Suggest Treatment For Profuse Sweating In An Elderly Person

Posted on Sun, 28 Aug 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 28 Aug 2016 Answered on

Mon, 26 Sep 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : my spouse age 69 has had profuse sweating this am...he has type IIDM and his sugar this am was 117 - we are in air conditioning, and he has not done any strenuous physical activity, but continues to be clammy.

Answered by Dr. Panagiotis Zografakis (5 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Investigation is required

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

there are various potential causes for this disorder including some serious ones. I'll make a short (not exhaustive) list:
- fever, when the temperature goes down the patient sweats and feels hot
- bleeding (for example due to peptic ulcer). When blood is lost too fast the patient may experience cold sweats.
- acute cardiovascular events like acute myocardial infarction (heart attack). The patient with diabetes may suffer painless heart attacks.
- low blood pressure or low heart rate (metoprolol effect probably).

Other less serious causes may include thyroid disease, anxiety, various simple infections like gastroenteritis, etc.

Since some of the aforementioned disorders are pretty serious, investigation is required. You'd better visit a doctor for clinical examination and appropriate testing.

I hope it helps!
Kind Regards!

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar