Don’t Have Sweat Stains in Your Holiday Pictures. Get a Hyperhidrosis Treatment

What to Know About Excessive Sweating in the Holidays

Keeping Cool in the Winter

When you have hyperhidrosis, the thought of taking photos can be stressful. Not being sure if you can hide your excess sweating puts a strain on going to holiday events with friends, family, and coworkers. This year, don’t let sweat get the better of you! Consider the different treatments that may be the solution to your problem.

What Is Hyperhidrosis?

Excessive sweating can be caused by several potential factors, and some are more easily dealt with than others. Hyperhidrosis is a term that encompasses excessive sweating that isn’t related to exercise or heat. It might stem from anxiety, hormones, medications, or other underlying conditions that result in extra sweating.

What Causes Hyperhidrosis?

One very common cause of excessive sweating is anxiety. When we’re anxious in a situation, the fight or flight response of our bodies is initiated by stress. The feeling that you’re in trouble triggers the release of adrenaline into the bloodstream, and one of the results is that you sweat to cool the body down. If you’re feeling social anxiety at parties or other holiday events, it might be causing you to sweat.

Other hormones can also induce sweating, especially in teenagers and pregnant women. People with overactive thyroids also deal with overactive perspiration due to a release of hormones that kick the body into overdrive, putting stress on all bodily functions. Similarly, other underlying medical conditions can cause the body to sweat more than usual.

Some medications can cause excessive sweating. Antidepressants, pain medications, and other kinds of medication may interfere with your body’s internal temperature regulation and may have excessive perspiration as a side effect. If you’re experiencing excessive sweating after starting a new medication, discuss it with your prescribing doctor.

Hyperhidrosis Treatments

There are several options for treating and reducing excessive sweating. Your dermatologist may prescribe a clinical strength antiperspirant to you for hyperhidrosis or direct you to buy one from a pharmacy. Antiperspirants are classified as a drug, rather than a cosmetic like deodorant, since it makes a change in your body. Antiperspirants contain aluminum chloride, which is the active ingredient that reduces perspiration.

Laser therapy is another option to help manage sweating by deactivating sweat glands with focused heat. By heating the glands and not the surrounding skin tissue, this non-invasive procedure targets sweat production at its source. miraDry® is another non-invasive option to reduce excessive perspiration. Rather than light heat, the miraDry process uses electromagnetic heat to eliminate sweat-producing glands.

Botox® can be used to reduce excessive sweating. This injectable solution is a neurotoxin, and it paralyzes muscles temporarily. By deactivating the nerves that signal to sweat glands to start perspiration, less sweat is produced.

In addition to the options above, medication may be an option for your case of excessive sweating. Many oral medications work by decreasing the amount of sweat produced. Each product carries its own side effects, which your doctor or dermatologist would discuss with you when evaluating your need.

Schedule a consultation today to get your excessive sweating under control before the holidays!