Research Ideas

[hydroman123]

To be honest I think the estimation of 2.7% of the population having HH is pretty accurate if not on the high side. I'm not sure whether a proper definition of HH exists but to me it's sweating that's excessive to the point of affecting ones social interactions. When I was sitting for my exams I used to think how unlucky I was to be the only one using a handkerchief under my palm to stop sweat ruining my papers. My batch consisted of roughly 200 students.......so the percentage would be around 0.5%.

 

[Amherst]

I used to think that too- until I realized how hyperhidrosis can take place all over the body- and in places that no one is going to be aware of except the person suffering. My uncle suffers from plantar hyperhidrosis, but none of us ever knew until I asked him about it a few years ago. But Hydroman is right: it's difficult to measure. You can do gravimetric sweat measurements, but even those are going to vary widely depending on the time of the day, whether the person has drunk caffeine, how stressed that person is at that moment or even "white-coat syndrome." It's probably for that reason that most dermatologists use this subjective four-point scale. But even that is not always accurate. One anecdotal example: my father, who sweats even more than I do but doesn't care about it at all, rates his sweating as a 1 or 2. I'm more sensitive to it and would rate mine as a 3 or 4. Quantifying hyperhidrosis is really difficult, and Hydroman's definition is as good as any.