‘Sweating’ is something very normal for all of us. We sweat so many times in a day while we are doing our work or maybe exercising. However, it is not normal for some people who suffer from ‘sweating sicknesses’. If you search on the net about ‘sweating sickness’ you would probably find out that this was a disease that spread in England in the mid 14^th century. It spread from flu like virus and it resulted in death for many people and that too in just a couple of hours.

However, in modern times sweating sickness is a different aspect. In layman’s term, this sickness means heavy perspiration that is, sweating a lot. This sweating may be concentrated to some parts of the body like the hands, the feet or the groin area of a person. Or, this sickness may be generalized to all parts of the body of an individual. Sweating sickness can be a gripping thing for an individual as it may lead to the person feeling very uneasy due to his excessive sweating. It will not only make him suffer physically, but the confidence of that individual will also be shattered as this will put the individual in many strange social situations.

Many individuals find the sweating sickness funny, but it is a very devastating thing for the person who is going through it. Sweating is a normal aspect in the functioning of the body of a person. When the temperature of a person’s body rises from its normal temperature, our skin releases sweat from the sweat glands which help in regulating the temperature of our body and cooling us down. However, for some people this can be a very embarrassing thing and this sweating can occur in a number of areas on the body.

There are a lot of causes of excessive sweating in individuals. Some studies have even found out that this sickness may also occur because of a certain gene. This means that this sickness can be passed on from the parents to the child. This does not necessarily imply that the parents were also suffering from this sickness. It is just that the particular gene was present in the parent’s body and has been transferred to the child. The gene thus becomes active in the child’s body.

There are a lot of other causes of sweating sickness too. Certain disorders involving the glands, like pituitary or the thyroid gland might also lead to excessive sweating. Tumors, gout and menopause have also found to be the cause of sweating sickness. Other than these, a body’s reaction to a certain kind of drug and also poisoning due to mercury has been found to be the cause. Most people have this condition isolated to only certain areas of the body like the hands, feet, armpits or face, that is, the places where all people normally sweat. These parts sweat more because people with this sickness develop or have overactive sweat glands. Sweating sickness has been found in around 5% of the population of the world.