What causes sudden profuse sweating?

Because there are sweat glands in the human body, they are distributed in different places. For example, some people have more sweat glands in their armpits, so it is very easy for them to sweat in their armpits in daily life. Some people have more developed sweat glands in their feet, so their feet are always sweating. The above are all normal and not some diseases. However, some friends may suddenly break out in a sweat. Why is that?

In medicine, sweating while awake is called "spontaneous sweating", and sweating during sleep is called "night sweats". Night sweats is a disease name in traditional Chinese medicine. It is a symptom characterized by abnormal sweating after falling asleep and stopping sweating after waking up. "Dao" means stealing. Ancient doctors used the sneaky activities of thieves at night to describe the disease that every time people fall asleep or just close their eyes and are about to fall asleep, sweat secretes like a thief.

Night sweats can be divided into physiological and pathological types. The incidence of physiological night sweats is especially high in children, which sometimes makes parents very nervous. Therefore, it is necessary to master how to distinguish between physiological and pathological night sweats.

(1) Physiological night sweats: In childhood, the skin is very tender, contains more water, has abundant capillaries, has active metabolism, and the autonomic nervous system regulation function is not yet perfect, so children are prone to sweating during activities. If children are too active before going to bed, the metabolism of various organs in the body will be active, which can increase the body's heat production. During sleep, the blood vessels in the skin will dilate, the sweat glands will secrete more, and the child will sweat profusely to help dissipate heat. Secondly, eating before going to bed can increase gastrointestinal motility, increase gastric juice secretion, and increase sweat gland secretion, which can cause children to sweat more after falling asleep, especially in the first 2 hours of sleep.

Within hours. In addition, if the indoor temperature is too high, or the quilt is too thick, or electric blanket is used, it can cause profuse sweating during sleep.

(2) Pathological night sweats: Some children sweat mainly in the first half of the night after falling asleep, which is often caused by low blood calcium. Low calcium can easily increase the excitability of the sympathetic nerves, just like turning on the "faucet" of the sweat glands. This situation is particularly common in children with rickets. However, night sweats are not a unique symptom of rickets. A comprehensive analysis should be conducted based on the child's feeding conditions, outdoor activities, etc. Blood calcium, blood phosphorus and wrist bone X-rays should also be checked to determine whether the child has active rickets.

Night sweats in children with tuberculosis are characterized by sweating all night long. In addition, there are other symptoms such as flushed face, low fever, weight loss, loss of appetite, and mood changes. Abnormalities can often be found by checking erythrocyte sedimentation rate, anti-tuberculosis antibodies, chest X-ray, etc. One thing to note is that a detailed check of the neck for enlarged lymph nodes is extremely valuable for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in children.

To sum up, any causes and diseases that affect the body's temperature regulation center and increase the excitability of the sympathetic nerves can cause night sweats in children. As parents, we should observe our children carefully and make a judgment after comprehensive analysis. We should not give medicines blindly to avoid adverse consequences.