The science behind nervous sweating and how to put an end to it

Eight healthy men in shorts and T-shirts. Average age, 26. They’re covered in sensors, wires dangling, like marionettes at rest. As they sit together in silence – blindfolded – they wait for their 10 minutes of psychological torture to begin.

These guys are part of an experiment in perspiration. Most human sweat is the “thermal” kind, that dampness you feel during a workout or on a hot day. But psychological sweating is the beading on your forehead when your boss singles you out in a meeting, or the clammy hands you wipe on your jeans before a first date.

The first antiperspirant ads for men set the tone for the sweaty conflict we still feel today. One from October 1938 is typical: It was for a jar of goop called Odorono Ice (“Odour, oh no!”). It shows the same man in two different scenarios: In the first, he looks sporty with a racket in his hand, and in the second, he’s in an office holding a sheet of paper. “All right in a locker room,” says the ad, “but all wrong here.” Casteel says ads have hammered this point for decades, implanting a single impression in men’s minds: There are just some situations when you should never sweat. Still, controlling your dew is a far more complex endeavour than buying the most expensive antiperspirant at your local drugstore – even that won’t save you from a full-body nervous sweat.

Stressing unnecessarily

So what can you do? For most people, the best way to treat nervous sweating is to deal with the nervousness itself, says Perry-Parrish. She first asks patients to think through the last time they were made uncomfortable by their excessive sweat: What were you doing, and what were you thinking when the waterworks began?

And here’s the key question, says Perry-Parrish: “Were you doing something really embarrassing, or were you magnifying it in your mind?”

More often than not, she says, we imagine the worst-case scenario – even if everything is going perfectly fine.

When that happens, your mind tells your body to start the sweating. Her advice the next time this happens: Take stock of the situation. What’s the reaction of others around you? If no one else seems unhappy or uncomfortable, it’s likely that you’re unnecessarily stressing – and sweating – over something small.

It probably could have helped those men in the sweat experiment. Instead of worrying about flubbing a few simple arithmetic problems, they would have taken a step back, realised that the stakes were low, and noticed that their compatriots were equally thrown by the introduction of arithmetic.

A cool head plus a little perspective: That’s what defeats nervous sweating. It’s basic math.

Don’t sweat it

Excess perspiration is the pits. If you’re too soggy, discuss these options with your doctor.

Prescription roll-on

With three times the sweat-stopping metallic salt as OTC antiperspirants, Rx-strength options, such as Drysol, may dry you up, says Dr Mark Ferguson, a hyperhidrosis specialist at the University of Chicago Medicine.

Shock therapy

You place your hands or feet in a pan of water while a device passes a mild electric current through it for about 20 minutes. Scientists aren’t exactly sure why it works, but three zaps a week can help you sweat less.

Anti-sweat pills

Anecdotal evidence suggests that anticholinergics, drugs that block your body’s sweat trigger, can work. The problem? Side effects, says Dr Ferguson. They include dry mouth, constipation and blurred vision.