How to Reduce Sweating in Armpits: 6 Life Hacks Explained

As much as sweating is healthy for your skin and helps you regulate the temperature of your body, sweating in your armpits can get in the way and prevent you from having a normal life. Today I will show you how to reduce sweating in armpits. So stay tuned to the end of this post and check what I did to not only reduce sweating but stop it completely.

You’re not alone in dealing with sweating issues! Read my story here and learn how you can stop sweating today!

My Story

I have lived with axillary hyperhidrosis for over half of my life and I know exactly what it means to have sweaty and drenched armpits for the better part of the days.

You wake up in the morning and overthink what to put on to make sure others will not notice your excessive sweating. You put on your deodorant and it does not help you from stinking because you sweat way too much.

You dread social gatherings because you get nervous about your sweating, which makes matters even worse.

I started noticing my excessive sweating problem at the young age of 14 and I was already in my 30s when I finally found how to deal with excessive sweating.

After all these years, I have learned quite a deal about excessive sweating and what to do about it.

Why Do We Sweat?

Sweating is the normal bodily function that maintains our body temperature and prevents us from having heat strokes, for example.

It is a fantastic air-conditioning system that we have built into our bodies. When our body starts to get hot, our brain quickly notifies the endocrine system to produce sweat. And with each sweat drip, heat is evaporated, thus cooling down our body to the regular 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

While we have over 2 million sweat glands all over our body, we do have 2 different types of sweat glands: The eccrine and apocrine sweat glands.

The eccrine sweat glands are responsible for cooling down the body and the apocrine sweat glands are the scent glands that are activated during puberty and are active when under stimulation (sexual, stress, fear, anxiety, etc.).

Sweating is therefore good for our bodies because it can prevent serious conditions and it is even healthy for our skin.

How to Reduce Armpit Sweating

Over the years, I have found that there are many ways to reduce sweating in your armpits, especially if you do not suffer from excessive sweating, but sweat slightly more on some occasions.

However, please be advised that many of the ways to reduce or stop sweating that I am going to share here are not effective for people that sweat excessively all the time. For those of you, please scroll down to find out what I did to stop my excessive sweating problem.

A. Natural Remedies

A few years ago I bought an e-book that shared natural remedies to reduce sweating. I was so frustrated with my excessive sweating problem that I was desperate for a solution. I tried some of the remedies that I had learned about, but unfortunately they did not do the trick for me.

Although there are more, I will share only 6 natural remedies with you today.

1. Eat raw and fresh

“You are what you eat” is what research says. And that is so true even when it comes to sweating. Foods do increase your sweating and you can reduce that by eliminating certain foods out of your diet.

Sweating comes from elevated body temperatures. And eating unhealthy, highly processed foods elevates your body temperature because your body has a tougher time to digest this food. That can cause you to sweat more than you normally would. Eating raw and healthy foods, including lots of fruits and vegetables does make a change in your sweating.

So, the first step to reduce your armpit sweating is to change your diet and see what happens.

Certain foods, like ice cream, fast foods, sugar, flour, chocolate, foods low in fiber, caffeinated drinks, spicy food, alcohol, among others are accountable for triggering your sweat glands.

2. Exercise more

Although it might sound contradictory, exercising may help you reduce sweating.

Sweating is often linked to obesity, which is why exercise can help you lose weight and thus reduce your sweating.

There is a debate about whether sweating helps you get rid of toxins, but I firmly believe that at least a small percent of toxins are released through sweating. An accumulation of toxins, especially those from unhealthy foods might just be a way of how exercising can help to reduce sweating.

Besides, when you exercise, endorphins are released (the “feel-good” hormones) and that is a way of reducing stress and nervousness. Doing an exercise routine just before you go to a social gathering might help you prevent stress that causes sweating.

3. Baking Soda

Backing soda is the most common natural remedy when it comes to sweating. In fact, it is the first remedy that I heard about many years ago.

It is a moisture wicking agent, thus it does not reduce your sweating, but it absorbs the wetness and will leave your armpits a little less wet.

It is also an alkaline, which means that it can reduce the bad odors from sweat.

4. Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple Cider Vinegar has many health properties and taking in a little of it every day is known to reduce many health-related issues.

It is also an astringent, which means that it blocks. It is known to block the sweat glands when you apply it into dry armpits in the evening with a cotton ball and wash thoroughly in the morning.

It takes a few days until you will start to notice a difference in your sweating. However, it can only reduce your sweating slightly.

5. Different teas

Teas also work as astringents, especially black and green tea. They can therefore also block the sweat glands. By applying a soaked teabag directly to your armpits in the night before bedtime, you can get temporary relief.

6. Drink plenty of water

One natural remedy to reduce sweating that is often overlooked is drinking plenty of water. I encounter many people that do not drink enough water. They get their liquid intake from sweet beverages mostly.

Drinking water does reduce your sweating, and I have tried it very often in the past. Although it does not stop sweating, it is reduced. People that sweat mildly throughout the day will find that drinking a sip of water twice every hour makes a big difference.

B. Select your Clothes

Heavy sweaters learn about the different types of fabrics very quickly. They understand that wearing polyester socks if your feet are sweating very much is not an option. This even extends to gym equipment or accessories like yoga mats or even towels that you use. Basically anything to help you out.

What you wear when you sweat plays a very important role in how much and how you will sweat. If you want to reduce your sweating, you have to wear moisture-wicking fabrics and nothing does it better than cotton. It helps your body to stay cool and it absorbs the wetness better than any other fabric.

I love to wear cotton undershirts to prevent sweat from coming through my outer layer of clothes immediately. Dressing in multiple layers is a great way to help sweat stay out. I like to wear clothes that are at least 95% cotton. The rest I like to be Spandex or some kind of fabric that prevents the clothes from losing their shape with use and washing.

However, multiple layers can become somewhat constricting to your movements, which is why I started to use Thompson Tee undershirts many years ago. They have a patented sweat pad in the armpit, which will not reduce your sweating, but it will absorb every single drop of sweat before it reaches the outer layer of clothes. Armpit sweating can never be seen with this undershirt.

C. Medical Intervention

Some people that sweat excessively have undergone surgical interventions to not only reduce their sweating, but to stop sweating completely.

Miradry is one of the newest procedures to stop sweating. Although there is not a 100% guarantee that it works on everybody, there is solid research that it does reduce sweating in most people after a few treatments.

So, they literally “burn” your sweat glands in the armpits so that you do not have those sweat glands any more. It is not a very invasive procedure, because it is done by sending electromagnetic waves that heat and burn the sweat glands.

This is a very costly procedure, however, and it not covered by your insurance, which makes it an absolutely impossible solution for those who sweat excessively in their armpits.

One thing that I do not like about Miradry is that you will have to deal with compensatory sweating for the rest of your life. That means, your body will use other sweat glands to sweat what the lost sweat glands would have sweated.

In essence, when you stop sweating in your armpits for the rest of your life, you can expect other body parts to sweat much more, for example, your face.

Miradry is not for everybody and you should carefully consider it before you undergo the procedure.

D. Iontophoresis

First, you have to learn to say the word and then learn what this is about. It is a procedure in which you bathe your feet and hands in water in a machine that sends out electric waves to reduce your sweating.

This takes time and dedication since you have to do it frequently and learn the exact way of doing it and how long that it will be effective for you.

However, many patients claim to have had success with this rather new method of reducing sweating.

Iontophoresis is not only for your armpits but for your whole body. Once you learn the tricks to “please” your body, you can expect to have some positive results.

E. Botox Injections

Another surgical intervention is to have botox injections.

Botox is used in the cosmetic world. A naturally occurring poison is used to make a neurotoxin which is then injected just underneath the skin to stop muscles to move, thus stopping aging. A very trendy product because it is used to help people look younger.

Dermatologists and cosmetologists also inject this product into your armpits to stop sweating. The pores of your armpits are blocked and no sweat can come out.

One Botox injection can last anywhere between 4 and 6 months, which means that it is a procedure that has to be repeated twice per year in order to have the effect that you are looking for. That is very costly.

Although there are no well-known side effects of Botox, it is needless to say that the procedure is painful because of all the needles needed to inject. Bruising is by far the worst side effect.

F. Clinical Strength Antiperspirants

One last way to reduce or stop underarm sweating is to use clinical strength antiperspirants. Since deodorants are only for eliminating bacteria that cause the awful odors, you need to use antiperspirants, which block your sweat glands and stop your sweating.

Clinical strength antiperspirants are the best solution for sufferers from hyperhidrosis. As stated before, I have been living with hyperhidrosis for many years and I know how one seeks answers to stop sweating.

These contain aluminum chloride, which blocks the sweat glands so they cannot produce any sweat temporarily. I have used antiperspirants for many years and I believe they all reduced my sweating to some extent, but none stopped it completely as clinical strength antiperspirants, which is why I also recommend them to anybody suffering from excessive armpit sweating.

Many people are unsure about whether they should use antiperspirants because of information that has been around for many years that claims that antiperspirants cause cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

When I read more on it, I found that there is not enough data supporting these claims and that people have been successfully using antiperspirants for years with no problem at all. Nowadays, antiperspirants are awesome as you now have creams and even hand lotions that can help stop sweating.

Conclusion

It is definitely possible to reduce and even stop your armpits from sweating. It took me years to find the solution to my problem, but once I solved it, life was so much easier.

Excessive armpit can get in your way because your daily routine spins around wearing the right clothes to avoid sweat stains from being seen, and also around how to meet people that they will not notice your sweating problem and so on.

Although the fears are somewhat irrational, they are very real for someone who sweats excessively. Hyperhidrosis interferes with your life and makes you feel uneasy about yourself all the time.

Therefore, a remedy to reduce your sweating is very welcome for someone who sweats more than he would like to sweat.

If you were helped through this article, please let me know by leaving me a COMMENT below or sharing with someone you know who could benefit from reading this. As always, I am happy to help.