Notice I said "too much" in the title. That's because a bit of sweat is completely natural and suggesting that you stop sweating completely would be as harmful as sweating too much. Sweating is one way our bodies get rid of waste, admittedly in tiny quantities compared to other means. We sweat more when we are nervous or feeling nauseous or hot, and cold weather decreases sweating. The reason for all this is that sweating helps us stay cool - you can think of it as a kind of air-conditioning for your body.
Unfortunately, like all things to do with our bodies, there are some people for whom this all works slightly differently. Excessive sweating is a problem that many people suffer from. The medical term for this is hyperhidrosis and it can be a real problem for those affected. It may be a continuous condition or you may suffer episodes. Sometimes you can get on top of it with prescribed anti-perspirants or ask your local chemist about Aluminium Chloride as a possible solution.
Endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy (ETS) tries to control the sweating by carrying out surgery on the nerves that control your sweat glands. These are switched off by burning, cutting or clamping. In this case, reversing the surgery in the future is only possible if you have chosen the clamping method; the others are more permanent. The only reason why you might consider reversing this surgery is because of the side effects. As with all medical procedures, sometimes ETS causes side effects and may lead you to think again about this practice.
One of the major possible side effects of ETS is compensatory sweating. In this case, although sweating has been slowed or stopped in one place on the body, compensatory sweating occurs at other places on the body. So, if ETS was used to treat palms or hands, compensatory sweating could possibly occur in your underarms. Or your feet.
In many ways, palmar hyperhidrosis (where it just affects the hands) is the only type of hyperhidrosis where Endoscopic Thoracic Sympathectomy (ETS) is recommended. In this case, the success rate is often around 90-95%.
Obviously it would be good if you could avoid this kind of intervention completely. There are many suggestions for ways to control your hyperhidrosis and to help you stop sweating. Most of these are based around different kinds of food intake (or avoidance!).
Sage Tea is mentioned regularly as a possible herbal approach, with one to two cups a day said to produce a result in around a month. On the same lines, you should actually increase your water intake if possible. Water will help to cool your core-temperature (and if drunk chilled will even burn a tiny number of calories!) and this will help to control you to stop sweating so much.
On the downside, foods such as onions and garlic, spices and caffeine can sometimes increase your sweat output. So, try to ration these, maybe paying close attention to your sweat output to see if these have had a specific effect on you. Of course, just reducing these components in your diet may also help with any odors your sweat is carrying.
As a practical aside, simple things like wearing the right kind of clothing can help enormously. Light-colored clothing in summer will tend to soak up less of the sun's heat. Yes, black is "cool" to look at but is most definitely not cool where temperature is concerned.
Once you have tried all of the above, there is one further method before you get to surgery. This is more of a complete system approach to helping you to stop sweating. In it, you will be walked through a series of steps that will allow you to regain control of your excessive sweating. Check it out here.
I hope this that this has given some of you more hope for your futures. Make sure you take things a step at a time, and remember, if in doubt your physician and/or chemist will know much more about all of these possibilities than I can cover in this short article.
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