Things that increase our puls also increase our sweat production, since the increased puls leads to higher body temperature and increased sweating helps the body regulate its temperature.
Naturally, we sweat more when in a warm environment or during physical activity, but there are also other factors that can temporarily cause increased sweat production.
- Most, if not all of us have experienced how an important meeting, a date or a situation where we need to perform our very best under pressure also lead to a significant increase in sweat production.
- Hot spices. Spicy food, for example with chili tabasco or sambal oelek kan trigger sweating.
- Too much alcohol consumption.
- Illness. In addition to common fever, increased sweating is also common among people with cardiovascular disease as well as those with with increased metabolism due to e.g. goitre. Among diabetics, increased sweating can be a sign of low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia).
- Certain pharmaceutical treatments.
Extra fit sweat glands?
People that work out a lot, tend to start sweating earlier as well as produce more sweat. The reason is not that the number of sweat glands increase, but that they get extra fit and adapt gradually to be able to better and more effectively contribute to the cooling of the body. This is most obvious on larger areas of the skin, such as legs and arms, where there is high potential for evaporation.
The fact that men often have greater muscle mass, which generate heat, contribute to them normally sweating more than women. However, when comparing people with identical exercise levels and muscle masses, gender is irrelevant for the amount of sweat produced.
People with hyperhidrosis
For people suffering from hyperhidrosis, stimuli like warm temperature and physical activity is actually not needed to cause increased sweating, but of course they also sweat more under these circumstances. In the case of hyperhidrosis feeling tend to strongly impact sweating, making it easy to end up in a negative spiral. Knowing that you sweat a lot, you worry more, causing stress which lead to increased sweating. Sensing the sweating causes even more stress, so the key is to focus on staying calm and relaxed. An extra effective antiperspirant like Absolute Dry can really help in these situations. When you trust the antipersirant there is less stress to trigger sweating. Two factors working together against increased sweating.
Many people suffering from hyperhidrosis plan their activities carefully and allow more time to each task. For example they avoid being late for a meeting, the bus etc., causing them to rush to make it.
