How to Stop Sweating Underarms
How to stop sweating underarms? Excessive underarm sweating can be uncomfortable but it is also treatable. There are many methods to prevent underarm sweating, and many of them can be easily done at home.
If you’re fed up of dealing with body odor or sweat stains on your shirt, it’s time to address what could be causing these concerns—and most importantly, how to avoid sweating underarms. According to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), around 3 percent of people in the U.S. deal with excessive sweating (medically known as hyperhidrosis).
You may not have this but it’s worth seeing your dermatologist if you’re experiencing excessive armpit sweating. Alternatively, try our at-home methods for soaking up (and preventing) those sweat spells. Read on for your full guide on how to stop sweating underarms.
Why Do Underarms Sweat in the First Place?
Sweating is a natural function that cools the body and keeps your body temperature in check. When you get hot—whether from exercise or because it’s a warm day—your body sweats and that sweat evaporates which helps to regulate your overall temperature.
We have millions of sweat glands distributed across our entire bodies, with the highest concentration found in our hands and feet. However, our armpits stand out as another prominent area. The majority of these glands are eccrine, producing a clear, odorless fluid that serves to cool us down through evaporation. In addition to these, apocrine glands are present in our underarms and other hairy regions, releasing a denser, odorless fluid. It’s the interaction of this fluid with the bacteria on our skin that leads to body odor.
How to Stop Sweating Underarms
If sweaty armpits are leaving you self-conscious, there are plenty of treatment options to control excessive perspiration. Here are some of the best skincare products and lifestyle changes to help control underarm sweatiness.
1: Swipe on a Clinical Strength Antiperspirant
Ditch your daily deodorant and switch to antiperspirant. Deodorant doesn’t stop sweating, it just masks the odor under your arms. Antiperspirants, on the other hand, both kill odor-causing bacteria and actively block your sweat glands from producing underarm sweat.
Clinical strength antiperspirant will ensure that you stay dry and odor-free throughout the day, providing maximum protection against excessive sweating. The higher concentration of active ingredients in clinical strength antiperspirants makes them more effective in controlling perspiration compared to regular antiperspirants.
Most of the high strength antiperspirants of the past contained aluminum chloride, a compound that, when combined with sweat, produced hydrochloric acid, causing potential underarm irritation. Today, the majority of clinical strength antiperspirants use aluminum zirconium, which dermatologists recommend.
2: Shave Your Armpits
How to stop sweating underarms naturally? Try shaving your armpits. Hair holds moisture and traps sweat, creating an environment conducive to bacterial growth and odor. By shaving your armpits, you not only reduce the surface area for bacteria to thrive but also promote better air circulation, allowing your skin to breathe.
Shaving your armpits is a simple and effective way to minimize underarm sweat and control body odor. Additionally, it can make applying antiperspirants or natural deodorants more effective, as they can better absorb into the skin and work more efficiently. Keep in mind that maintaining good hygiene practices, such as regular showers and clean clothing, also complements the benefits of shaving your armpits in managing sweating underarms.
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3: Dry Underarms Thoroughly After Showering
After you shower, make sure you dry your underarms thoroughly before applying antiperspirant and wait a few minutes before getting dressed. Allowing your body to become dry before you put on clothes could help prevent sweating underarms. Plus, the sweat glands are better prepared for absorbing antiperspirant when the skin is cool and dry.
4: Follow an Underarm Care Routine
One of the best ways to stop sweating underarms and odors is to take good care of your pits. You can do this by regularly cleansing, exfoliating, and shaving the area which helps to remove dead skin cells, hair, and impurities to let your skin breathe.
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5: Skip the Caffeine
Love your morning coffee? Sorry, but it could be the culprit behind sweating underarms. Caffeine stimulates the nervous system which can increase underarm sweating. It also raises your heart rate and sends your sweat glands into overdrive.
What’s more, hot drinks like coffee and tea raise your body temperature and can induce sweating. To stop sweating underarms, try decreasing your caffeine intake. Even better, eliminate it altogether.
6: Eat Sweat-Reducing Foods
Some foods (especially spicy foods) can increase your body temperature and stimulate your nervous system, increasing sweating. Other foods can actually reduce the amount of sweat your body produces by calming the nervous system. Seek out foods that may reduce sweating such as almonds, bananas, olive oil, watermelon, grapes, broccoli, spinach, oats, and sweet potatoes.
Besides controlling armpit sweating, these foods support overall health. Include them in your daily routine to stay healthy and keep sweating at bay.
7: Drink Plenty of Water
Sweating is the body’s natural mechanism for regulating temperature, and it occurs as a response to factors like physical activity, heat, or stress. Staying hydrated by drinking water is important because it helps maintain the balance of fluids in your body, regulates body temperature, and supports various bodily functions.
When you’re adequately hydrated, your body is better equipped to regulate temperature through sweating. Dehydration can lead to increased body temperature and potentially more pronounced sweating as the body attempts to cool itself down.
8: Manage Stress
Practices like meditation, deep breathing exercises, yoga, and mindfulness can help calm the mind and reduce stress. These techniques have been shown to modulate the activity of the autonomic nervous system, promoting a state of relaxation and potentially reducing excessive sweating.
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9: Consider Botox Injections
How to stop sweating underarms fast? If other methods aren’t working, you may want to consider a medical procedure like botox (botulinum toxin). While it’s most commonly known for smoothing out fine lines and wrinkles, botox can help with a number of medical conditions, including excessive underarm sweating (axillary hyperhidrosis).
Research has shown that Botox injections are effective for reducing armpit sweating. Botox suppresses your sweat glands so they no longer produce as much sweat. However, the effects of these injections wear off, so it will need to be repeated after a few months to remain effective.
Other Treatment Options
There are several other treatment options to stop sweating underarms, two of which are sweat gland removal and thoracic sympathectomy. The sweat glands can be removed through surgery by different surgical techniques including curettage, excision, and liposuction. However, thoracic sympathectomy is a better option as it’s minimally invasive surgery where the surgeon cuts the sympathetic nerves to stop the nerves from sending signals to the sweat glands.
Two other treatments worth you might want to consider are iontophoresis and Miradry, both of which are FDA-approved and safe. These procedures use thermal energy and electrical currents to damage or kill the sweat glands causing excessive sweating.
How to stop sweating underarms? If you’re dealing with chronic sweating, the best way to handle it is by following the tips above. Using a clinical strength antiperspirant, drying off properly after showering, cutting out caffeine and spicy foods can all help reduce sweating.
Watch how to brighten and freshen your pits in 3 steps:
Photo by cottonbro studio, Pexels
