Hyperhidrosis: What exactly counts as excessive sweating?

Sweating is a natural way that your body cools itself to maintain a healthy, constant temperature. Breaking out into profuse perspiration is a sign your body's working hard to cool itself down. It’s therefore a normal and healthy response to a rise in body temperature. It’s also a predictable physical reaction to emotions such as anxiety. Powering the production of perspiration are between two and four million sweat glands ¹ located all around your body. Your nerves trigger these glands to produce sweat in response to an increase in temperature, hormones, physical exercise, or emotions. As a general rule, if something causes you to feel hotter, you may need to sweat as a way for your body to balance out the increase in heat.

Do you look around a gym class and wonder, “am I sweating too much?” There are lots of unknowns around what causes some people to perspire more than others, but gender and genetic makeup are both likely to play a role. In most cases, sweating significantly more than a peer while exercising is harmless. If there’s a clear reason for your particularly sweaty armpits, this is not usually a sign of a problem.

The true definition of excessive sweating (or hyperhidrosis) is when your sweat glands aren’t overreacting in response to a specific physical need to sweat. In other words, you’re sweating for no reason. This might mean you feel you have to wipe your sweaty palms every time you shake hands. Or maybe you feel the need to change your clothes several times a day even when the weather is mild.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a simple answer. There are two main types of hyperhidrosis and these reflect some of the major differences in how people experience extreme sweating.

Primary focal hyperhidrosis affects about three in 100 people ². With this form, the sweat glands in specific areas of the body (commonly the palms, feet and underarms) are more active or more sensitive than normal. It isn’t caused by another medical condition and it isn’t connected to a side effect of a medication. Although it can interfere with quality of life, sufferers are overall healthy.

This type of excessive sweating is less common. It affects more or larger areas of the body and it can be linked to an underlying medical condition or medication you’re taking.

The causes of hyperhidrosis depend on the type you suffer with. In the case of primary focal hyperhidrosis, it’s often difficult for doctors to give a precise reason why you’re sweating too much. Although there’s suggestion it may be an inherited condition. ⁵ With secondary generalised hyperhidrosis, there’s a medical condition or medication that’s causing your sweat glands to be hyperactive. Your doctor can help you to identify the cause.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a magic hyperhidrosis cure that you can buy over-the-counter. However, luckily, there are a plethora of effective products on the market to help combat some of the symptoms and embarrassment caused by over sweating.

Although excessive sweating, or hyperhidrosis, can be a warning sign of an underlying health condition, it’s more likely to be a harmless yet inconvenient trait you’ve inherited from a parent. However, it can make people self-conscious and embarrassed, which might lead to social and emotional consequences. If how much you sweat is concerning you, it’s worth seeking advice from your GP on a hyperhidrosis treatment.