What is Palmoplantar Hyperhydrosis & Its Causes - Dr. Rajdeep Mysore

Excessive sweating of hands and feet in medical terms is called palmoplantar hyperhidrosis, hyperhidrosis in excessive sweating. palmoplantar means the hand and feet. The common causes of this are in most of the cases there is no underlying diseae the person is absolutely normal but still he suffers from excessive sweating on the hands and feet, this can cause a lot of problem for patients and make them feel socially awkward, make them feel difficult in approaching people and talking to them or performing day to day task like writing on a piece of paper. Excessive sweating on hands and feet if a cause is found could be related to thyroid problems, could be related to obesity, and also be related to certain genetic characters that is a people in his family also have a lot of sweating on their hands and feet. Hands and feet are the areas which sweat a little more than the rest of the body also other areas like your armpit, face and groin are the areas with sweat a little more.How can this condition be treated and is it related to people who have excessive anxiety? earlier it was thought that people who sweat a lot have excessive anxiety or that there were nervous type of people but now it has been found that the actual problem or anxiety is because of the disease. The sweating increases in hot weather it also increases when a person is feeling nervous or a person is feeling tensed, it can be treated by simple method like using a device called iontoforesis machine, a small current is passed through the hand which blocks the sweat in hands, this is done initially weekly 3 days and later maintained by monthly once treatment. The problem with iontoforesis is patients find that they cannot spend half an hour on every session which is needed for the hands and feet weekly thrice. There is a new treatment called Botox which is injected for wrinkles in cosmetic practice it has also been found that injecting on multiple points on the hand and Armpits reduce sweating on the entire body and even to the feet in a certain extent. The drawback with Botox is it is a little expensive, effect lasts generally for six month but when the Botox procedure is repeated after 6 months generally the effect tends to last longer that is a second session may last about 9 months and even up to 1 year. Repeat treatments are necessary until the person stop sweating completely. Other treatment where a person does not want to go for a procedure like iontoforesis or Botox and they find it too expensive, simple solution called as aluminium chloral hydrate which is sound is 10% lotion or a 20% lotion in most of the pharmacy, aluminium chloral hydrate can be applied daily night by the patient and washed off after an hour if there is no irritation after 1 week the patient can leave that lotion on the hands and feet and even armpit the entire night. After about 1 week to 10 days patient starts experiencing dryness in the areas, once they experience dryness we ask him to reduce the application to alternate days or weekly twice. This can also be maintained once a week application. General measures for people who have lot of sweating on hands and feet is use a kerchief to wipe your hands are used issue paper, change your socks frequently use cotton soccer white nylon and synthetic material and wear loose clothing especially a cotton and linen clothing help in people who sweat a lot.