What Are Night Sweats a Sign Of

Tue, 10 Nov 2009
Many people suffer from night sweats, whereby they sweat so profusely that their bedsheets are dripping wet.

This can be related to haemochromatosis, however, this is unlikely. Around 1 in 200 of us carries the gene, whereby the body absorbs too much iron from food.

The body is not able to excrete this excess iron, causing damage to several organs and tissues, including the heart, liver and joints.

The symptoms appear purely once the organs are already damaged, which is the reason why the disease is often not diagnosed until middle age.

Often it is spotted after the patient has developed another condition related to organ damage, like cirrhosis (liver damage) or diabetes (pancreatic damage).

The most frequent symptom is fatigue; the skin may take on a bronze hue, and you can experience joint pain as well as a loss of libido . This is due to iron deposits accumulating in the testes or ovaries, impacting on their ability to produce the sex hormones testosterone and oestrogen .

As iron amasses in many multiple sites throughout the body, the symptoms can be varied, depending on which organ is affected.

Haemochromatosis can trigger hot flushes in women, due to the drop in their oestrogen levels.

Night sweating can also be a feature of certain kinds of cancer, such as lymphoma or leukaemia .

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