Judi Sheppard

ONE day I was watching a ballgame when an advertisement caught my attention. According to the voice-over, this roll on is "just for guys who sweat big". I wondered : Who are these big sweating guys? So I called the company. A spokesman told me that 25 percent of teen and adult males consider themselves " heavy sweaters", according to its research . Some of these men put on an extra undershirt each day to sop up their perspiration, or wear dark clothes to mask wet stains.

However, if you find yourself coming up with fashion strategies to deal with dampness, or you avoid certain social situations because of your prodigious perspiration, you may need more than heavy-duty toiletries. You may, in fact, have a medical condition known as hyperhiudrosis. Humans sweat to release heat, enabling us to maintain a healthy body temperature. Hot weather and exercise cause us to get dewy, of course. So can stress and anxiety. However, explains Dr. Richard Fischel of Chapman Medical Center in Orange , California , people with hyperhidrosis sweat when they shouldn't.

Their thermostats are set wrong. There are guys with hyperhidrosis who can shower, towel off and then immediately start dripping sweat. The cause of hyperhidrosis isn't known Overactive sweat glands may not be life-threatening, says Fischel, but they're a serious matter, nonetheless. He treats an equal number of men and women for the condition; males, he says, are more likely to complain that sweat palms and soaked dress shirts are interfering with their careers. Fischel tells of one patient who feared approaching his manager with business ideas that could have earned a promotion. What if the boss wanted to congratulate him with a hearty handshake?

Doctors can prescribe medications that may calm over-excited nerves. They sometimes recommend a special prescription - only ,sweat reducing solution that's applied at night to underarms , palms and other areas with excess perspiration. How ever, the solution may cause a rash, and the skin must be wrapped in plastic film overnight. Injections of Botox-a purified version of the toxin botulin - can paralyse the nerves that induce sweating, but they wear off. According to a recent review of the scientific literature published in Surgery Today, the only method known to stop these sweat assaults permanently is a procedure known as a sympathectomy. Doctors have known for several decades that blunting the activity of certain nerves in the chest can prevent the body from producing underarm and palm sweat. There are various ways to put these perspiration producers out of business. Most surgeons either burn, clip or snip the nerve in half.

There are a few risks with this sur gery. If nearby nerves are damaged, the patient can end up with other problems, such as drooping eyelids. What's more, a common side-effect of sympathectomy is known as " compensatory sweating". That is, all the prespiration that would have been gushing from your armpits and palms seem to be channelled to the chest, back and other body parts.

Fischel says that he and a colleague have discovered a way to overcome the problem of compensatory sweating: Remove the sweat making nerve altogether, Sounds drastic, but in July 2001, Fischel published a study of 100 patients in the medical journal Surgical Rounds showing that the new method virtually eliminated the problem of rerouted sweat, with no reported complications. The sympathectomy used to involve a large incision and the removal of a portion of several rubs. Lengthy hospital stays and recovery periods were necessary. But thanks to the development of surgical scopes and improved instruments, a sympathectomy can now be performed through a few small incisions in the back, each no bigger than the end of a drinking straw. The operation is usually performed on an outpatient basis.

Doctors should rule out other potential medical conditions that may cause excessive perspiration, such as hyperthyroidism or adrenal tumours. But since most people diagnosed with hyperhidrosis have been plagued by super-sweats since they were kids, it's usually pretty easy to spot.