For every health concern, there's always a trigger. Excessive sweating is a condition that is caused by a lot of factors, with most of them related to one another. Some of the causes of excessive sweating are not controllable, making it harder for doctors to combat the effects of the disease.
The most common causes of excessive sweating are as follows:
1. Heredity
A lot of doctors believe that excessive sweating is a function of the genes. This means that if your any of your parents tend to perspire a lot, you will end up suffering from the same problem as you grow older.
2. Puberty and Menopause
Teenagers tend to sweat a lot. The reason may be psychological, as they are facing changes in their bodies and are being exposed to things that introduce them to adulthood. Hence, it becomes a medical fact that teens in their puberty stages tend to be much more likely to sweat than those who are aged younger or older than.
Like puberty, menopause is a critical stage in one's life. However, only women go through menopause. Menopause can trigger excessive sweating in the same way that puberty causes changes inside the person's body.
3. Abnormal Functions of the Nerves
The sweat glands are positioned all over the body, and are responsible for producing sweat. In the same way, the nerves, which act as the brain's receptors, are positioned all over the body. They are the ones responsible for sending messages to the brain from which it will act upon. If the nerves fail to work precisely, it may ask the brain to sweat due to wrong stimuli. This may lead to hyperhidrosis or excessive sweating.
4. Abnormal Functions of the Spinal Cord
The spinal cord is another major part of the central nervous system. It is the nervous system that actually controls the sweating mechanism of the body. Certain problems in the spinal area can cause hyperhidrosis. Syringomyelia is one such condition, although it only causes hyperhidrosis in rare occasions. Lesions and tumors in the spinal cord area may also trigger hyperhidrosis.
5. Abnormal Functions of the Brain
Sweating is controlled by the hypothalamus. It is the same part of the brain that manages hunger and thirst. It is also in charge of making sure that the body maintains a certain level of temperature to be able to continue with its normal processes. The brain may have a tainted sensory response, causing the body to sweat abnormally. This is especially true if you are suffering from certain diseases or infections.
As such, the brain will tell the body to respond by perspiring because it thinks that the temperature inside is going up. There could be some emotional factors too. If you're anxious, depressed, and stressed, your mental processes become disoriented, leading to hyperhidrosis.
6. Obesity
Obese people tend to suffer from excessive sweating more frequently than those whose body size is within normal. This is because their sweat glands tend to work doubly hard to let go of all excess minerals deemed unwanted by the body. The fatter you are, the more prone you are to developing excessive sweating.
7. Reaction to certain foods
Do you know that some of the foods you eat can be the main reason why you sweat a lot? If you enjoy eating hot and spicy foods, you may eventually suffer from excessive sweating. Try to lessen your intake of these food items and see whether it improves your condition or not.
8. Hot weather
This is a no-brainer. The hot weather can make you sweat uncontrollably. This is because your body needs to cool down every time it reaches its peak. If you're in a humid place and are used to colder weather, you will suffer from excessive sweating more than those who are used to the warmer climate.
9. Extraneous exercises and activities
Whenever your body works, it heats up. So if you do manual labor, you tend to excrete sweat more than those who work in an office environment. This is normal. However, when you still perspire even if you are not doing anything, that's the time you should see a doctor.