: Baidu Encyclopedia

In fact, hyperhidrosis of hands is not a rare disease. There may be people around you who are deeply troubled by sweaty hands. Today, I will tell you about hyperhidrosis of hands.

What are hyperhidrosis of hands?

Everyone has sweaty hands, but most people only have slightly sweaty and moist hands when it is hot. However, for patients with hyperhidrosis of the hands, their hands are moist most of the time all year round, regardless of whether it is extremely cold or extremely hot.

To determine whether you suffer from hyperhidrosis of the hands, the degree and duration of sweating can be used as the main criteria. If sweating lasts for more than half a year and often affects your daily work and life, you may have hyperhidrosis of the hands.

The degree of sweating in hyperhidrosis of hands varies from mild to severe. In mild cases, the hands are damp with sweat beads. In slightly more severe cases, the amount of sweat can soak a tissue. The most serious case is that the sweat on the hands drips in the form of water droplets.

Severe hand hyperhidrosis source｜pixabay

Hyperhidrosis of the hands affects both men and women, and many people have experienced symptoms of hyperhidrosis of the hands since childhood, and it is also a family hereditary disease .

Because sweaty hands are not a symptom unique to patients, it is sometimes difficult for ordinary people to understand the specific condition of the patient when facing the patient. Instead, they think it is a problem of personal hygiene or habits. In the long run, it will cause a huge psychological burden on the patient, which will in turn affect daily life and interpersonal communication, undermine the patient's self-confidence, and affect mental health.

So why do some people suffer from hyperhidrosis of hands and others don’t?

The cause of hyperhidrosis of hands revealed!

In fact, hyperhidrosis of the hands is a type of localized hyperhidrosis. The cause of hyperhidrosis of the hands has to do with the "protagonist" of our body's control of sweat glands - the thoracic sympathetic nerves .

Generally speaking, when people are under stress or high pressure, the thoracic sympathetic nerves will become excited, and then transmit instructions to make the body sweat. However, the thoracic sympathetic nerves of patients with hyperhidrosis are excited at a frequency far higher than normal, and the condition becomes more serious when they encounter high temperatures and high pressure.

In addition, in addition to hyperhidrosis of the hands caused by abnormalities of the thoracic sympathetic nerves, some diseases can also cause excessive sweating, such as hyperthyroidism and diabetes, but they are generally accompanied by other symptoms. For example, patients with hyperthyroidism not only have excessive sweating, but also have irritability, body weight loss, etc., which are significantly different from patients with hyperhidrosis of the hands.

Treatment of hyperhidrosis of hands

With the development of science and technology, the treatment of hyperhidrosis of hands has become more mature. At present, there are several methods to treat hyperhidrosis of hands:

**1. Oral or injection of anticholinergic drugs,** to inhibit sympathetic nerve excitement to reduce sweating. This treatment does not require surgery, but it is only a temporary effect, and the side effects of the drug are relatively large;

**2. External spray antiperspirant, **This method is also temporary and inconvenient to use. The spray ingredients may cause skin allergies, and individual differences in use cannot be controlled;

Source | See watermark

**3. By electrically stimulating the sympathetic nerves, the nerve sensitivity is reduced and the sweat is stopped. **This is also a temporary solution with a greater impact on the body.

**4. Thoracoscopic sympathectomy. **This is a minimally invasive surgery with significant antiperspirant effect. It is the only treatment that can cure sweaty hands. The operation is simple and short, and can usually be completed in half an hour.

The specific method is that the doctor will make an incision of about 1 cm on both sides of the patient's armpits, use a thoracoscope to find the sympathetic ganglion that "causes excessive sweating" in the patient's body, and then use a medical tool - an electric hook to hook up the ganglion and "burn" it to block it. In this way, sweat will not be produced.

Source: pixabay

Most patients who have undergone thoracoscopic sympathectomy have good conditions and recover quickly. No obvious sequelae have been found so far. Some patients may feel some pain at the incision. If the pain is obvious, they can take painkillers. However, not everyone can undergo this blocking surgery. Currently, thoracoscopic sympathectomy is only for people who are over 12 years old and have moderate or above hand sweating.

I never thought that excessive sweating of hands is a disease and has such a big impact on people's lives. Fortunately, hyperhidrosis of hands can be cured, making the lives of many patients more convenient and happier. If you find that you may have hyperhidrosis of hands, you don't need to worry too much. Just relax, seek medical treatment actively, and choose the treatment method that suits you.