Practice Question: Any way to stop excessive sweating?

[EFS White]

Once again, I am sure I didn't find the optimal place to put this question. Nonetheless, I would really love to hear your input on this...

 

I am bothered by an unpleasantry, and it is hyperhidrosis — excessive sweating.

 

Did any of you by any chance find an effective way / meditation / exercises or otherwise practice that helped you gain control of this issue?

 

Thank you for your suggestions!

 

--

 

(Now, I'll just elaborate a little more if anyone should have an extra second to read the whole wall of text).

 

My problem areas are my armpits. I can put on a clean shirt and not do any activity at all — yet usually within five minutes I will have sweat stains. And while this is bad enough, things get outright horrid once I am actually stressed out or get nervous. It is embarassing.

 

Now I know that sweating is a vital body function. All I am saying is that my sweating seems a lot worse than for anyone else I know, and needless to say it is somewhat gross. I also get a sense that it is, at least to some degree, psychosomatic, which is why I'd suggest that Qi Gong could potentially alleviate my problems. I have tried deep breathing and grounding exercises but so far I didn't see improvements.

 

Just want to briefly mention this: I have been getting terrible headaches all of my life, and they would get bad enough, probably every two to three weeks on average, that I would have to take Aspirin, although I would prefer not to take any pills at all.

 

I started picking up Qi Gong and ever since December of last year (2013) I did not have to take Aspirin any more, which is a record and a radical change for me. I am now able to make the headaches just go away through meditation and movements. I guess it is this very experience that leads me to believe that Qi Gong could help improving my hyperhidrosis problems as well.

 

Again, thank you for your suggestions.

[GreytoWhite]

Cut out caffeine intake if you're haven't already..

[Aetherous]

If you use antiperspirants, switch to regular deodorant. I had this issue back in high school, and when I switched it became totally normal.

[GrandmasterP]

Don't drink any kind of booze and avoid sodas and anything with caffeine apart from good tea.

Try internalising by thinking the 'winter wonderland' mantra.

Sounds whacky but it works for some.

I hum the tune on hot days it's as good as an iced drink IMO...

Lyrics here but I bet that know them already...

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening,

In the lane, snow is glistening

A beautiful sight,

We're happy tonight.

Walking in a winter wonderland.

 

Gone away is the bluebird,

Here to stay is a new bird

He sings a love song,

As we go along,

Walking in a winter wonderland.

 

In the meadow we can build a snowman,

Then pretend that he is Parson Brown

 

He'll say: Are you married?

We'll say: No man,

But you can do the job

When you're in town.

Edited June 9, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[EFS White]

Damnit, I suspected coffee could be behind it. This one will be hard to cut out.

As for deodorants, my skin doesn't take well to them so I cannot use any at all.

And the "winter wonderland" suggestion... it is just hilarious — but actually sounds convincing. I'll give it a try!

 

Thanks for all of these!

[SonOfTheGods]

Reverse MCO.

 

Also- coffee is a diuretic.

 

If you stop it, you may sweat even more.

 

Those toxins will come out, somewhere

Edited June 11, 2014 by SonOfTheGods

[dawei]

Those toxins will come out, somewhere

 

I was thinking this... I'd maybe try a detox diet for a week or so... see if you can get rid of as much as possible and then see how the body is.

 

I personally have a high threshold for sweating which I assume attributes to years of sports; my pulse stays low...

 

But if I drink hot (green) tea, I'll sweat like there is no tomorrow... So I've suspected the toxin angle is real for my body.

[Sloppy Zhang]

In no particular order of either reducing sweating or learning to deal with the sweat that you do have...

 

What is your level of physical fitness?

 

I found that when I was overweight and out of shape I would sweat a lot more. My body would be physically exerting itself to do even basic tasks (getting up, walking around, god forbid, going up stairs) would would of course cause me to perspire.

 

As I got (and am still getting) into better shape, I tend to sweat less because my body can handle various tasks more gracefully.

 

Qigong/meditation helps in a psychosomatic way, in my experience. Part of it is mental. You start sweating, so you get nervous about sweating, so you start sweating more, getting nervous about your pit stains, then boom, more sweating, then it's all over. So meditation practice to deal with letting it go and not caring about your sweat. The less you care, the less you sweat.

 

The other part is physical. Again, sweat happens to cool your body down. Why cool your body down? Because it's hot. Why is it hot? Because it's exerting itself. If you're carrying around physical tension, the kind you might not recognize, it could be causing you to sweat (then compelling you to get nervous about it, causing more sweating and more tensing). A qigong practice that identifies and releases tension in your body will lead to less exertion and thus less sweating.

 

Clothing.

 

You gotta wear clothing that minimizes sweating, or if you do, at least hides it. A gray shirt is going to show your pit stains really badly. A black shirt wont. If it's sweating all over though, you might get salt stains. So then you get a white shirt. That can show stains though.

 

Undershirts, if you are wearing clothes that involve multiple layers (say, to work). They can come pretty thin but can still be a good block, so, say, if you're going to work you can bring an extra shirt or two and change out throughout the day.

 

You may want wear looser clothes, so sweat doesn't stick as easily and you have more room to breathe. Not too loose, because you don't want to be wearing a potato sack, that's not fashionable

 

That's mostly how I've dealt with sweating in my life up to this point.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

read up on magnesium. It helps regulate internal temperature, and can also help with calmness. You can buy magnesium oxide powder very cheaply at healthfood stores. The dose will be on the bottle, I think a tablespoon per day. But as with most supplements, it's best to go 3-4 weeks on, then 1-2 weeks off, and stop when the issue goes away. This way your body can find it's own way to do it.

 

See a naturopathic doctor (N.D.) if you can afford it.

[soaring crane]

Saving for later

[EFS White]

These are all great, thanks.

 

In response to your question, Sloppy, I'd say my fitness level is above average but not perfect; say maybe 75%. This means I do sports six days a week, that would be four HIIT workouts and two lifting sessions, in addition I shoot for daily meditation and beginner's Qi Gong stuff.

 

I do suspect that for myself it's two things, the toxins angle (coffee, green tea, possible food intolerances etc) as well as the psychosomatic angle (neurotic holding patterns, tension etc). Easing off of coffee will definitely be hard, though.

 

Again, thank you for all of those suggestions!

Edited June 12, 2014 by EFS White

[soaring crane]

Hi EFS

 

first, you already got tons of ideas to work on, and I'd definitely +1 the coffee. Go cold turkey for for a week or two (I know, I know) just to monitor the change, if any. I suspect you might find that that's all that's causing the problem.

 

Something I wanted to add to the qigong angle - practice very sincerely keeping the armpits open while doing your qigong (what do you do, anyway?). A super simple 'test' is to simply stand like normal, turn the tips of the elbows outward to open the armpits (the classic 'hold raw eggs under the arms' position), and raise the arms slowly in front of you to about chest height.

 

Now lower them slowly to the start position.

 

Ah hah.

 

The arm pits closed, didn't they? They almost always do, it's an insecurity thing.

 

Practice the simple arm raising and lowering (it's the opening move from the '18 Taiji-Qigong movements aka Shibashi), until the arms glide smoothly back into the starting position, and you overcome the automatic defense-mechanism of compression the chest by pushing the armpits together.

 

This could have a positive effect in the long-term for you.

 

But first cut out the java

[soaring crane]

here - observe the man's arms in the opening move, and even moreso on the second move where he raises the arms and opens them, and them closes them again, but doesn't close them all the way:

 

Edited June 12, 2014 by soaring crane

[EFS White]

Will cut out coffee as its been suggested so often, but damn — I'll have to pick a good week for that.

 

Thank you for the armpits suggestion. The basic stance I use (I forget what it's called, but it's what Johnson describes in his outline for correct posture) includes this "raw eggs under the armpits" advice. Curiously, since I started this thread I automatically paid more attention to it and tried something very similar to what you described — sort of letting the hands and arms float up just a tiny little bit to create this openness in the armpits.

 

I also tried to have more natural magnesium yesterday (brazil nuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, bananas) and had a light dinner, and promptly yesterday evening I thought things were a little better. Maybe a perception deception. I'll keep an eye on it.

 

Thank you!

Edited June 13, 2014 by EFS White

[EFS White]

Just a follow up, if someone were to stumble across this having the same problem I did.

 

Thank you all again for your suggestions: My sweating, at least for now, has gotten a lot better! Since I implemented pretty much all of the aforementioned suggestions, of course it is impossible to tell which one is doing the job.

 

I am only guessing but I believe these to be the major ones:

 

1) I did cut my coffee intake to about 1/3 of what I used to drink (and I think this was a major factor)

2) I increased my Magnesium intake

3) I am focusing on relaxing my lower back, my shoulders and arms, energetically opening the arm pits.

 

As I dislike supplements I opted for eating nuts on a daily basis, so I'm now eating a handful of brazil nuts, almonds, cashews, peanuts, walnuts and some pumpkin seeds — all of which contain magnesium naturally. Now it may be the magnesium itself or some other ingredient of the nuts, but the feeling I have is that they sort of "dry out" my armpits.

 

I still sweat excessively when I do sports, fine, but throughout the rest of the day I sweat considerably less than I used to.

 

Well, if that was it... Wow, that was easy! I just hope this will prove to be effective long-term.

Edited July 2, 2014 by EFS White