Case report: 'nerve crosstalk' causes excessive sweating after eating a bite of food
When you try spicy food or eat hotpot on a hot day, you may find your forehead sweating, but it is rare that you start to sweat just by stuffing your cheek with food. Cases have been reported in which the nerves near the ear that control saliva secretion were damaged, resulting in excessive sweating due to nerve signals that instruct the body to produce saliva.
Gustatory Hyperhidrosis after Parotid Surgery | New England Journal of Medicine
Woman drips with sweat from a bite of food due to rare nerve-wiring mix-up | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/09/woman-drips-with-sweat-from-a-bite-of-food-due-to-rare-nerve-wiring-mix-up/
Some damaged nerves can regenerate in a limited way, allowing a person to regain some function and sensation, but nerve signals can become confused during the process.
The September 7, 2024 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine reported the case of a 76-year-old Taiwanese woman whose nerves controlling saliva secreted during meals became intertwined with nerves controlling sweating to regulate body temperature.
According to doctors at the Tri-Service General Hospital in Taipei, the woman has been suffering from a condition in which her face becomes drenched in sweat every time she eats since around 2022. When the woman actually ate pork jerky in front of the doctor, her face was red and she was not sweating at first, but as soon as she started to chew, her face turned red and she began to sweat, and after 75 seconds, a waterfall of sweat was observed running down her neck.
Below are photos of a woman's profile taken from left to right, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 50 seconds, and 75 seconds after chewing.
If you play the video below, you can see a lot of sweat running down the woman's face.
The woman's condition is called 'gustatory hyperhidrosis,' or ' Frey's syndrome ,' and is a common complication in people who have surgery to remove the parotid gland , which is located just in front of the ear.
It's estimated that up to 96 percent of patients who undergo parotidectomy develop the condition, but when it does occur, it usually happens within 6 to 18 months after surgery, because it takes time for nerves to regenerate.
This woman had previously had surgery to remove her parotid gland, but it took about five years for the symptoms to appear after the surgery, and it is unclear why it took so long.
Doctors believe that gustatory hyperhidrosis may occur after injury or surgery to the salivary glands because the nerve fibers in this area are bundled together.
Fortunately, if you have gustatory hyperhidrosis, you can stop the sweat glands from working properly through surgery or Botox (botulinum toxin) injections, or you can use topical anticholinergic medications that block the action of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, or topical antiperspirants to stop sweating.
According to doctors, when they explained these treatments to women diagnosed with gustatory hyperhidrosis, the women 'chose to live with the condition.'
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