Sweat

[rayoflight]

Why do I sweat more than others?

[sft42]

Are you fat? Being over weight is a major contributer to this as your body is doing more work in hauling the extra weight around.....other than that it could be you are just more naturally sensitive to warmer times in the summer and your body's thermostat has decided you need to cool down.

[Kit]

Sweating is a complicated business - it's also regulated by nerves and hormones. If you are anxious or nervous, this makes you sweat more. You may also have hyperhidrosis - excessive sweating, usually hands, feet and armpits. This can be treated either by surgically severing the sympathetic nerves to the affected area, or by iontophoresis, which is passing a very small electric current across the area through water. Strangely, although lots of different drugs can be added to the water, plain tap water works just as well.

[woofgang]

If you have spent much time in a hot climate, your body "learns" to sweat more as part of its self defence. In my youth, I travelled abroad with my partner on cargo ships, usually with no air conditioning. Even after returning to the english climate, we both used to sweat considerably more than our stay at home friends. The effect did reverse itself after a few summers.

[gazzawazza]

I think this is far more complicated than just "being fat."

I'm not fat and am reasonably fit, yet whenever I do any exercise I immediately start to sweat quite heavily. This has always been the case with me, even when I was "superfit!!!"

I've always put this down to having a fast metabolism and my body being efficient at dissipating heat. Don't forget that our bodies have an "optimum" temperature to function at, and even a relatively small deviation from this can cause major problems. So if your body needs to cool down, it will rid itself of excess heat via sweating. For this reason, I never use anti-perspirant whenever I intend to play footie or do other exercise, I don't want to prevent my sweat glands from doing their job.

Just as an aside, my brother-in-law works with a guy who knows he has a severe sweating problem, whenever they have a break he goes and has a shower just so he won't offend anyone.

Also, as Kit mentions, there are other things which make us sweat. I've been in situations where I've felt totally relaxed yet for some reason I've suddenly felt a trickle of sweat from my armpits... Wierd!