Reduce Excessive Sweating

TIPS TO CONTROL AND REDUCE EXCESSIVE SWEATING

Excessive sweating refers to levels of sweating that make daily activities difficult. Having an excessive amount of sweat can disrupt your day-to-day life and cause crippling anxiety and embarrassment. Some people even avoid certain social or work events because they’re worried they’ll get too stressed or nervous and sweat to an embarrassing degree. Excessive sweating is commonly caused by stress. Two other factors are genetic make-up or an underlying medical condition. If excessive sweating has no underlying medical cause, it simply means that the nerves responsible for triggering your sweat glands are overactive and prompt sweat production even when it's not needed. It’s important to see a qualified physician to receive an accurate assessment before you can rule out any underlying medical conditions, such as diabetes, malaria, menopause or obesity.

DID YOU KNOW THAT STRESS IS A MAJOR CAUSE OF EXCESSIVE SWEATING?

There is good stress and there is bad stress. Good stress can keep you focused and determined on meeting deadlines and overcoming challenges, but bad stress causes all kinds of inconvenient body reactions including excessive sweating.

Bad stress can be triggered by all kinds of things in our daily routines - speaking in front of an audience, getting stuck in a traffic jam on the way to an important meeting, or going on a first date.

These stressful situations are often crucial moments in which we need to be our best, so it’s no wonder that it is in these circumstances that people from all around the world are most concerned about the embarrassing side effects of sweating.

WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF “EMOTIONAL SWEATING”?

Unlike thermal sweating, emotional sweating is often referred to as “having cold sweats" because it is not linked to the outside temperature and can occur even in shade or air-conditioned buildings.

Stressful situations trigger a typical series of body responses: our heart beats faster, the blood supply to the muscles increases and adrenalin is released into the blood stream.

This adrenalin rush triggers a rapid 'burst of sweat' - mainly in the underarms but also on the soles of the feet, the palm of the hand and the face. The apocrine sweat glands also become active and secrete the fatty sweat that skin bacteria feed on. This results in the unpleasant body odour - which is significantly more unpleasant than in the case of thermal sweating.

HOW TO OVERCOME AND REDUCE THE DISCOMFORT OF EXCESSIVE SWEATING

Although emotional sweating is often brought on by sudden stressful situations, there are things you can do to prepare yourself for any situation.

Here are some great practical tips you can use to help overcome and reduce excessive sweating when faced with stressful situations:

1. Reduce your levels of anxiety. Sweating from anxiety is a natural and common bodily process. So it follows the taking steps to help reduce your anxiety can also help to prevent sweating. Deep breathing is one of the simplest ways to calm yourself down. Breathe in and out deeply and slowly for as long as possible and you should start to relax.

2. Thinking positively. Do your best to flip a negative situation or feeling into a positive one. Just shifting your perspective in a stressful situation, like getting up in front of a big audience, can help your body respond more calmly. So instead of feeling your palms getting sweaty, your heart-rate rising, and then starting to panic, try to interpret these signs as excitement instead. Trick your mind and body into thinking it is experiencing something positive like hearing your name called out as the winner at an awards ceremony, for example.

3. Avoid common sweat triggers. Caffeine, spicy food, cigarettes and alcohol all affect your adrenaline levels and hormones, which can make you more prone to sweating. So when you have a potentially stressful situation coming up, stick to clean eating and drinking for the driest, sweat-reduced results.

4. Stay hydrated. When your body is dehydrated, your glands will produce more sweat to try and cool you down. Do the cooling down yourself and keep a water bottle nearby.

PASS YOUR STRESSFUL SITUATIONS WITH CONFIDENCE

Preparing yourself for stressful situations with the right deodorant is one of the best ways to reduce the potential for showing the embarrassing physical signs of sweating.

NIVEA Stress Protect Antiperspirant Deodorants deliver proven protection against emotional and excessive sweating. An internationally recognised test method, The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), confirms that NIVEA Stress Protect antiperspirant deodorant reduces sweating by up to 85%1) and effectively prevents the formation of body odour.

Its unique anti-bacterial formula combines Stress Protect actives and a zinc complex. Zinc is well known for its anti-bacterial effect and in the new NIVEA Stress Protect formulas, the zinc complex helps to minimise the formation of body odour. This formula also contains avocado oil, which gently cares for the underarm skin leaving it feel soft and smooth.

1) Source: TSST Test, daacro institute, 2012, Germany

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