When people have a common health problem, they look for solutions to them.  But more often, people want a natural way to get rid of that problem.

That is not different from sweating, a common problem, yet one that can interfere in your day to day life.  People that sweat a lot are always looking for ways to reduce sweating naturally.  They want to avoid the chemicals and synthetic products, because they know that they will be needing the solution for a long time, and not just a quick fix.

You’re not alone in dealing with sweat-related problems. I have been managing and dealing with hyperhidrosis for over 2 decades now so I do know how hard it is. Read my story here.

There is 4-5% of the population that sweats excessively.  People with this condition (called hyperhidrosis) sweat so much that it becomes a part of life, yet it is highly annoying and embarrassing. If you suffer from this condition, you try to avoid social gatherings, going out to restaurants, meet friends, etc, because it is something you cannot help.

Hyperhidrosis is divided into two different types: Primary and secondary hyperhidrosis.  The first one refers to a condition that has yet to be explained by research.  Individuals suffering from primary hyperhidrosis have no medical condition that makes them sweat.  They sweat for no obvious reasons.  And this condition does not have a negative impact on your health but can lead to mental health problems.

Secondary hyperhidrosis is when people sweat excessively due to a medical condition, which could be obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and others.  If you have started sweating recently, accompanied by other symptoms, you should seek immediate medical help.

Why Do We Sweat?

When looking for natural solutions to a sweating problem, we have to understand why we sweat.

We have two types of sweat glands all over our body: The eccrine and apocrine sweat glands.  The first ones are responsible to maintain your body temperature.  Whenever your body temperature rises, your brain triggers the eccrine glands to start producing sweat, which takes along heat as it comes out through the pores.

This system is the most effective cooling system that was ever designed.  Sweat from the eccrine sweat glands is made up of mostly water, which is why it does not leave a bad odor behind.

Contrary to the eccrine sweat glands, the apocrine sweat glands develop during puberty and are linked to the nervous system.  Whenever you are stimulated by any given factor, these sweat glands set in and produce a thick substance that contains proteins, fats, and others.

The apocrine sweat glands are located in your armpits, palms, groin, feet, and forehead.

In short, we sweat because our bodies need to cool down, and our bodies need to be able to leave adrenaline somewhere.

For example, if you walk down the street and somebody wants to rob you, you will get nervous and angry in the first place.  So your nervous system needs to get rid of the adrenaline that is being rushed through your body. You will start sweating from your apocrine glands right then and there.

And since your heart is racing because of the adrenaline, your body temperature will rise, which will make you sweat on other parts of the body through the eccrine sweat glands.

Your body is just trying to protect itself and make things easier through sweating.  Therefore, sweating is a needed and important body function.

My Life With Hyperhidrosis

For well over a decade, I have been sweating excessively.  I suffer from primary hyperhidrosis.  And all these years I have been wondering if I would have to live with this situation for the rest of my life.

I was always stressed because I could not buy the clothes that I would have wanted.  For example, I wore a dark jacket, sweater or suit jacket often in the middle of the summer because I was dripping from my armpits.

Living in a country where you greet people with a hug most of the time, I always dreaded seeing people that I knew would expect a hug as a greeting. That was SOOO embarrassing to me.  What if they felt my wet pits? What would they think of it?

I was actively searching for solutions to the problem.  I tried many different things like natural remedies, antiperspirants, deodorants, among others.  However, since not one of these brought me the needed “sweat-freedom”, I figured I would have to live with this condition forever.

The good thing is that more recently, new methods and treatments have been developed to help people with this problem.  I found a wonderful clinical strength antiperspirant that stopped sweating in my armpits completely.  I also found a sweatproof undershirt that prevents embarrassing sweat marks.  Scroll down to read about my favorite solutions.

You will also find the newer treatments that are invasive surgeries, and others that are not too invasive, which can cost you thousands of dollars, without having the security that it will fix the problem completely.

Although surgery and other treatments claim to help you stop the sweating problem permanently, there are individuals that did not have the wanted effect.

Contrary to invasive treatments, natural remedies and all conventional solutions are not permanent and offer temporary relief, which means that you have to use them every so and so often to have a positive effect on your sweating.

5 Effective Remedies That Reduce Sweating Naturally

As stated, there are some effective remedies that reduce sweating naturally. If you are suffering from excessive sweating, but not to the degree where it interferes with your daily life, you might be well off with these remedies. However, if you are sweating heavily every day for a not obvious reason, you are looking for a different treatment.

Following is a list of treatments, of which I have tested some and have noticed slight changes.

1. Apply Baking Soda and Lemon

As simple as it sounds, mixing baking soda with lemon soaks in the moisture and helps you stay drier during the day. Have you seen the Arm & Hammer Ultra Max Deodorant and Antiperspirant? This is actually the one that I have been using for years because it promised to be the best one for me back when I realized the magnitude of my sweating problem.

Baking soda is an alkaline which reduces the odor of sweat, but it also is a water absorbing agent. In fact, many deodorants use baking soda as one of their base ingredients for this reason.

Lemon has astringent properties, which means that it closes pores to prevent sweat from coming out of them. It also prevents bad odors from sweating.

If you take a few tablespoons of baking soda, squeeze in some lemon juice, mix well and apply to your armpits, you can see some results after a few applications.

Let me warn you that you should apply in the evening before bed for around 20 minutes and wash. I tried this and my skin was super irritated after a few applications because I left it on through the day, which I had read was good to do instead of using deodorant. My skin is sensitive, especially in the armpits, so it was a bad idea to do that.

You can also apply these 2 ingredients separately and get the same results as mixed.

2. Drink Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple Cider Vinegar, another product that helps reduce sweating naturally, is well-known for many other health benefits. It does the same than lemon juice: Close the pores (works as astringent). If you apply this with a cotton ball in the evening to your affected areas and then wash it off in the morning, you should see results after a few days of applying.

It is said that making an apple cider vinegar concoction with honey and drinking it every day is also beneficial for stopping excessive sweating. Not only do you get that benefit, but all the others related to it.

Personally, I have not tried it, and am not so sure how much effect it really has, but I can see that it would do as much as lemon juice does. However, I find apple cider vinegar less acidic than lemon juice. In fact, apple cider vinegar is excellent to keep pH levels in your body alkaline.

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3. Use Black and Green Tea

Teas as well-known for their relaxing properties. Green tea, which is rich in vitamin B and magnesium can have a positive effect on your sweat glands.

You can drink teas to reduce sweating naturally, but you can also soak the tea bags in boiling water, let cool a little and rub them into the affected areas. For sweating hands and feet, you can soak them in black and green tea.

Teas also have astringent properties. They also make the pores smaller or shut them.

It must be said that this treatment is also only a little effective and offers only temporary relief. In cases where excessive sweating is ruling, you cannot expect magnificent results. However, every little sweat reduction is a wonder for someone that is suffering from slightly excessive sweating.

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4. Check Out Your Foods

Sodium rich foods, like pizza, spam, sausages, canned foods, and many others, make the body retain liquids. Your body then needs to get rid of excess liquid accumulation, and one good way to do that is through excessive sweating.

What you want to look for is potassium-rich food like potatoes, broccoli, bananas, salmon, raisins, and many others which do exactly the opposite than sodium-rich foods, they help you get rid of excess water by pushing it out through urination.

Eating potassium-rich foods helps reduce excessive sweating.  By avoiding spicy foods and other known foods that trigger the sweat glands, you will also reduce your sweating.

Especially spicy foods make your body think that it has to maintain a body temperature than apparently rises. However, spicy foods do not change your body temperature, it just makes the body think so and off you are to more sweating.

Foods like caffeinated drinks, alcoholic beverages, processed and fatty foods, ice cream, among others are triggers for excessive sweating.

Obesity is another strong factor of sweating. Since your vital organs are required to work harder and more intense to maintain the body healthy, your body temperature rises and obviously, you will sweat more. Losing weight helps with excessive sweating. I have experienced than in the past. Nope, it does not stop excessive sweating, but it sure helps to reduce it.

If you are not overweight, consider the foods that you eat and see if anything changes by changing the foods that you eat.

5. Choose Appropriate Clothes

Clothes do play a role in excessive sweating. There are so many synthetic fabrics that will not let your skin breathe and perspire appropriately. Avoid the ones that you feel that are very warm and stick to your skin.

Cotton is a good breathable fabric, but it gets very wet. Using cotton for undergarments so they can soak up the sweat is a good idea to help you feel more confident with your social outfits.

Choose fabrics like 100% cotton, like spandex, lycra, and latex combined with cotton, linen, chambray, moisture-wicking fabrics instead of polyester, denim, rayon, and others. For sweaty people, the first ones are better because they absorb your sweat and the other ones make you sit in your own sweat and you sweat more because they are not breathable.

I did not really go shopping for clothes for some years. There was only one brand of shirts that I wore because they did not show the embarrassing sweat stains as much as every other shirt did. Especially the dress shirts were bad and I did not like to wear them. The only time I wore them was when wearing a suit jacket over them.

Yet the yellow sweat stains than you have in your clothes after only a few uses, are not good because your wardrobe will look ugly. I had some shirts than I threw out only after a few uses, because of the ugly sweat stains than stayed.

As stated before, these remedies will only help reduce sweating. You will not stop sweating altogether. I have tried some of these remedies and they do help, but if you sweat excessively, you might not be very happy with these.  However, for those of you that do not sweat too much, this is a great solution.

Conclusion

Sweating is a natural process that our body uses to maintain the temperature.  However, sweating can come badly into your way when you start to sweat excessively, like I have for many years.

The good thing is that nowadays there are solutions to this problem.  You can find anything from natural solutions to medical interventions to solve that problem.

In this article, you learned more about natural remedies for sweating.  Although I have not had much success with any of these, they are still worth a try, as every body reacts differently to each product.

If you found this article helpful or informative, please share with people that are sweating excessively by clicking the social media buttons. They are probably looking for solutions to their problem. Also, don’t forget to leave me a comment below on any questions that you might have.