HOW I STOPPED SWEATING

The True Story About How I Got Over Hyperhidrosis

Remember: You should always seek a doctor with your excessive sweating!

I sought the doctor and fortunately there was no serious illness that caused my sweating problem.
Unfortunately though, the doctors could not help me with my excessive sweating.
Many of you might have had the same experience, and hopefully this book can be of some help to
you.

This is the true story about how I got over my sweating problem. Actually it isn't really, but it is
advice to get over excessive sweating, based on how I got over excessive sweating. This advice
have reduced my sweating to normal levels, and all in all just made me a happy man. I sincerely
hope to help people in the same direction with this short writing.
The advice is based on my teenage life of sweating; on three years of daily Internet research; mostly
getting me nowhere. I wish I could have been reading all this four years ago, because that would
surely have saved me so much suffering; bad self confidence, a bad insecure social life, despair and
sadness. Unfortunately I couldn't, and it took me about three painful years of heavy Internet
research and trial and error to discover what I have discovered. So what I hopefully can do is to
relieve other people's suffering then, and if I can help just one person to get just a small percentage
of the improvement I have had, this has been more than worth writing, and I will be very happy.
So let us get to it!

I started sweating about four years ago, when I was 14. My sweating problem was mainly in my
armpit. I would sweat extremely much from my armpit and my sweat spots were often the size of a
small dish, and the odor was just terrible. I would not always sweat however; for instance when I
was completely relaxed I did not sweat at all. But my sweating came if I got just the least excited;
for instance if I just spoke with someone, even a good friend, I could start sweating. The amount of
sweat was not constant and the more excited - positively or negatively - I was, the worse I would
sweat. I would also sweat a lot from my hands and feet - so much that I could never get my hands
totally dry. So it was just bad, really bad.
Today I never sweat on my hands and my armpits are almost sweat free too.
The way I found a solution to my sweating problem was basically through understanding its
underlying causes. Understanding something is always what enables you best to control that thing.
Let us therefore take a look at the physiology of sweating:
Human beings have two kinds of sweat glands; the apocrine sweat glands
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocrine_sweat_glands) and the eccrine sweat glands
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eccrine_sweat_gland). The apocrine glands are those that are found in
the armpit, and the reason sweat from the armpit smells so bad, is that the apocrine glands excrete a
fluid with a lot of hormones, and it is the bacteria living in this fluid that causes the bad smell.
Sweat from the eccrine glands is very much just salt water, and that is the reason that the sweat
from your hands and feet doesn't smell bad, unless you make a safe and warm environment for
bacteria by putting on socks and shoes on your feet or gloves on your hands.
What causes both these glands to excrete sweat then? The eccrine glands are activated when one
feels hot; either because it really is hot, or just because one is nervous and therefore feels hot, which
is why people sometimes also sweat all over when they are nervous.
The apocrine sweat glands are also activated when the body is or feels hot, but they can also excrete
sweat when one is not hot - even when one is freezing, which is really unpleasant. The reason for
this is that the apocrine glands are activated by adrenaline; the stress hormone which is released
when we are nervous or just excited in general.
You might have experienced sweating on your hands and perhaps other places too when feeling
nervous. This is because some eccrine sweat glands, for instance those in your hands also can be
activated by adrenaline: http://www.springerlink.com/content/j606606106757478/.
So the conclusion is that the excessive sweating most people experience; the sweating that can also
come when one is freezing, and for sure the excessive sweating I had, is caused by adrenaline. This
also fits the facts that people sweat these places when they are nervous, because adrenaline is a
stress hormone.i
But all people sweat when they are nervous right? Yes indeed, but the problem is, at least my

problem was, that the sweating doesn't just come when one is really nervous, but even when one
gets the least excited, and real nervousness then releases extreme sweating.
So what causes this? As far as I can tell it must basically be that the sweat glands are either
overactive to the triggering of adrenaline, or that there is just too much adrenaline in the body. I
think both things might have been the case for me.
No matter which of the two might be true, it should be true that sweating could be diminished in
both cases, if the level of adrenaline could be lowered.ii
So how is adrenaline released in the body? As anything in the body the release of adrenaline is
rather complex, but basically we can simplify it to this; anxiety or excitement is felt; which means
there is a certain high activity in the amygdala, which is a structure in the brain which we share with
reptiles, birds and other mammals. This activity leads to activity in hypothalamus, which is also
located in the brain, which then regulates the pituitary gland which is a small gland under
hypothalamus, and this gland sends signals to our adrenal glands, which is on top of our kidneys.
Our adrenal glands then excrete the adrenaline into our blood flow.
This release of adrenaline is part of what is called the sympathetic nervous system. You may have
read many places that sweating is caused by an overactive nervous system.
So what causes an overactive sympathetic nervous system? What makes there be too much
adrenaline in our bodies?
From the description I just gave, we could assume that each of the individual four parts of the body
that I just described could cause too much adrenaline and thereby too much sweating. Indeed it can
be, and when seeing a doctor with excessive sweating, the doctor should examine - from a urine
sample taken right after you wake up in the morning - whether there could be tumor in your
hypothalamus, pituitary gland or adrenal gland.iii
We can not really effect any of these three directly, because the activity in the amygdala
automatically and unconsciously leads to this cascade. We can however try to diminish the activity
in our amygdala.
This is done by avoiding excitement, or rather over-excitement, for instance felt when one is
nervous or just over the top excited about something one is going to do. These feelings are only
natural, so of course no one can or should avoid, at least the positive excitement, for the rest of their
lives. What we can do is however to try and relax as often as possible, which most people surely
could and should do more often for their own best. For instance stop worrying so much about things
in the past and in the future, and take things more easily and in-the-moment. Meditation can be very
helpful to help you relax more, and it has been indispensable for me. I highly recommend these
scientifically informed non-bullshit ones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=awc8MLSpjlQ&list=PLC620B10FF4993D4C (5 min)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2ZlIdJOI2c&list=PLC620B10FF4993D4C (10 min)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TssX4fAa59s (20 min)
A consistent practice of meditation reduces my sweating levels down to almost nothing at all, and in
periods where I dont meditate, the sweating comes back. It is probably the second most important
thing I did and can do in my movement away from sweating.
So this is the first advice which we can give based on our understanding of the underlying causes of
sweating: RELAX!
And in my case the more specific practice was meditation, so I would also advice that:
MEDITATE!
It is of course an obvious one; do not stress and be relaxed, and that is probably what you are trying
to do most when the sweating is coming. Unfortunately it is also what is hardest to do when the
sweating is coming, because if anything is not relaxing, it is to sweat. It often results in a vicious
circle where more sweat causes more nervousness which causes more sweat etc.
My advice is to keep on relaxing when you are about to sweat, but, as importantly, to also relax
totally when you are not sweating. It is extremely helpful to take it easy and to become good at
relaxing, because it really is a kind of skill you can practice and get good at (meditation is my
favorite tool).
An important factor in being relaxed is to breath properly, which is a good thing to learn:
http://john-richard-roberts.suite101.com/breathing-dysfunction-can-cause-illhealth-a172692.
The good thing is that the return from sweating is a good circle, because when you sweat less you
will also become less stressed, I did at least, and then there would be even less sweat etc.
Relaxing might seem an obvious advice to relieve sweating, but I have found another thing apart
from being too excited which can cause an overactive sympathetic nervous system, which is not so
commonly known, and that is too many ejaculations:
http://www.ayurvediccure.com/over_masturbation.htm
http://www.prostate-massage-and-health. ... ation.html
As you can read in these links, too many ejaculations can cause an overactive sympathetic nervous
system. How many are too many? The recommendation seems to be 2-3 times a week, but of course
ejaculation is not dangerous in the double or triple amounts. The problem is however that I once
could do it ten times more than recommended; I could easily ejaculate 20-30 times a week, and
doing that for a long time surely made my sweating a terrible problem, and perhaps that was what
made me sweat so badly in the first place. I do not know to any detail how ejaculations cause the
sympathetic nervous system to become overactive; what it specifically changes physiologically, but
the end message is that it does.

So that is my second advice: CUT DOWN ON EJACULATIONS!

The reason I was able to ejaculate so much was mainly due to Internet pornography. This made me
able to keep on doing it in unnatural amounts, and because it is not as satisfying as the real thing,
one never quite gets satisfied.
Porn also seems to have been a major cause of my sweating. Porn surely makes one excited, and
therefore it makes the amygdala highly active, which we know triggers our sweating. I know porn
played a significant role in my sweating, because I had a long period, where I did not watch porn,
but where I still had ejaculations quite often. Then I tried watching some porn, and the same day I
started sweating more than I had done for many months.
So my third advice is: CUT DOWN ON PORN!
See in the back for a link to a good Youtube video on porn and the brain and other informative
links.
Watching porn and social anxiety also seems to be related in many cases, and that can also create
vicious circle, where one is watching porn to relieve the anxiety, which then just makes it worse.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cup ... g-too-much
I think porn has been a kind of drug for me, and that the abstinence from this drug is what has
helped me. I think this drug might have changed or ruined some neurotransmitters, and these
seemed to have recovered within the year my recovery took. The following quote seems to back
that up: "Some studies have suggested that receptors for neurotransmitters may be repaired some 9
to 14 months after abstinence from the drug(s)". Quoted from:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles ... _diet.html.
Now I am not even suggesting that too many ejaculations or too much porn is the cause of your
excessive sweating, but just that these can cause an overactive sympathetic nervous system. You
probably have a good idea yourself whether your problem is caused by this or not. If you do any of
the two excessively, you might want to try to cut back on them.
Even if this is in no way what causes your sweating, the lesson from this might still be useful,
because the more general lesson, at least from the porn, is that one should avoid avoidable activity
which is exciting one to high levels of excitement. It is worth thinking about what could be too
exciting, and try cutting back on it.
This should make my fourth advice: CUT DOWN ON OVEREXCITING ACTIVITIES!
Another good advice is to remember to eat. This may seem like a quite basic bit of advice, but you
should want to be well sated and avoid being hungry, because when we are hungry, we release
adrenaline, and no matter what, it is just a good idea to remember to eat, and eat to well.

That would be a fifth advice to remember: BE WELL SATED!

I have now presented all my advice to keep the sympathetic nervous system more steady. There are
however other good practices which have eased my sweating problem. These are perhaps a bit
basic, but I will give them anyway, because I did not really follow them, and it is important to do
that.
The first advice is one about clothing. You should always wear clothes that make you feel
comfortable. Picking clothes that allows your sweaty places to breath will decrease your sweating
and the odor. As I mentioned about smelly feet; this only comes when you have socks on. If you
want to get over that, you should remember to let them breath. The same thing applies to your
armpits. It is a good idea to wear a big loose t-shirt and avoid too tight shirts, because these just get
clear and terrible sweat spots, which is embarrassing, which is then again sweat promoting.
Secondly they make a great environment for bacteria creating a bad odor.
So another advice is: LET YOUR SWEAT SPOTS BREATHE!
Walk barefooted as much as you can and wear loose cloth, as long as it is comfortable of course.
Another good advice is to hide your sweat spots. I continued wearing semi-tight t-shirts for a long
while even though I was sweating a lot. It was a bit like I denied to give up; I could not accept my
sweating problem. It was stupid, because it embarrassed me a lot every time. I have found it is just
better to hide it, and I have found a great way to do this. Apart from just wearing loose white or
black shirts I often wear a loosely fitting shirt outside on a loosely fitting t-shirt. This keeps me
confident and unworried about sweating, because no one can tell if I am sweating. That helps a lot,
because the reduced stress leads to reduced sweating. An open shirt has therefore just become sort
of my style.
This advice could be called: HIDE YOUR SWEAT SPOTS
Another good advice is to wash often and thoroughly. It really helps to wash daily and to wash the
armpits extremely well. I mean soaping them in, washing the soap away, and soaping them in again
and washing that away. This really does work wonders, and especially if one stays at it and makes it
a routine.
So remember to: WASH OFTEN AND THOROUGLY!
Finally I advice you to shave your armpits. I usually considered myself too macho to shave my
armpits, but when I tried it and experienced a small reduction in the amount of sweat, and an
enormous reduction in smell, I had no doubt that it was a good thing to do. It is really the most
hygienic thing to do, and I have also found out that it is not so uncommon for males to shave their
armpits.
My ninth and last advice is then to: SHAVE YOUR ARMPITS!

There are a lot of treatment options out there that I have not mentioned, because I got over my
problem without them. The only common treatment option I have tried is deodorants with high
amounts of aluminum-chloride, and I can not recommend them from my own experience. I tried
one with 20 % and it burned my armpits and it was just an extremely painful experience. It might
help on you, but please be careful. Use very little the first time, and see how you react. If it hurts
you a bit, I would stop using it, because the second time it will be so much worse.
There are also more drastic methods, which you perhaps know of. There is the option of surgery,
which you should of course be careful with. I have no experience with any of it myself, but I have
read of something called a sweat gland suction, which should be a pretty safe way to remove the
sweat glands in the armpit, but be sure to be well-considered and speak with somebody about it
before doing any thing.
There is also the option of iontophoresis, which should be pretty safe. I once considered to buy such
an apparatus, but never did, so I have no experience with it.
There are also drugs and botox injections as commonly mentioned options, but I would be very
careful with both of them.
I am happy I got over sweating without any of these means and hopefully you can too, but if not,
you might want to consider some of these; I surely would if my problem had not gotten better, but
consider it well, and let it be a last option.

In conclusion I just want to recapture all the advice I have given, which helped away my problem of
excessive sweating:
RELAX!
MEDITATE!
CUT DOWN ON EJACULATIONS!
CUT DOWN ON PORN!
CUT DOWN ON OVEREXCITING ACTIVITIES!
BE WELL SATED!
LET YOUR SWEAT SPOTS BREATHE!
HIDE YOUR SWEAT SPOTS!
WASH OFTEN AND THOROUGLY!
SHAVE YOUR ARMPITS!
All this have made me go from sweating excessively to normally. It has changed excessive sweating
from being my biggest personal problem to a bad memory. I never thought I should say that, but I
am so happy to be able to. Honestly the main reason that things got better were cutting down on
ejaculations and porn, and it was when I stopped doing this excessively that I stopped sweating
excessively.
This did not happen quickly and easily. The improvements were very slow to discover and a lot of
patience was required, but over time the improvements have been huge and just indescribable. I can
only recommend you to keep at it, because there is hope, and it is possible to improve your
sweating problem.
I hope that you can overcome your excessive sweating and experience the same improvement,
which I have been so fortunate to experience.
I wish you good luck and all the best :)

Links
In my experience it has been really hard to find a good source of information for excessive
sweating, and that is one of the reasons I wrote this, but there are some that are pretty helpful.
Unfortunately there also seems to be a lot of bogus that takes advantage of how desperate people
are to get over this problem. My advice is that you should not believe any promises of an easy
solution, because if there was one, we would probably have heard of it.
Here are some links I have found helpful and informative during my quest to stop sweating:
Generally about excessive sweating:
http://www.sweaty-palms.com/sympt.html
www.hyperhidrosis.org/
http://www.excessive-sweating.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperhidrosis
About the sympathetic nervous system:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sympathetic_nervous_system
The consequences of pornography:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKDFsLi2oBk (Six parts. Follow links to see all of them)
http://bigthink.com/ideas/24030
http://www.wired.com/science/discoverie ... 4/11/65772
http://www.netnanny.com/blog/entry/id/29
http://social-masters.com/blog/porn-cau ... al-anxiety
http://www.reuniting.info/science/three ... about_porn
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/disco ... n-anxiety/
Meditation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awc8MLSpjlQ&list=PLC620B10FF4993D4C (5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2ZlIdJOI2c&list=PLC620B10FF4993D4C (10 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TssX4fAa59s (20 min)
My recommendation is that you give it a try, maybe just for 20 min a day for a couple of weeks, and
see how it works. It really does works wonders for me.

Notes

i I should say that there may be other causes of excessive sweating and there surely are other kinds
of excessive sweating. I have read of some cases where people would just sweat all over the body
almost no matter what. The reason for this does not seem to necessarily have much to do with
adrenaline; perhaps it is a mutation in some genes for the eccrine glands, I don't know. Fortunately
such conditions are rare.
ii It is hard to imagine how we can do anything about the activity of the sweat glands, other than
perhaps lowering the levels of adrenaline, which on the other hand should be possible, as we shall
see.
iii Of course the urine test will only show if there are high levels of different stress hormones; not
really whether there is a tumor or not.