Monday, August 8, 2011

It's not Just the Weather.... -Part 1-

Summer is FINALLY here! Beach and Lake trips, camping on  w a r m  nights, getting to finally wear that cute shoulder baring tank-top, laying out in the sun, playing in the pool, Barbeques and ........sweating. 



 In hot weather, sweating is the primary method of staying cool. Water from our blood absorbs the heat and rises to the surface of the skin via the sweat glands (which we have thousands...) so that it can evaporate and create a cooling effect. 



I believe if I took a poll, I wouldn't gather too many, if any fans of this cooling mechanism. I mean..... its wet, it turns clothes a darker shade; which that darker shade is... w e t ....it messes up your hair and makeup, and makes you stink! PFT. Thanks body. Thanks for picking such an attractive cooling method. OH and thanks for making it smell like onions and not fresh-baked-cookies. Good call.



  You see, the body is like an engine that never stops running. And like all engines, it produces heat. The more the muscles contract (like during exercise), the more heat is produced. Your body needs to be efficient at keeping you cool or you would rapidly overheat and collapse within 15 to 20 minutes. Sweating is one of the methods (particularly during hot weather) of keeping us from overheating. 

Alright...... so you get the point. Body becomes hot. Brain says WHOA I'm over heating I must cool down I am going to excrete fluid out of my pores and hopefully lower my bodies temperature!  Now imagine your last really good sweat session. Perhaps in a sauna, stuck in traffic with no AC, a really long run, an intense workout session, you name it. Now imagine your last time you were reading a book, or grocery shopping or sitting in class, just relaxed. Now imagine (all this imagining, I may cause you to.. sweat!) ..yourself reading a book but you are sweating like you were when you were in a sauna last. My friends, we now have:  
Hyperhidrosis.





This kind of excessive sweating is a serious medical condition. It's called hyperhidrosis and it afflicts millions of people around the world (approximately 3% of the population) but because of lack of awareness, more than half of these people are never diagnosed or treated for their symptoms. I suffer from Hyperhidrosis.

Stay tuned for part 2 Featuring: 
Life with Hyperhidrosis.


1 comment:

  1. Powerfully informative. I know how it is living with a disease many are uneducated about can be very difficult. I believe this is more so in your case being hyperhidrosis is so rare.Keep up the good writing I was excited to wake up to a new post =)!!

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