Excessive Sweating, a.k.a. Hyperhidrosis Discussed Scientifically on the “Today Show”
By · on August 3, 2010Just before we left last week to go on our annual family vacation to Door County, Wisconsin, my mother casually mentioned that she saw “a girl talking about sweating” on the “Today Show”. Given that it has been a week since it aired (sorry!), you may have seen or heard about it, but nevertheless, I have it embedded below. It covers the bases succinctly and pretty well, and it is always, always good to see hyperhidrosis get attention.
Why is it that when nationally aired or syndicated shows do a segment on hyperhidrosis, their expert of choice seems to always be a doctor? Dr. Peterson (above) does an excellent job of laying out the scientific facts; wouldn’t it be a relief if for once someone who actually suffers from this disorder were given the chance to describe the emotional impact of hyperhidrosis?
The general lack of public awareness that abnormal sweating is a disorder, coupled with the perception of sweating as something distasteful, make for a whole lot of misconceptions on the public’s part and buckets full of shame on our parts. We need to be more vocal and less ashamed.
Hyperhidrosis isn’t going away, at least not anytime soon– we need to learn to manage it if we can’t cure it. Part of managing it must include being emotionally healthy about it, and the first step to emotional health has got to be openness. Openness leads to understanding. Wouldn’t that be nice??
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