Are you a sweaty and gross person? Here, The Body Odd and TODAY’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman can help.
We covered hyperhidrosis, a medical condition that causes extreme sweating, on The Body Odd today. Post features an interview with a person who didn’t discover she suffered from hyperhidrosis until her early 30s.
Imagine what your life would be like if your hands were always dripping in sweat: You’d make up excuses after giving a clammy handshake. You’d worry about your touch devices slipping out of your hands.
You’d avoid reading print editions of the newspaper to prevent staining your skin and clothes with ink. And you may even shy away from holding hands with your sweetheart.
Sophia Wastler, 36, of Virginia Beach, Va., has lived through all these situations. “You just think you’re a weird freak and you suffer in silence,” she admits.
Wastler also recalls being asked to go barefoot in modern dance class, and feeling embarrassed after leaving huge puddles at her feet and mortified when wiping them up.
It took Wastler until she was 31 to learn why her underarms, palms and soles of her feet were constantly soaked. She had gone to see a new doctor (not because of the sweating), and instead of giving her usual excuse after shaking his hand and leaving it moist, she blurted out, “My hands are always sweaty.”
Then the doctor told her, “You have hyperhidrosis.” That’s the first time Wastler heard of a medical condition that causes excessive sweating.
