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Night Sweats Information & Resources at Crazy4Health
Night sweats, or as it is called in the medical community, nocturnal hyperhydrosis, is excessive sweating that occurs during your sleep hours. Sleep is greatly disturbed by night sweats, due to restlessness, constant tossing and turning, and getting up to change soaked pajamas or sheets. Night sweats can also be caused by other medical disorders as well, and is not just related to menopause.
People who have a serious illness characterized by high fever like tuberculosis and lymphoma, and chronic diseases such as diabetes, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and migraine headaches can all exhibit night sweats. Other serious conditions like head injury or spinal cord infarction can also cause night sweats, but the cause may not always be so obvious.
According to the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), night sweats can be caused by even more health conditions that mentioned above. Though these diseases should remain important diagnostic considerations, other diseases should be considered to be a contributing cause as well. Chronic illness such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), hypoglycemia, hyperthyroidism, and obstructive sleep apnea, play a significant role as well less common diseases.
Certain prescription drugs can also be to blame in causing night sweats. Medications such as antihypertensives, antipyretics, and drugs like alcohol, cocaine, and heroin should not be excluded. Information gathered through routine history and physical should lead the interviewer to the cause of night sweats. If not, a series of tests and procedures can be conducted to determine the exact cause, the most common being a complete blood count (CBC), HIV test, tuberculin skin testing, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), chest x-ray, CT scans, and biopsies of bone marrow if necessary.
Once the cause of night sweats has been determined, measures can be taken to decrease their occurrence and enable the sufferer to sleep undisturbed through the night. Natural herbal remedies are a common treatment for night sweats related to menopause, and may be effective in reducing symptoms as related to other diseases as well. Some online sources state that night sweats may be very natural for some people, related to genetic factors or other harmless reasons.
This is why it is important for people who experience night sweats to consult their physician to rule out more serious underlying cause, especially if this is something new that has not occurred in the past, and no outward health conditions are present. Resources are provided below to aid in your search for further information on the causes of your "night sweats".
Additional resources on night sweats:
sleepdisorders.about.com Night sweats isn't really a sleep disorder, but it's one of my most popular topics...
www.aafp.org Night sweats has been defined as drenching sweats that require the patient to change bedclothes...
www.stanford.edu Sleep Hyperhidrosis (Night sweats, excessive sweating)...