We’ve finally had a proper hot summer! 2013 has been one of the 10th hottest summers ever – in fact, we’ve had the best weather in the UK since 1995.
Temperatures in July, particularly in the South East, were so high that the Met Office was forced to issue a Level 3 Heatwave Warning for England, a country far more used to flood warnings than heatwave ones!
The mercury regularly hit 30c (88f) and it wasn’t just hot during the day, but at night also, making it difficult for many to sleep. This continued through most August, and Met Office figures reveal that the UK average temperature for the three months from June to be just over 15c (almost 60f), making it one of the 10th hottest summers.
For most of the population, the glorious, sunny weather was very welcome. But for some, hot sweaty days and long sticky nights are the stuff of nightmares.
Hyperhidrosis is the medical term for excessive sweating. Obviously the problem gets worse during times like this, when the weather is constantly hot and sticky, particularly when the temperatures are high during the day AND night.
Hyperhidrosis sufferers can experience a lot of stress embarrassment about the problem which may force them to stop playing sports, change clothes frequently, feel continually self-conscious, alter social arrangements and impact on self-confidence.
Sweating is the body’s natural cooling mechanism and it’s been put to good use by all of us this summer. But when the body produces more sweat than is necessary to cool the body, this is called hyperhidrosis. Excessive sweating occurs mostly on the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet and the underarms, the latter being the most common.
There may be certain triggers such as stress, anxiety, heat or even spicy food and it usually begins in early adulthood. There’s no real known cause – it’s just believed that the sweat glands in these particular areas are more sensitive than normal. There is some evidence that it may be partly genetic however.
If your body is producing excess sweat to the extent that it’s interfering with your daily life, Botox injections may help. Botox injections are becoming more and more popular as a medical treatment for hyperhidrosis because they are an effective treatment, for underarm sweating.
The procedure can be performed in around 20 minutes and involves having lots of small injections just under the skin of each underarm. They work by blocking the nerves that control the sweat glands and the treatment usually results in a 90% reduction in underarm sweating that lasts for about six months from one session.
So if Autumn does turn out to be a scorcher and your worried about excessive sweating, speak to the Face Clinic London team and enjoy the hot weather. It might be another 20 years before we have weather like this again!