Why Do I Sweat So Much? Reasons and Treatments for Excessive Sweating

Sweating too much is an uncomfortable and difficult experience to endure, and worrying about armpit stains and body odor is hard enough in everyday life — let alone on special occasions.

At the same time, it’s important to know that you’re not alone. Excessive sweating is more common than you might think, and despite the swathes of information (and misinformation) on the web, there are treatments that will help you overcome the burden.

Fortunately, the effective treatments for excessive sweating work regardless of the underlying reasons, because they target the mechanics of underarm sweat glands. Put simply, they create temporary plugs to block your pores and reduce the impact of an overactive system.

But it’s still important to know why you’re sweating so much, especially if health problems might be linked to your perspiration.

In this post, we’ll explore a few key topics, including-

Why do you sweat so much, and the different types of excessive sweating
What could be exacerbating your excessive sweating experience
The treatments that can help you stop sweating so much

Why Do I Sweat So Much? Two Categories of Excessive Sweating

The technical definition for excessive sweating is hyperhidrosis. While this might sound like a frightening medical diagnosis, it’s actually just a term that can be used by doctors to describe the condition. Basically, if you’re sweating excessively in the absence of high temperatures or physical activity, you have a form of hyperhidrosis. But as we’ll explain later, it can be treated.

According to medical professionals, there are two main categories of hyperhidrosis:

Primary focal hyperhidrosis: This is still a bit of a mystery to experts, but it’s clear that people with this condition tend to have an overactive nervous system in the areas that control their sweat glands, causing them to sweat heavily even when they’re not exerting themselves. This category is also known as essential hyperhidrosis.
Secondary hyperhidrosis: This is diagnosed when a different health condition is causing your heavy sweating — or when excessive sweating emerges as a side effect of a medication. It can be related to issues like diabetes, infections, obesity, low blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, or an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism). Secondary hyperhidrosis can also occur during menopause.

Importantly, primary focal hyperhidrosis sufferers don’t experience heavy sweating while sleeping — and usually, the sweating is focused on specific parts of the body such as the face, back, hands, soles of the feet, or forehead. Secondary hyperhidrosis can cause generalized sweating over the entire body and may occur during sleep, too (a.k.a night sweats).

If you experience primary focal hyperhidrosis (there’s a good chance you do), there’s no “cure” per se. You could take extreme measures such as injecting painful botox into your underarms or having surgery to cut or clamp your sweat glands — but otherwise, primary hyperhidrosis can be easily managed with effective topical treatment, like Duradry — which we’ll get into later.

When it comes to secondary hyperhidrosis, obviously the underlying medical condition needs to be addressed by your doctor. Alternatively, it might be an unavoidable side effect of prescription medications that you’re taking. In either case, you can still benefit from the same treatment that primary focal hyperhidrosis sufferers use to control their sweating.

**Reasons Why Your Excessive Sweating Might Get Worse**

First, it’s important to say that if you experience any form of hyperhidrosis, you’ll have uncontrolled excess sweating in a range of different situations — even without stimuli. At the same time, you might be unwittingly worsening the effects of your hyperhidrosis. Here’s how:

Hot showers: You’re going to sweat anyway, but getting out of an extra hot shower and/or getting dressed before cooling down won’t get you started on the best foot.
Allowing anxiety to take hold: We know it’s easier said than done to tackle the root causes of anxiety. But anxiety can contribute to a vicious cycle: it makes you sweat more, which increases self-consciousness and anxiety further, thus compounding the physical and emotional toils of hyperhidrosis. If you think anxiety is a driving force behind your hyperhidrosis, consider seeking the help of a medical professional.
Too much alcohol or caffeine: Caffeine is a stimulant, so it kicks your nervous system into gear — which can increase your sweating levels. Alcohol also causes physiological changes and affects the same part of the sympathetic nervous system that controls sweat glands and regulates body temperature.
Spicy food: Just like avoiding hot showers, giving spicy food a miss won’t stop your hyperhidrosis, but making a beeline for the jalapeños is definitely unhelpful.

While some blogs out there talk about washing regularly to prevent excessive sweating, we all know that doesn’t really make a difference to your perspiration levels. At the same time, body odor is a result of bacteria buildup over time — so washing your armpits and other affected areas each morning and evening will lessen the risk of body odor and may reduce your unease.

Another common piece of advice is to avoid tight clothing. Again, this is purely to lessen the visual impact of sweating — i.e. to hide the sweat stains. If you can effectively prevent your excessive sweating in the first place, you’ll be able to wear anything that you desire.

Which Treatments Help You Stop Excessive Sweating?

Whatever the underlying reasons for your excessive sweating, you can use topical treatments to block the effects and stay dry for the whole day, every day.

If you’re currently struggling with too much sweat, you’ve probably tried all the conventional antiperspirants on the market. You might have even tried the clinical-strength (or prescription-strength) products — of which there are lots of serious and not-so-serious brands.

Here, we want to present Duradry’s 3-step solution (starting at just $20), and explain exactly what makes it better than the alternative treatments for excessive sweating.

Duradry: The Complete Solution to Excessive Sweating, Whatever the Cause

Duradry’s 3-step solution was developed by me, Jack. I suffered from primary focal hyperhidrosis, and grew frustrated with how so many of the leading antiperspirant brands simply didn’t work. This led me to look into what does work, and this was the start of Duradry.

Duradry is uniquely effective for four main reasons. These are:

#1: It’s a Complete Solution

Our full 3-step system gives total dryness to 97% of users:

Duradry PM: Duradry PM is an unscented gel that you apply at bedtime. This product does the heavy-lifting, using 15% Aluminum Chloride to create a temporary plug in your pores — the perfect strength to be highly effective without skin irritation.
Duradry AM: Our daily clinical-strength antiperspirant, which you apply as a stick. Containing the maximum FDA-permitted amount of Aluminum Zirconium Trichlorohydrex Glycine (20%), it soaks up sweat and odors throughout the day.
Duradry Wash: A deep-cleaning solution, designed to remove bacteria and antiperspirant residue — allowing Duradry PM and Duradry AM to work their best. Packed full of natural ingredients, vitamins, and moisturizers.

#2: Our Active Ingredients

We only use the purest active ingredients, sourced from the most reputable European suppliers. This ensures that you get the full-strength active ingredients working on your pores. And to repeat: the strength of our active ingredients is balanced to maximize effectiveness while minimizing irritation.

#3: Our Supportive Ingredients

We continuously work to improve the efficacy of Duradry, which is more than can be said for many alternative treatments — particularly the prescription-only antiperspirants. As one example, Duradry PM is the only formula that now combines Aluminum Chloride with Salicylic Acid — which studies show increased effectiveness while reducing the risk of skin irritation even further.

#4: Cheap Cost-per-Application

Our 3-step system pack is designed to last for 8 whole weeks of use. And compared to wipes and roll-ons, Duradry comes out as one of the cheapest cost-per-application — meaning you get more bang for your buck.

Try Duradry’s 3-step solution that actually works to stop excessive sweating. Use Duradry PM at bedtime, Duradry AM in the morning, and Duradry Wash to deep clean and prepare your skin for total protection against hyperhidrosis. Get started for just $20.

Alternatives to Duradry

There are of course alternative hyperhidrosis treatments available, from mainstream consumer products (not usually effective for extreme sweating) to prescription antiperspirants and extreme options like botox and surgery:

Clinical-strength antiperspirants: Store-bought brands like Sure, Dove, Degree, and Secret are using the “clinical-strength” label for marketing purposes, while often simply using more of the same ingredients that actually don’t help hyperhidrosis sufferers.
Prescription-only antiperspirants: These typically use strong levels of active ingredients (e.g. 20% Aluminum Chloride) which have a higher chance of causing irritation. And you have the hassle and cost of going to the doctor and picking up your prescription.
Medical procedures: Medical procedures such as botox injections, surgery (sympathectomy), or microwave therapy are costly, painful, and inconvenient. And some are more effective than others. Botox only lasts a few months, and for many people, surgery can cause more problems than it solves.

Final Thoughts: Why Do I Sweat So Much, and How Can I Stop It?

If you’re sweating excessively while going about your normal daily activities, without overheating and without strenuous exercise, you have hyperhidrosis. While there’s no cure for the underlying cause of primary hyperhidrosis, you can manage it easily by avoiding activities that make excess sweat worse, and by using products that actually stop sweat production.

In terms of treatment options, conventional antiperspirant and deodorant won’t cut it. For excessive sweating, you need a more robust solution. And this is where Duradry can help.