Hi all. I am new to the post. I was diagnosed w/SCC base of tongue and lymph node in April 2007. Completed radiation and chemo in August 2007. I'm doing great. I was wondering if anyone else has this symptom. A few months after completion of treatment, I began to experience a problem of forehead sweating while eating. The particular food being eaten doesn't make any difference. I can be eating something totally bland, yet still the forehead sweating. All this forehead sweating, but still not much saliva! I haven't seen anyone else mention this particular malady. I know that when I consider all I've been through and the fact that I'm doing so well now, the sweating seems very minor. I keep forgetting to mention this to the doctor. Anyone else have this? Thanks for any insight.

Welcome to the OCF. Are you having any other symptoms, not necessarily connected to the H & N region? Do you have regular blood work done? Are your TSH levels OK? I really haven't heard of anyone else with the forehead sweating as a result of our Tx but some people do sweat when they eat and regardless of what they eat because they are simply raising their bodies metabolism and pulse. Stress and anxiety can also increase one's sweating. Heck it's a wonder we all don't sweat while eating.

When I was on my most recent PEG, sweating told me that I was taking the liquid food in too fast -- My next symptoms would be a belly ache followed by a rapid egress towards the bathroom...

yes I sweat like crazy at first because eating took so much effort and probably all the drugs I was on too.

Slow down! LOL...I'm sorry...JK. I would listen to Dave and talk to the Doctor...Are you on any kind saliva meds?

I sweat when I eat a very small meal takes me forever. It's just to hard to eat without teeth. But I sweat it out and go for it.

Lola,

I hope this will be helpful.

I experience sweating when eating in the area of my chin where I had my neck dissection. It is called "Gustatory Sweating" and resulted from damage to the nerve going to the parotid gland which causes saliva production when food is in the mouth. When this first happened I thought I was crazy, but did some research. Although I am a dentist, I had never come across this during my professional career and was quite surpeised to find out what it was.

My understanding is that when the nerves regenerate, they innervate the sweat glands instead of the parotid gland and the stimulus of the food causes the sweating.

I Googled the term just now and this is a quote from what I found:

[quote]Gustatory sweating: Sweating on the forehead, face, scalp, and neck occurring soon after ingesting food. Some gustatory sweating is normal after eating hot, spicy foods. Otherwise, gustatory sweating is most commonly a result of damage to a nerve that goes to the parotid gland, the large salivary gland in the cheek. In this setting, referred to as Frey syndrome, the sweating is usually on one side of the head. Gustatory sweating is also a rare complication of diabetes mellitus. In this case sweating may occur on both sides of the head, with mild or substantial severity. [/quote]

So what I'm thinking MIGHT be occuring with you is a simlar situation resulting from damage from the radiation to your parotid or some other nerve that is causing this.

You should of course check with your doctor and I would be interested in hearing what they have to say.

Hope this was helpful.

Jerry

Jerry has provided evidence that what you are experiencing is normal. I too have noticed that I sweat (and often get a runny nose) while eating. It has changed and become less over time. There was a discussion about this in the past and a lot of people report either sweating or nose running while eating. There were some that speculated that this is a natural body reaction to loss of saliva. Who knows for sure but it is common enough and is really not that big of a deal.

If you are taking Salagen, it will make sweating more pronounced for sure.

PS hello to you Jerry!

My nose has run while eating for years - just like my Dad's. Are you saying that I can blame it on my treatment?

Excellent.

Wow thats another thing I can chalk up to the 'little lovlies' I got from tx. My nose runs like crazy whenever I eat anything. Just thought it was my sinuses that were shot from rad tx. I havent gotten the sweating problem, that must not be fun.