8 Diseases Where Sweating Is a Symptom

Most common disease causing excessive sweating: primary hyperhidrosis

In 90% of cases, excessive sweating is due to what is called primary hyperhidrosis:

➡️ Hyperhidrosis means excessive production of sweat by the sweat glands of the body, exceeding the normal needs for regulating body temperature;

➡️ Primary means that this condition is not a consequence of another medical condition. It is also referred to as idiopathic hyperhidrosis, it’s the same thing.

Primary hyperhidrosis = idiopathic hyperhidrosis = it’s a disease “in itself”, there is no other disease that is the cause of this excess sweating.

Primary hyperhidrosis can affect all parts of the body, from the most common (armpits, feet, hands, face, forehead) to the most atypical (groin, scalp, mustache, etc.).

If you are bothered by excessive sweating, it is therefore more likely to be this type of disease: primary hyperhidrosis, since it concerns 9 out of 10 people bothered by their sweating.

When there is another disease causing this excessive sweating (or another triggering factor), it is called secondary hyperhidrosis.

That’s what I’m going to talk to you about now.

Other diseases that can cause excessive sweating 1 out of 10 people with excessive sweating has a disease that causes it, or another explanatory factor (I will also detail them later).

What are these diseases that can trigger excessive sweating?

They can be classified into 2 categories:

• Chronic diseases: which last for several months, years, or even a lifetime;
• Acute diseases: which only last for a few days or weeks, rarely longer.

What are the most common diseases causing excessive sweating?

A research team at a hospital in France conducted an interesting study on the most common diseases causing excessive sweating (Collercandy 2022).

They followed 420 people who visited the hospital in Tours for a problem of excessive sweating.

Here are the most frequently found causes of sweating in these people:

• 28%: other non-inflammatory conditions;
• 17%: other inflammatory conditions;
• 17%: no cause found;
• 14%: malignant hematological disorders (most often non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma);
• 10%: infectious diseases (most often tuberculosis);
• 14%: cancer of an organ (most often lung cancer; see my article on excessive sweating and cancer).

The researchers conclude that if sweating has been excessive for more than a year, the risk of sweating being due to a malignant cancer or infection is very low.

Chronic diseases causing excessive sweating

I first list here the chronic diseases (= lasting a long time) that can cause excessive sweating:

• diabetes;
• thyroid problems;
• Parkinson’s disease;
• heart failure;
• rheumatoid arthritis, etc.

Acute diseases (= transient) causing excessive sweating

In more transient diseases, we can mention:

• tuberculosis;
• fever due to another infection (a simple upper respiratory tract infection, for example);
• a gout attack; etc.

See the complete list of acute and chronic diseases that can cause excessive sweating proposed by Sweat Help, the international association on excessive sweating, here.

Sometimes excessive sweating is not caused by a disease

Sometimes, excessive sweating is neither caused by primary hyperhidrosis nor by a disease. In this case, it is due to:

• Menopause;
• Overweight or obesity;
• Excessive alcohol consumption;
• Withdrawal from certain drugs like cannabis;
• Taking certain medications. Especially (but not only) opioids (morphine, tramadol), medications used for psychiatric disorders or Parkinson’s disease, antibiotics, medications affecting hormones. See my article on medications causing hyperhidrosis.

And sometimes, it is possible to have several of these conditions at once: menopause + obesity, medications + alcohol, etc. In this case, it is said that hyperhidrosis is multifactorial: due to several factors.

How do I know which disease is causing my sweating?

If your excessive sweating has suddenly appeared, if it worries you, you can first talk to your general practitioner.

General practitioners are trained to perform what is called a differential diagnosis: by asking you questions, examining you, and (sometimes) performing additional tests, they can eliminate diseases that may cause excessive sweating.

Additional tests such as blood tests are not always performed because sometimes the physical examination and questions are sufficient to determine that the excessive sweating is primary: without another underlying disease.

If in doubt, your general practitioner may refer you to a dermatologist, endocrinologist, or neurologist. There is no specialist doctor for hyperhidrosis (in the sense that these doctors would only deal with this problem).

***

Do you have any comments or questions? Your comments are welcome 🙂 !

You may also like:

• My blog on hyperhidrosis
• Drugs causing excessive sweating

 📚 SOURCES

Endo et al., « Genome-Wide Association Study in Japanese Females Identifies Fifteen Novel Skin-Related Trait Associations ». 2018

Les médicaments qui causent la transpiration excessive. Dermnet, ici (en anglais)

L’hyperhidrose primaire et secondaire selon SweatHelp, principale association sur l’hyperhidrose (en anglais) : ici

Synthèse des connaissances scientifiques, en 2021 sur l’hyperhidrose, en anglais : ici

Collercandy N, Thorey C, Diot E, Grammatico-Guillon L, Thillard EM, Bernard L, Maillot F, Lemaignen A. When to investigate for secondary hyperhidrosis: data from a retrospective cohort of all causes of recurrent sweating. Ann Med. 2022 Dec;54(1):2089-2101. doi: 10.1080/07853890.2022.2102675. PMID: 35903938; PMCID: PMC9455328.