Los Angeles | Wednesday
WORRIED about meeting people with that clammy handshake or dropping the ball because of those sweaty palms?
US scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) said Tuesday that the embarrassing affliction is not a sign of nervousness, but is instead a more widespread problem inherited from our parents.
But, the good news is that it can be cured.
”Traditionally, this syndrome was thought of as stress-related and has not been taken seriously by the medical community,” said Dr Samuel S. Ahn of UCLA’s Division of Vascular Surgery.
”This is one of the first studies helping to support that ‘sweaty palms’ is a real physiological disorder that can be passed from generation to generation,” Ahn said.
The UCLA researchers’ study, published in the Journal of Vascular Surgery, said there was strong evidence to suggest that ”sweaty-palm syndrome” is genetic and not nervous and affects five percent of the population.
The condition — known to the experts as hyperhidrosis, which involves excessive sweating through the hands and feet – was previously thought to affect less than one percent of the population.
Researchers took detailed family histories from 49 patients with hyperhidrosis for the study found that 65% of the patients reported family recurrence of the disorder.
But in the control group of subjects who did not suffer from sweaty palm syndrome, there were no reports of family recurrence.
”If one parent has the disorder, the study found that children have a 28% risk of also having hyperhidrosis,” the UCLA research concluded.
”Hyperhidrosis can truly affect one’s life and career,” said Ahn.
He said the problem could result in a policeman ”dropping a gun and having a suspect literally slip away, or a fireman not being able to pull a hose, or a banker unable to handle money due to severely sweating palms.”
The scientists said however they had pioneered a successful treatment for sweaty palms through ”minimally invasive” surgery which involves a non-motor nerve to the hands being severed.- Sapa-AFP