Excessive Sweating in Lagos?
Medical Causes First: Then Treatment.

Excessive Sweating: Medical Causes and Treatment

Primary hyperhidrosis

The most common form: idiopathic excessive sweating of the palms, axillae (armpits), feet, or face, without an identifiable medical cause. Affects approximately 3% of people. Treated with prescription-strength aluminium chloride antiperspirant (20% aluminium chloride hexahydrate applied at night to dry skin), iontophoresis, or, for severe cases, botulinum toxin injection or surgery (endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy).

Secondary hyperhidrosis: medical causes to exclude

• Hyperthyroidism: Overactive thyroid causes generalised sweating, weight loss, heat intolerance, and palpitations. TSH test diagnoses it.
• Diabetes and hypoglycaemia: Low blood sugar episodes cause sweating, particularly at night.
• Infections: TB and other chronic infections cause drenching night sweats, a red flag symptom requiring investigation.
• Menopause: Hot flushes with profuse sweating: a classic perimenopausal symptom related to oestrogen decline.
• Lymphoma: Drenching night sweats alongside weight loss and lymph node swelling, a serious combination requiring urgent investigation.

Night sweats: when to worry

Drenching night sweats that soak the bedclothes are not benign and require investigation, particularly if associated with weight loss, fever, or lymph node swelling. These are the 'B symptoms' of lymphoma. TSH, FBC, HIV test, and chest X-ray are the initial investigations.