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  1. Buttercup, your story sounds just like mine, and like most people's here in the forums. We all have that in common, all the anxiety, all the pain, and all the struggle you have suffered because of your hands, I think the majority of us have suffered as well because of our hands. Since HS when the problem has started to get worse, I've have grown a more distant person, I really don't hang out with people as much as before because of feeling embarrassed because of my hands, I've now gotten through college as well but not without struggling from time to time just like before. About significant others, I dated two girls in HS, one longer than the other, one my sophomore year and the other my junior year. The girl I dated my junior year, never really said anything about my hands, we dated several months and she never complained, the people who complained the most were my guy friends who commented on my hands being cold and clammy whenever I shook their hands. I do remember this one girl, we never dated per say, but we had a thing for each other and we would spend a lot of time together and occasionally hold hands, well one day we were holding hands and one of my friends came over and we talked then shook my hand cause he was leaving well he said, "dude, you're sweating already," I was like "no not again," and she said "Yes, its because of the heat and energy between us," I looked at her and just smiled, then she grabbed my hand and we continued holding hands. I remember thinking that she should be the girl I should marry because she really accepts me for who I was, even with my sweaty hands and everything, sadly after graduating from HS, she went to college at the other end of the state of VA, we fell out of touch, and she is now married. But she wasn't the only one, a couple of years ago, when I went down to Colombia for summer vacation, I hooked up with this girl while I was down there, and she would hold my hand no problem, after I was back in the states, we were talking on the phone and she said "I miss you, I miss seeing you, I miss talking to you, I miss your sweaty hands, I miss hanging out with you..." I was like what the hell? that just took me by surprise, then I said, "yea my hands do sweat a lot, I think I'm sick." Still, even though these two girls have treated my problem like it was nothing at all, I'm still very hesitant when it comes to social interaction with other people because of HH, and just like I read someone would do in College, I would do all kinds of tricks in order to hide my problem, whether it be arriving early for class and sitting there for a while till I would stop sweating, constantly wiping my hands off with paper towels, going to the bathroom to pour hot water over my cold hands, or even wearing gloves and not taking them off in the winter, kinda hard to do the rest of the seasons.
  2. this happens to me as well, most of the time I know when I'm going to break out in a sweat, because my feet get really hot, my legs get hot, my butt get hot, its like I'm sitting on a hot plate, and then I feel the steam coming out of the collar of my shirt and my hands get sweaty and radiate heat like crazy.
  3. sounds exactly as to what has happened to me in the past, I've had to be fingerprinted several times, but had only had two really bad experiences, once in Colombia South America (I was born there) to get my ID at 18, and once at Miami International Airport after coming back from a trip to Colombia I had just turned 23. The time in Colombia was with ink and paper, not a good experience, and in Miami they used a machine with a laser reader, kinda like the one at the supermarket checkout, well it the damn laser could barely read my print, it kept saying that it couldn't get a "clean read."
  4. Yup, I have to agree with you, Alcohol actually keeps me from sweating, and I drink coffee every day, but I start sweating not just when I drink coffee, but usually when eating as well, I've found out that the smaller meals I eat, the less I sweat, I break out really bad after a big meal.
  5. here's what I did yesterday: I had graduation yesterday, and since I didn't have anough time since to "clean" myself out, I decided to not have lunch and go at it like that....I only had juice before leaving for graduation. I didn't sweat as much as before, or as I thought I would, there were times when my hands did get a little moist, but not as bad as before, and I wasn't constantly thinking about my hands....then came walking up and shaking hands, I just said "f---- it" and went up and didn't look back, hahaha, but my hands weren't terribly cold or sweaty so I don't think people really noticed.....I also did shake a lot of other peoples hands, I forced myself, and didn't get any negative reactions. We'll see when I try it longer.
  6. I'm going to give this a try, see if this well somehow helps me out with my hand sweating problem, if this is caused by Diet and the body's reactions to different foods/deficiencies, will this have any effect on the fact that some of the worst sweating "outbreaks" are usually in high stress areas? I know you said about being in the hospital and super nervous and not sweating......I hope this does address that problem as well.
  7. Since I can remember I always have felt nervous when doing certain things and specially when meeting new people, and sometimes when I had to talk to an elder (this was back when I was in my teens). I always thought that that nervousness was manifested by a tingling sensation in my hands, but I didnt' really "pay" attention to it, and this "manifestation" would be greater in the classroom, specially when I was called upon. Then my friends pointed it out that my hands were usually cold, clammy, and sweaty when ever they shook my hand.......after that point, is when I started "hiding" and avoiding all kinds of contact with people, or at least tried to as much as possible. :cry:
  8. Current Age: 23 Gender: M Age when your HH began and where, if you have it in multiple areas list at what age HH appeared in each area: hands/feet ~ 14 Out of the following which best classifies the amount you sweat and from where: hands, varies from light to mild sometimes heavy depending on situation/stress and such. Sweating accompanied with hot hands in hot weather, cold hands in cold weather.
  9. I always dreamed that maybe there be somekind of spray that you could spray your hands with and they would form a waterproof layer over your hands, that would last a regular work day....that would be nice.
  10. Well, now that the hot weather is here, I no longer wear a lot of layers to keep me hot, I mean, I tried, but I couldn't stand it..hahaha.....Now I'm just wearing a shirt and have also found out that when I wear Jeans I tend to sweat the most. Lately I haven't been sweating as much as before, I still sweat, but in less amounts and less times during the day. Like last week I was taking finals, and on Tuesday I started sweating as soon as I got into the testing room, but that room is always hot, seems that it doesn't have AC, so I don't know if that made it worse or what. On Wednesday, the other room was really cold, the desks were cold to the touch, and I didn't sweat a drop during the final......but then on Thursday, I didn't sweat during the exam, but started sweating when I saw the professor shaking the hands of the students who were handing in their exams... :cry: I'm just taking it a day at a time, right now I'm dry and able to type comfortably, I've learned to enjoy those times when my hands are dry and not sweaty, other times it is just really uncomfortable to handle stuff, like pens, cell phone, or laptop, and when that happens, I won't even try to write on paper, cause it just gets wet where my hand touches it.
  11. that's exactly what happens to me, but its worse when my body is colder, like I have been wearing an extra layer (wearing a long sleeve shirt under my dress shirt) and now my hands won't sweat as much as before, now I'll still get some perspiration but not as much as before where I would get everything "soaked."
  12. yes, I can also feel pulses, especially when my hands are starting to warm up again after an attack (where my hands start getting cold and sweat builds up) I have to take a picture of my keyboard when I'm having an attack, sweat builds up on the keys, and it looks like if a single water droplet had been placed on every single key where my fingers rest. About the blood flow, I do believe that it does something to do with it, and reading about Reynauds could explain what happens to us, I mean, when my hands are warm and not sweating, I can see the veins of top of my hands, but when I'm cold and sweaty, they seem to "sink" into the tops of my hands and are not that visible anymore. Ever since I've been trying to raise my body temperature by wearing the thermal top under my regular shirt, and now wearing thicker socks than I would usually wear, I have noticed a difference in the frequency of my "attacks." I had always tied my sweating problems with extreme temperature inside my body or something, and that why I would always try to wear shorts and short sleeve shirts to school when spring/summer came around, but I was puzzled why in an air conditioned room, both at school and at home I was sweating even more. Now reading about Reynauds, it says that it is triggered by cold air/temperatures, and that makes sense, so now I try to wear warmer clothes to school and it is making a difference. (been doing this for about 3 weeks now) One of the worst attacks recently (actually It was last summer, but one of the worst in recent time) was at school, where I sat to study/surf the web, and I was under the air conditioning vent, and just by feeling the cold air on my body I broke out sweating uncontrollably, it was really embarrassing, because that one time I was sweating like I had never sweated before.
  13. Its been a couple of weeks since my first post here, and I posted about my "low body temperature" theory, and keeping with that theme, I've done some more research online, and this is what I found. That's what happens to me, I get stressed and I start sweating, and my hands become really cold to the touch, like I mentioned before, its embarrassing to touch other people, especially when shaking their hands. Just like it has been mentioned here before, HH has two "stages," Primary and Secondary, this also has to stages. My hands never get numb tho, once I was outside in Winter, walking to class, and my hands got really cold, that they started to hurt, but never went numb. my hands have never turned colors, but it says that not all people experience the colors, when cold, my hands are white/pale tho. During the last winter, a lot of people commented on how cold my cheeks where, it was women when I greeted them by kissing them on the cheek. That's what happens to me, that's why during HS and my trip to colombia, I would get sweaty cold hands when I was in an air conditioned room, or when I entered a room/house that was cooler than the temperature outside. Here it is again, now they don't mention the sweating, but that may be triggered by the cold hands. Some researchers are studying whether Raynaud's may be partly an inherited disorder. This is where I was interested, they mention our little friends, The sympathetic nerves. Here is it suggested that the nerves be treated at the hands and feet, and not clamped inside your chest. This is what I'm doing, and it seems to be working, at least I don't sweat as much as before, and my hands aren't extremely cold indoors anymore, I know that when I start sweating/getting cold hands its because my body is getting cold. There was another site, where they suggested wearing a sweater inside, I do that, and they talked about core body temperature, where they said that even a slight drop in body temperature would trigger and attack. I don't know what to think anymore, I'm going to give some of the suggestion on this site and forums a try, and I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing for the past few weeks, because that seems to be working also, but in the end, I will have to do something else to cure myself from this disorder.
  14. this is exactly how it was for me in H.S. and that's why I would wear summer like clothes even in Spring, because I always thought I was hot, burning up....I would even wear shorts and short sleeve shirts when it was 40/50 degrees outside, to cool myself down........I could tell when my "sweat attacks" were about to take place because I would suddenly start feeling like if I was standing on hot coals or something, the heat would start at my feet, then go up through my legs, and it would feel like I was sitting on a hot plate....like I would place my hand on my jeans and they would be super hot to my hand, then I would feel the heat build up inside my shirt, I could actually feel it escaping through the collar of my shirt, and then my hands would be hot, would start sweating, I would feel them pulsating and I could again feel like they were radiating heat. Then after 10/20 minutes of sitting in the room with the AC on, sweating, my hands would start getting really cold, and when this happens in the winter and I'm outside, they get so cold that they feel like they are going to come off. And because the sweat of the hands is cold and not much warmer then room temperature, it gets all over anything I would touch, like my pen, papers, cell phone, car door, and I would have to wipe it off because it will just stay there, also because its embarrassing if other people see it, oh and one of my biggest fears was signing credit card receipts at the store, because I would place my hand on the counter and leave a wet streak of where my hand was resting on the counter. @teriyakigirl - that's probably it, I'm not saying that's not it, I know there is some kind of abnormality in my system, because if there wasn't I wouldn't have to wear thermals in the spring.......but what I've posted is just a way of dealing with my cold hands and the cold sweat from my hands, my hands still sweat, I'm not saying they don't, but much much less than before, and not as often, and my hands are no longer ice cold through out the day. Now I'm able to type without constantly wiping off the keyboard every 2 seconds, hold papers without leaving wet fingerprints all over them, grab a book without leaving wet streaks all over the hardbound cover, before I wasn't able to type such long posts without having a paper towel by my side to be wiping the keyboard off and wiping my hands off. What I have typed is not a cure, its a way to cope with my "disease," I mean my productive has shot up again since I've been doing what I'm doing, I had grown to "detest" doing homework because of my wet hands, not touch the computer because of my wet hands, and what I said I had to do when driving, I now longer do, I'm driving so much better now, I can maneuver without getting wetter hands because of the anxiety, and I'm shifting better as well (I drive a manual car.) I don't know, like I said before, we all have theories and little tricks to help us get through the day, this is what I do to get through my day. Another thing, I play intramural soccer at school, and one of the things I really dreaded and tried to avoid was shaking peoples hands at team meetings or at games, because even if it was hot outside, my hands would be cold, well last Sunday, I wore the long sleeve cotton shirt under my soccer jersey, and I shook a lot of hands, and I could feel some of the other hands that were colder than mine......it was around 10pm and it was chilly.
  15. I may be going on the wrong path here, but sometimes when my temperature is up or higher than what is is normal for me I sweat less and I find it that my day is a bit more comfortable. Reading thru the forums a few days ago, I read into a few pages back, and found this post by one of the members here: see that happens to me as well, so I figured that once I'm in bed and my whole body is at a comfortable temperature from head to toe that my sweating stops, and my hands become warm and dry. So I've been doing something for the past couple of days, I've been taking my hand skin temperature to see if there was any correlation. This morning, I'm not wearing my thermal top, I'm just wearing a long sleeve shirt with a white short sleeve undershirt. I took my temp minutes after getting up from bed, it was something around 93F I waited about 30 minutes, and I could feel my hands losing heat, took it again it was around 84F, then I started feeling my hands cold again, took it again it was around 77F the room temperature at my house was at 75F I then looked up "Normal skin temperature for a healthy human" and found that it should be around 91F right now as I'm typing this my house is at 73F, and took my hand (well actually more like my fingers, because I grab a digital thermometer between the tips of my index and thumb) and the temp is at exactly 73F if I put my hand on my lower arm, it feels really cold. I took the temperature of my lower arm, and it is at 86F, so the difference of my fingertip temperature and hand for that matter and my lower arm is 13F, and I get even worst when I'm in a room with the A/C on. I found this table that talks about the normal skin temperature of a human being (sorry about the formatting) Bibliographic Entry Result(w/surrounding text) StandardizedResultGiancoli, Douglas C. Physics. 247 (problem 45). "Assume that the thickness of tissues is 4.0 cm, that the skin is at 34 Â°C and the interior at 37 Â°C and that the surface area is 1.5m2." 34 Â°CEncarta Encyclopedia "Baths at skin temperature (about 37 Â°C/ 98.6 Â°F) are relaxing and sedative; those hotter or colder are stimulating." 37 Â°CFreitas, Robert A. Jr. 8.4 Functional Navigation. ( Thermography of the Human Body.) Nanomedicine. "After 3 hours in a hot room (50Â°C), skin temperature differentials amounted to only 2.5Â°C (= 35Â°C to 37.5Â°C), with an average core/surface gradient of ~1Â°C. With normal clothing in a room at 15-20 Â°C, mean skin temperature is 32-35Â°C." 32 - 35 Â°CKoehler, Kenneth R. Body Temperature Regulation. University of Cincinnati Raymond Walters College. "At room temperature, a person with 2 square meters of body surface area must (when nude) have a skin temperature of almost 32 C when the air is still. This is actually a pretty reasonable estimate." 32 Â°CThinsulate Insulation--Have You Checked Your Clo Lately? 3M. "In order to remain comfortable, the human body must maintain a skin temperature of 33 Â°C (91 Â°F) and be in thermal equilibrium with the environment." 33 Â°CSurviving Denali: Cold Toes. NOVA (June 7, 2000). PBS. "Once we got to camp I measured the temperature of my big toe and found it to be 42Â°F! Yet in spite of the frigid temperature, I still had feeling in my toes. At the same time my chest temperature was a balmy 88Â°F." 6 Â°C31 Â°C http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/AbantyFarzana.shtml The sentences in bold explain why my hands are room temperature right now, I can't possibly lose any more heat, because the air temperature keeps my body in thermal equilibrium. My cold hands are the reason why I tend to stay away from social gatherings, one of my friends after years of going to school together and hanging out with him, one day did put it out to me, he said "your hands are always cold, clammy, and sweaty" but he didn't really mind, we still did a lot of stuff together, but after that I was a bit more conscious about my hands tho. My biggest fear tho is that when it comes to getting intimate with a girl, and if I touch her with my cold hands, that might put her off, can you imagine (If you're a girl, since I'm a guy, how would you react if I put my cold hand on your body? or even a guy if a girl touched with cold hands all over your body) a cold hand running up and down your body......
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