Does anyone out there have it? For me, it's basically that I get overheated very easily - typically in situations with high humidity and higher (but not excessively high) temperatures.
I become very uncomfortable and - I believe this is an Americanism - sweat like a pig. It can be rather embarrassing, as a prime environment for it is a crowded social event with lots of warm bodies in a more confined space.
It comes on very quick and the only solution seems to go outside. If I get it when I'm outside, I typically have to go inside to air conditioning.
Anyone else? Any ideas where it's coming from? Any solutions? Thanks!
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winfong
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It is a not uncommon element of PMR. I am much less tolerant of heat now but don't really sweat that much - being a lady and all! That said - after my lunchtime walk yesterday I was fair plottin, the delicate term used in Scotland. But when the heat is dry I have far less of a problem than when it is humid.
Not sure sweating like a pig is an Americanism, It is said to derive from iron smelting and the pigs of iron looking like a sow with piglets. The same term exists in Italian.
You can get sweat bands filled with crystals to keep in the fridge and cool off round the neck head and risks. Have a look around online. I used a neckerchief when I had this symptom badly.
Indeed. Real pigs have few sweat glands and tend to pant like dogs to keep cool instead.
Attached is a photo of molten iron being poured into moulds pressed into sand. The long channel (runner) down the middle is the 'sow' and the hollows lined up alongside are the 'piglets'. The resultant ingots have been known as 'pig iron' since before the industrial revolution. They steam/smoke as they cool, giving the saying "sweating like a pig".
Workers moulding pig iron from molten metal. The ingots "sweat like a pig" as they cool.
Hello Winfong, yes, I had similar, but not identical problem. I was diagnosed with PMR in May 2016 and GCA in September 2016. Excessive sweating became a daily problem but for some reason was always so much worse at 9 pm every night. I was normally calmly reading.
About 2 years into my PMR/GCA journey it changed and became a problem that took me back to see the rheumatologist. I had to avoid any gatherings of more than a few people, they became radiators.
I paid nearly £100 for a ticket to see Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake and had to leave after 20 minutes. I had to leave the village AMDRAM production after 15 minutes, the hall is a reasonable size, no heating, but 100 people become 100 radiators. I couldn't walk around a supermarket for longer than 10 minutes, so I gave up and turned to online shopping.
My problem was, I totally lost the ability to sweat. I just became hotter and hotter, felt very unwell and would faint.
I understand the cause was down to the GCA interfering with temperature control part of my brain.
I have been in remission for 18 months and the problem has gradually reduced. Not back to normal, but very nearly.
I am not saying you have exactly the same problem, but it might be a similar cause. I was not given any treatment but had to change my plans and routines to help manage it.
It is not pleasant and can be restricting. I am still unable to go to the cinema, and although I can walk around a supermarket I try to be in and out within 20 minutes.
"I understand the cause was down to the GCA interfering with temperature control part of my brain."
Is that an official opinion? How interesting - because I have always thought that but never found any confirmation. Happens in PMR too - not just GCA, but it is less common.
I can't remember the exact words the doctor used, it was something like, "The thermo-regulation part of your brain has been affected by your PMR/GCA". She was pleasant, appeared interested, and asked more questions than any other professional I had seen over the nearly 7 years I was monitored. She was one of the junior doctors on rotation. She implied she would follow it up and get back to me. "Can't have you missing out on the ballet".
I didn't ever hear anything from her again.
I notice that you have mentioned it in replies to forum friends.
My experience has led me to believe there is an element of interference and possible short-term damage to that part of our brain. I don't know how long the inflammation had slowly been building up before I had symptoms or how long it took to go. The steroids certainly controlled the pain etc but as you rightly remind us they don't manage the underlying problem.
At the time, I thought it was an official opinion and not a throwaway remark.
Like all other forum members, I trust you, DL, and Snazzy.
Your level of research and access to reputable medical documents etc is invaluable.
I wonder, is it worth bringing up with Sarah M or some other interested party for a project?
Money, money, money ... We had a really interesting potential study come up a year or two ago - and Sarah was desperate to get it going but had been forbidden to take on any more by her boss!!
Oh yes me too, and I had previously only ever ‘glowed’!
We had a saying in NW England where I grew up, “Pigs sweat, gentlemen perspire, whilst ladies gently glow!”
Recently I was in Cyprus in a heatwave and it became intolerable. The sweat would literally soak my hair in seconds and would run down my face, it was dreadful.
Having lived permanently there in similar heat & this had never happened before, so I can only put it down to my relatively new conditions.
I have always been a “hot” person even before PMR and Pred. I carry a little rechargeable fan and a small tube of Biofreeze gel whenever I go out. Here is the link to the fan - it is on the UK Amazon site but I guess you could find it on the US one. It is a life-saver for me. This link is to the pink one but they also do it in green.
yes. For me it doesn’t have to be hot! Often mid morning, starts with my head…water pours out of every pore, in my eyes, ears, off end of nose, soaking wet hair! Local friends are used to it…next doors 8 year old ran in the house & fetched me a tissue! I don’t go shopping, or into towns. I thought it was linked to activity, seems to be when my body doesn’t like me doing too much…but now it happens daily, whatever I’m up to! Yesterday, first day out afterc14 days with Covid, we sat out in the forest (all I can manage due to breathlessness etc). When we got up to go home I realised my trousers were soaking!! Looking as if I’d wet myself, but I hadn’t! I’m getting a lot of kidney pain & issues with dehydration. I have to keep changing clothes & wash stuff as it has great salt marks on the collars! Asked Dr what it was, he has no idea, but he was dealing with my Coccydinia at the time & injecting the joint with depo medrone. Fans don’t help, I have head sweatbands to put on. We haven’t had any summer weather in England so I don’t know if it will be worse…except yesterdays incident! Any ideas would be gratefully received! S xx
Thank you for this thread. It is really interesting. I have a problem with my bed in humid windy weather, especially if I am stressed. I get both too hot and too cold at the same time and have to move to my spare bedroom which has a different bed and a different climate. I feel guilty for even having the problem (what if I wasn't lucky enough to have a spare room?) but perhaps I don't need to.
That's really interesting. I too now suffer from sweat running down my face when I am out walking in warm weather (first noticed on hols Greece, but also in direct sun in UK). I feel OK when it happens but it is a new thing for me, pre PMR I have always tolerated hot weather well. I assumed it must be a side effect of Prednisolone but obviously could be a PMR feature.I just make sure I drink loads of water after since I'm worried about getting dehydrated.
It does feel like another insult to have another joy from the menopause revisit 20 yrs down the line. If it was just feeling all the time, it would be easier to manage, but cold in between? Not fair
Yes, definitely! My thermostat just doesn't seem to work anymore. I am always hot when my husband is cold. Marital harmony has been maintained but only just!!
Started in our house when he had cancer in his 40s and was permanently cold. At some point I realised we slept better in a German double bed - 2 mattresses and 2 duvets. A visit to Ikea resulted in a 1.6m wide bed with 2 x 80cm mattresses and 2 duvets: winterweight plus for him, summerweight for me. Problem solved. It also stopped him pulling the entire duvet over to his side ...
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