excessive sweating?..

[sebastian]

Hi. I am a 36 year old guy who was dignosed with als about a year ago. I was wondering if any of you experienced excessive sweating. My hands and feet are constantly wet with sweat. Sometimes its to a point of dripping wet. The rest of the body is also always hot and sweaty, but feet and hands are out of control. What can be done?

 

[L4dybugg]

Hi,

My husband is 41, and has not been diagnosed yet. (he has some ALS symptoms). He does not have the excess sweating, but he stays hot. His body when I touch it, feels like he is burning up with a fever, but there is no fever. This is not an ALS symptom that I am aware of. This could very well be caused by another problem. I don't know, but I have always wondered why he does it. Drs. have never found the cause.

But I do know, that my husband's first cousin that had ALS, he stayed hot like that also. As far as the excess sweating, I don't know if he did that or not. Maybe someone else here might know.

Lori

 

[CindyM]

My un-scientific theory is that as the body declines, the internal temperature mechanism gets all out of whack. (I did say this was unscientific, did I not? :smile

All I know is that there are more than a couple of threads on this subject. Apparently it is not unusual. Cindy

 

[BethU]

Hi, Sebastian ... I haven't experienced that, and this is probably not going to be a big help, but I have read in the past about this condition (not in connection with ALS), and that a remedy had been found. Check with your doctor ... he may know what to do.

But ... I wonder if this could be connected to ALS, as so many of us experience excess saliva, etc. This doesn't mean it can't be treated. I wear a sea-sickness patch behind my ear to counteract saliva.

I am really sorry for your diagnosed. 35 is much too young to have to deal with this. I hope you will have a slow progression and beat Stephen Hawking's record.

Good luck.

 

[awieleba]

I have no diagnosed, but alot of mirroring symptoms and I sweat at night all the time. I will have a wet patch were I sleep and when my kids sneak in the bed during the night, they hate it. It comes and goes for me. I will have this for weeks...the sweating and then not. I thought maybe hormones and did not think it was related to my symptoms. Maybe it is......I dont know but I get it. *****BUT, I do have 2 boys that sneak in my bed and sometimes the 11 month baby is in and my hubby. SO 5 in a king bed, maybe too much body heat?

 

[rose]

Sebastian, I'm so sorry to read of your diagnosis. I hope you're having a slow progression. Like Beth mentioned, maybe there is a connection, but I've not read of this being a problem with MND.

I wonder though, as botox can be used to help with excessive perspiration under the arms (or soles of feet) and botox does temporarily paralyze the muscles, if you could have an unusual manifestation that is part of your ALS.... Maybe botox could still be an option for you to try. Definitely let your doctor know about it.


Lori, re: the body heat, My exhusband always put off the body heat when he slept in particular. He did not run a fever, and is a healthy man still. One of my kids does that too.

...so when I read your response, I just had to "share". Don and I recently went camping, I think it might have been right before you joined the forum. So there we are in a tent, and I am freezing, I mean I'm an absolute iceberg. (and of course he's contentedly sleeping) BTW we are sharing a two person sleeping bag. So, he finally wakes up because I've practically burrowed under him at this point, and is trying to warm me up, and I say to him "what the heck, you've got all of these muscles, you're not an ounce overweight, aren't muscles supposed to burn more than fat, why aren't to putting out any heat. seriously, where's the heat!" So.... being a man, he decided that this was as good of time as any to get up, and OPEN the tent flap so he can go take a pee..... I said NOOOOOO , and he said...well, never mind everything he said, but he did faithfully rub my feet until they weren't numb when he came back in.

 

[sebastian]

weird symptoms- diagnosed with als about a year ago.

hello eveyone. my name is sebastian. i am 36 and was diagnosed about a year ago.. stated as a twitch in my left bicept. now i lose balance -walk with walker - have weakness in my hands and some minor muscle atrophy in shoulders , forearms and hands. I feel very good and strong but have few weird symptoms. excessive sweating. My hands and feet are always wet. sometimes dripping with sweat.. also i wake up about 5-7 times a night to go to the bathroom. only at night i have these issues. I also seem to get weaker almost everyday...I talked to my neuro and he stated that its not a typical of ALS. I also have twitching in every muscle in my body. any of you guys or gals have similar issues.

Thank you, sebastian

 

[rose]

Hey Sebastian, I'm bumping this up, as I read your post today about the sweating. :smile:

 

[rose]

Sebastian, did you travel to an underdeveloped country (for example) where you could have picked up a parasite? How extensively have your doctors looked for other causes for your problems? How about metabolic, as that could affect not only muscles, but your internal thermostat. Is the doctor that diagnosed you a doctor that specializes in this area of neurology?

I responded to your earlier thread about the sweating, and bumped it back up just now.
I do know that botox can be used to control excessive sweating on palms of hands, soles of feet, underarms. I do not understand why it is effective, but botox is also used to help with spacity for those with some upper motor neuron manifestations. What the connection could be, is way beyond me, but maybe Wright will see this post and join in....

I hope (first) that your doctors were wrong about the ALS, because even it starting in the location that it did is not the usual. About having to get up so frequently at night, there is medication that will control the irritable bladder, if that is truly what is the cause of this. Something you could ask about if any detectable cause has not been found.

Good luck to you, I hope someone else on here has some insight. :smile:

 

[rcharlton]

If I Engage In Any Activity - I Sweat Like A Pig

My Theory Is That As We Become So Week - Lifting An Arm Or Leg Is The Equivalent Of A "normal" Person Doing So With A 50 Lb Weight - So It's Quite The Work Out

 

[Al]

Richard, how are you? Long time no see.

AL.

 

[ptich]

Excessive sweating, as well as feeling hot, may be a sign of high CO2 because of breathing problems. You should check your CO2 level in the blood, as well as take a breathing capacity test.

 

[rcharlton]

My Co2 Levels Are Still Low

It's All I Can Do To Raise My Hand To My Mouth - So After Popping 15 Pills I'm Sweating Like A Pig And Feel Like I've Been Doing Curls With A 50lb Dumbell

 

[AHands]

From what I've read, we have THREE nervous systems:
1. Sensory (touch and other senses)
2. Motor (muscle control or signaling)
3. Autonomic (heart rate, digestion, respiration rate, salivation, perspiration, diameter of the pupils, urination, and sexual arousal)

ALS, of course, affects the motor nerves and i think the official word is motor nerves only, but i too feel like it affects my skin temperature (unusually cool) and perspiration--especially night sweats (diabetes?). I think it also makes me smell funny, sometimes a bit like chlorine.

 

[wright]

Adrian is basically correct. We actually have two nervous systems, though.

1) Central nervous system, made-up of the brain and spinal cord

2) Peripheral nervous system, made-up of nerves, the organs they innervate along with sensory receptors.

The peripheral nervous system itself is further divided into a somatic division and an autonomic division. The somatic division innervates our skin and muscles via sensory and motor nerves. The autonomic division innervates visceral organs (e.g. digestive tract, glands, heart, blood vessels, lungs).

Therefore, if you had dysfunction of the nervous system that was causing you to sweat excessively, it would be due to dysfunction of the autonomic division. Given that your sweating is on a global scale, it makes this unlikely. Autonomic dysfunction when it comes to excess sweating typically doesn't cause global sweating problems.

It sounds like your sweating issues could be metabolic in nature. Have you had your thyroid checked? Hyperthyroidism causes an increase in metabolism, which would lead to an increase in heat production in the body, which would lead to excess sweating.


Adrian

The reason your sweat smells a bit like chlorine, is because we secrete a small fraction of urea and a very small fraction of ammonia in our sweat, both of which have a "chlorine-like" odor.