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“It is not manly to fear sweat.”
– Seneca, Moral Epistles to Lucilius, XXXI, vii, 31
ll normal, healthy people sweat. Some more, some less. And all healthy people smell when they sweat. This, too, is normal.
Sweat is important in regulating your body temperature. Despite enormous changes in the temperature of our external environment – be it tropical or sub-zero – your internal body temperature remains fairly constant.
When you are exposed to excessive heat, the sweat glands pour out their watery secretion (sweat) and carry out the vital task of cooling your body. This thermoregulatory mechanism has allowed us to adapt to the hottest climates.
Sweat is composed of the secretion of two types of glands: the 2 million eccrine glands distributed over the entire body, and the localized apocrine glands, which are restricted primarily to the armpits, the anogenital region, and the nipples. The growth of the apocrine glands is regulated by a hormone that begins to form about the time of puberty and decreases markedly in old age. (This is why children under the age of twelve and elderly people do not suffer from “body odor.”) These apocrine glands become active after puberty, respond to hormonal secretions, and are stimulated by emotional factors such as stress and sexual excitement.
Sweat itself is essentially odorless. Most of the odor is due to the action of various bacteria on the milky secretion of the apocrine sweat glands. These bacteria are most active in moist and warm environments, particularly hairy armpits.
Sweat from body regions devoid of apocrine glands can also have an unpleasant odor. For example, the odor of certain aromatic foods and spices (such as garlic and onions) are secreted in eccrine sweat. And eccrine sweat from prolonged exercising can cause an unpleasant odor due to bacterial action on the soft, wet skin. This is the most common cause of foot odor.
Normally, we lose about 2 quarts of liquid through perspiration each day. Perspiration is not under voluntary control. You cannot decide when you want to perspire and you cannot tell yourself to stop this mechanism. Emotional and environmental factors (heat) influence the degree of sweating, especially over the palms, soles, armpits, and forehead; and doctors believe that cigarette smoking may also be responsible for excessive perspiration. You can, however, “harness” this mechanism somewhat by using antiperspirants and deodorants.
Antiperspirants are compounds that reduce the volume of perspiration. Deodorants are products used to mask, diminish, or prevent perspiration odor.
Antiperspirants
Antiperspirants are sold as pads, creams, sprays, lotions, powders, liquids, and roll-ons. We don’t know for certain how antiperspirants act, but we believe that they reduce perspiration by strictly mechanical means. Made up almost exclusively of aluminum salts, they act by either shrinking the pores, blocking the openings of the pores, or causing the sweat to be reabsorbed below the skin’s surface.
No antiperspirant completely stops the flow of perspiration. And since the secretion of sweat is an essential function of the skin for temperature regulation and water metabolism, it would not be desirable if it did.
Antiperspirants should be used daily, as it takes two weeks to build up maximum protection. For best results, apply to clean skin, but not immediately after shaving. Roll-ons and creams usually give greater protection than aerosols, but the choice of one type over another is a matter of personal preference: ease of application, lack of messiness, the absence of burning or stinging, and which TV commercial appeals to you. In cases of excessive perspiration (known as diaphoresis or hyperhidrosis), there is a prescription solution called Drysol, which, when used as directed, is remarkably effective in reducing the amount of underarm sweating. An over-the-counter preparation – Certain Dri – has been very successful in many of my patients suffering from excessive perspiration.
Deodorants
Deodorants are available as powders, creams, sticks, pads, roll-ons, soaps, or sprays, and are effective for a few hours to several days. They do not in any way affect the flow of perspiration. Unlike the perfumes, colognes, and toilet waters of a previous era that merely masked perspiration odor, these products use antibacterial agents, such as neomycin, triclosan (found in certain deodorant soaps), and other bacteria-destroying chemicals, to reduce or eliminate the offending bacteria.
Some people are allergic to the popular, commercial deodorant preparations. If so, try any of the so-called hypoallergenic products.
Deodorants that do not claim to check perspiration are classified as cosmetics. If the same preparation is labeled an “antiperspirant,” it becomes a drug, as it alleges to change a bodily function.
In addition to antiperspirants and deodorants, there are several general measures you can take to prevent body odor:
One of the latest methods of how to rid yourself of excess sweating is by the injection of Botox – botulinum toxin – into the affected areas. Still in the experimental stages, this has worked in a number of patients in people with severe sweaty armpits.
Is it difficult to get rid of perspiration odor? No sweat!
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For further information about sweating, log on to: www.aad.org or www.numarklabs.com/products/otc/ 1-888-462-DERM x22 |
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