Your Perspiration Problems: Adrenal, Thyroid, Med, Hpa Axis, Etc?

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I notice that this topic isnt addressed on this forum much, but i see it on others such as adrenal fatigue/mast cell/ thyroid, etc.

People seem to fall into two groups, too much sweating, or worse yet, too little. In my case, I come from a heredity of barely sweating at all, but i live in a hot climate. I may actually have to move north eventually toward canada. One doctor suggested i may have a condition called "anhidrosis" and i was given a med called pilocarpine to see if i could sweat---which i can, only slightly.

Naturally, like with everything else with a chronic or undiagnosed illness, getting "conslusive" testing is elusive.

Im consulting with a neurologist right now, but others consults with dermatologists and endocrinologists with anhidrosis. Luckily, this guy is SMART, not one of the lame ducks a lot of us run into not knowing what dysautonomia is, not knowing how to think outside the box of his specialty.

He tends to think that these "hot flashes" can come from either internal body panic attacks (a poorly named phrase obviously since it has little to do with psychological panic), adrenal fight or flight problems, or cortisol deficiency (my cortisol was recently tested very low AM, although ive tested normally previously-----typical of adrenal fatigue because initially your adrenals increase output in the early stages before they deplete), or could be thyroid.

IVe read where hot flashes or sweating issues can be related to parasites also. Not sure about mitochondria.

Then theres the condition of hyperhydrosis----people who sweat buckets. They ALL tend to say they wish had anhidrosis but i can tell you that its dangerous if your body cant or wont sweat. THen there are other people who say they never sweat, but they'd be sick if they didnt. THey just dont notice that the moisture is doing its job, evaporating right off their skin.

And for those of us with sleep apnea, if we have an apneatic event we can wake up drenched with sweat and an adrenaline blast with shortness of breath. Those are three things you dont want at one time.

Wondering what sweat problems others have here, and have you traced the root cause of them or are they just along for the ride?

[Katybug]

Parts of my body sweat excessively (embarrassingly so) and other parts that should sweat do not or do so marginally. You can actually get tested for this. I've had it done and it proved what I was telling the doc. They smear iodine all over you, then sprinkle powder over the dried iodine and have you lay in a room first with dry heat and then with humid heat. Where you sweat changes color and the amount of color change indicates how much you sweat in that zone. For example my thighs didn't change at all while my chest.was a deep purple. The doc then documented he differing zones of my body on a chart and also took pictures to document my file and I also let him use pics for teaching.

That all being said, there's nothing we can find that clearly is the cause of my abnormal sweat patterns and so there is little we can do to change it.

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I had the Qsart sweat tests done at cleveland clinic. I failed half of those tests. I overheat very easily. I was at church sunday and had to leave early, it was probably 70 in there. Lately i wear shorts just about everywhere even in the fifites.

Id like to have the test you described.

Of course, i imagine its most important that your upper body sweats because thats where your organs are that need to be cooled.

I notice also eating causes a tremendous amount of heat for non sweaters. It has to go through your skin if your sweat glands arent working.

It can simulate a trigger or be a trigger to a major setback.

[jknh9]

As a woman, I sweat way more than I'd like to! One day when I was 16, I started sweating through my clothes at school for no apparent reason and it just never went away. Usually it's not as bad as it was at that time, but I still choose clothes that don't easily show sweat because it's embarrassing. My major areas are armpits, the back of my thighs, and the back of my knees. When I got married, I was nervous and I could just feel the sweat running down my legs...yuck! Also, I sweat more when it's too got (of course) but also when I'm too cold.

I went to the doctor when I was 16 about it and she told me I had anxiety and promptly put me on Paxil :/ Way to go, doc...

My major issue these days is NIGHT SWEATS. I soak through my pajamas and leave wet spots on the sheets. It's so gross and uncomfortable. I'm glad my husband doesn't seem to mind.