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Cure for Axillary Hyperhydrosis Essay

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Cure for Axillary Hyperhydrosis

Sweating is a natural process for all animals. Broadly speaking, we sweat so that our brains do not overheat. The brain can easily overheat if the temperature rises too high because it consumes a very large amount (twenty percent) of our metabolic energy. The brain and temperature relationship is extremely sensitive because it has been studied that brain damage is apparent if the brain temperature is raised to 106 degrees Fahrenheit. Therefore, in order for the brain to not reach this temperature, there must be a system that moderates the temperature—this cooling system is commonly referred to as sweating. When humans sweat, the surface of their skin is cooled, and the skin is then able to cool …show more content…

Hyperhydrosis is the medical term given to the condition commonly referred to as excessive sweating. It is necessary for our bodies to sweat, and the Sympathetic Nervous System is in charge of this secretion. However, one out of every one hundred people suffers from the hyper-activity of this specific nervous system and is said to have the miserable condition known as hyperhydrosis. Hyperhydrosis can be found in the palms of the hands (palmar hyperhydrosis is the most prevalent of all types) (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/dailynews/sweat2020.html), on the bottom of the feet, on the face, on the trunk, and in the armpits where the axillary glands are located. As for a cause, it is not yet known why the nerve stimulation is greater than average in some people (people with hyperhydrosis). However, in Richard G. Glogau, MD’s study he refers to “an unusual hybrid sweat gland with both eccrine and apocrine elements…which is found in patients with axillary hyperhydrosis, and which is capable of a secretory rate of 10-fold higher than normal eccrine glands,” (1998, p.817). It is a horrible condition that causes much embarrassment (sweating through and ruining clothes and not being able to lift arms) and much discomfort. For example, a man named Brandon Burg suffered from hyperhydrosis and would sweat through his shirt in fifteen minutes. He confesses, “I had to wear Kotex under my arms. That was the last straw.”

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