Orthopaedic and Neurology Clinic Singapore

When is consider as Excessive Sweating?

Excessive sweating is defined as any amount of sweating that causes problems or distress. Most people feel extremely embarrassed by their excess sweating. They frequently report frustrations or problems with things most people take for granted:

• Frequently changing clothing because of underarm sweating
• Avoiding shaking hands
• Missing out on social gatherings due to concern about sweating
• Challenges with romantic relationships

Why sweat so much?

Producing sweat is how our body regulates our overall body temperature. Basically, any time our body temperature rises, we produce sweat, which helps cool our body down to normal temperature.

Because our body produces sweat any time our internal temperature rises, there are several things that could impact the amount of sweat we produce, including:

• Anxiety
• Hormone levels
• Outside temperatures
• Medications
• Physical activity

Basically our body is always sweating — even when we don’t feel it. If we’re lucky, the sweat that our body produces evaporates quickly. But if we produce a lot of sweat, it won’t evaporate as it’s produced, and we’ll start to see small droplets on our skin.

We have more than three million sweat glands on our body, so sweat can be produced pretty much anywhere. However, some parts of our body — such as our underarms, the soles of our feet, our groin area, and the palms of our hands — have more sweat glands than other areas. That’s why we might see more sweat production in those areas.