The Scientific Reason Why Some People Sweat More Than Others & What You Can Do About It

Last Updated on 2021-09-27 , 4:54 pm

Do you remember running around recess during primary school days and while it’s normal to sweat, your perspiration was unusually more than others?

It could be embarrassing and probably did some damage to our self-esteem when our friends jokingly wave their hands over their noses and say “Eee, so smelly“.

You then often wondered why you were sweating so much when you didn’t even run much!

Recent studies have shown why some people perspire more than others even though everyone have about the same number of sweat glands.

And it has something to do with your childhood.

Why is it different for everyone?

You see, the age of 0 to 2 years old is the period of time is when our sweat glands mature. The reason why some people sweat more in the later years is dependent on the environment that we’re living in for the first 2 years of our life.

Not 100% of our sweat glands produce sweat and depending on whether you’re living in a colder or warmer climate, your body adjusts itself to the temperature.

Warmer climates would have an effect on our skin and caused our sweat glands to be more active. Hence, more sweat.

So, does that means that we eventually sweat more or less because of where we grew up during our childhood?

Yup. So like it or not, you now have to live with it le.

Although we can’t turn back time and change our environment to alter our future’s sweat glands, here are a few ways on how you can “train” your sweat glands and do something about it.

Slowly get used to warmer temperatures

By adjusting your home’s thermostat or air-conditioner over time, your body will slowly but surely get accustomed to the temperature. Though it would be uncomfortable as you will be sweating more, your body will soon get used to the condition and deem it as “normal temperature”.

When your body adapts to the warmer temperature, your sweat glands would be affected and get accustomed to it, leading your body to feel breezy during fall or warmer during spring.

But alas, Singapore is a country with no 4 seasons. So basically, in Singapore terms, you’ll feel colder during the end of the year when its raining and warmer during June when the sun is out and gleaming and not be sweating more than usual all year round.

Drinking cold water

Though it’s not necessarily good to drink iced water all the time, you can adjust your body and eventually your sweat glands. This is because our body’s sweat response is based on our internal temperature and not external. Drinking cold water will cool down our body’s temperature on the inside and hence, we feel cooler.

So even though you may be doing an activity that usually would get you sweating buckets, ice water will cool you down. In time, this method would train your mind and sweat glands to think that you’re in a colder climate or temperature resulting in less perspiration.

Pushing yourself to exercise

Another method to lessen your sweat is to sweat it all out first! By running, playing sports or simply climbing flights of stairs, push yourself to sweat and not stop halfway.

By sweating, the body is trained and it’ll adapt to the activity. You may also choose to do these activities as a routine and you’ll soon see that your sweat glands wouldn’t be sweating as much.

And we all know how healthy exercising is, so it’s killing two birds with one stone!

Featured Image: A_RIZE / Shutterstock.com