Sweat is an important regulatory mechanism of your body - it makes sure that your body doesn't overheat. But for some people, this mechanism gets out of control and turns into a problem. If you are one of them, you will find this article insightful.
Maybe you already know that there are actually different kinds of sweat. The most nasty kind of sweat is called apocrine sweat - it is called that way because it is produced by the apocrine sweat glands. This sweat has a certain, unpleasant odor to it and is a bit more thick and milky. You might have noticed that children generally don't smell as bad as adults when they sweat - that's because the apocrine sweat glands aren't really developed when we're still a child.
Antiperspirants don't really help as good as they should - yes, sometimes they help to reduce the sweat, but for people with a real hyperhidrosis, this is simply not enough.
On the other extreme side of it is a surgery that is called ETS surgery (Endoscopic Thoracic Sympathectomy). Here you basically "deactivate" certain sweat glands permanently. A doctor cuts your body open and destroys certain nerve endings that control sweat glands in a particular area.
Now, if you are really desperate about your sweat problem, this might sound like a solution worth considering. However, what often happens is that a phenomenon called "compensatory sweating" occurs. That basically means that you sweat in another part of your body. Oftentimes, the compensatory sweating is just as bad, and in some cases even worse than the original sweating problem that caused you to go for surgery. A recent study has shown that 90% of the people who undergo ETS surgery end up with severe compensatory sweating within five years.
One thing you might want to try is to use a loofah to scrub your body daily. In fact, you can even use this instead of soap. In many cases, this helps to reduce your sweating. One of the theories why this works is that the rubbing somehow stimulates the sweat glands. Whatever the reason, it can be the first step towards reducing your excessive sweating problem.
