Gustatory sweating is the sweating produced by consuming food or drink. Excess of sweating is caused when you eat spicy hot foods and there can be profuse sweating on the face, forehead and on your neck when you are ingesting food. The term “gustatory” means taste and hence this problem correlates with the taste buds and parotid glands.
Causes :
Gustatory sweating is caused when there is disruption in the nerve pathways. Damage can be caused to the nerves or its parts causing misdirected re-growth of the parasympathetic nerve receptors. There can be disruption or damage of signals that is sent to the parotid gland causing excess of sweating on the face and forehead.
It can be due to Frey syndrome in which sweating will be seen on one side of the face. When there is any trauma to the parotid gland or its pathways, wherein there is damage to the nerve, this may produce gustatory sweating. Hence, people who have undergone surgery in parotid gland or its removal (parotidectomy) are more prone to this form of sweating than others. During the process of surgery of parotidectomy, the surgeon may remove nerves in the neighborhood areas of the parotid glands, in case of malignant growth or tumor. The real problem arises during the healing process, wherein the nerves try to reconnect themselves giving connection to the sweat glands, discharging more quantity of sweat. The underlying nerves of sweat glands are triggered whenever they eat spicy or delicious foods resulting in gustatory sweating.
Gustatory sweating can also be induced due to diabetic neuropathy and the diabetic patients will sweat profusely on both sides of the head ranging from moderate to severe sweating. Since it is a rare condition observed only in diabetic patients very often they do not consult doctor for treating it. As per the reports of The American Diabetic Association, cheese and chocolate are the two foods that triggers gustatory sweating in many people.