Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Diaphoresis
Sweating is cooling, not a flaw — it only matters when it restricts everyday life or closeness.
Also known as: excessive sweating · daytime sweats · diaphoresis
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Sweating is first of all completely normal and healthy — it’s how the body cools itself in heat, exertion or excitement. Increased daytime sweating usually has harmless causes: heat, physical exertion, stress and nervousness, spicy food or the menopause (hot flushes). Sometimes a well-treatable cause lies behind it, such as an overactive thyroid or low blood sugar. Strong, locally limited sweating of the hands, feet or armpits without an obvious trigger (primary hyperhidrosis) is a topic of its own — it has its own page. Most important is to watch for accompanying signs: sweating together with chest pain needs immediate assessment, and sweating with unintended weight loss, fever or heavy night sweats should be medically evaluated. The primary form begins before the age of twenty-five, appears on both sides and does not show up during sleep. On freshly shaved or irritated skin the reaction to aluminium chloride is stronger — so application waits.
When, where and with what does it occur? This helps tell harmless triggers from treatable causes.
Breathable, light clothing, cooler rooms and enough fluids make things much more comfortable.
Since excitement drives sweating, calm, breathing exercises and breaks often help noticeably.
Palpitations/tremor → thyroid; tremor/hunger → blood sugar; weight loss/fever → see a doctor.
About two to three in a hundred people sweat distinctly more than the temperature explains. If it begins in childhood or youth, affects hands, feet or armpits on both sides and stops during sleep, it is the primary form. If it begins later, affects the whole body or continues at night, a cause is looked for — thyroid, blood sugar, medicines, infection.
Aluminium chloride temporarily closes the ducts — in the evening on dry skin, because the glands are then at rest; three to seven applications, then once or twice a week. Botulinum toxin interrupts the signal to the gland and lasts four to nine months. Tablets act on every gland in the body and so dry the mouth too. Tap water iontophoresis works on hands and feet after ten to fifteen sessions and costs nothing but time.
Heat, exertion, stress/nervousness, spicy food or caffeine — quite normal, passing reasons.
Around the menopause, sudden heat and sweat surges are very common and benign.
Overactive thyroid (palpitations, tremor) or low blood sugar (tremor, hunger) are well checkable and treatable.
Heavy sweating only on hands, feet or armpits without trigger → dedicated page “hyperhidrosis”.
Drenching sweating during sleep partly has other causes — see the night sweats topic.
Cold sweat with pressure/pain in the chest, breathlessness or nausea → call emergency 144 at once.
Sweating with unintended weight loss, persistent fever or heavy night sweats should be medically evaluated.
An overactive thyroid causes more sweating — often with palpitations, tremor and heat sensitivity.
Too-low blood sugar can trigger sudden sweating with tremor and hunger.
Makes sure the muscle lets go again after tensing. A lack favours cramps, twitching and inner restlessness — and the blood value reflects the store poorly.
Sets the excitability of muscle and nerve. A low value causes weakness and cramps, a high one is dangerous for the heart rhythm — here one measures rather than guesses.
Sets off the tensing in the muscle in the first place. A low value causes tingling around the mouth and in the fingers and cramping of the hands.
With heavy sweating both are lost together. Drinking only water dilutes the sodium further — with long exertion salt belongs with it.
Traditionally used against heavy sweating; the studies are small and open, the frame is an extract once daily over 4–8 weeks. In large amounts over months it is not intended, because of the thujone.
Counts in here rather than helping — as do alcohol and nicotine. Anyone drinking several cups across the day already holds part of the explanation.
Effective when deficient; effects on sleep and stress plausible but moderate. Too much causes loose stool.
An overactive thyroid turns the turnover up: sweating, heat intolerance, fast pulse, weight loss despite appetite. That is one of the few points here that a single value can settle.
Fear and tension drive sweating through the same route as heat — only in different places: palms, soles, armpits rather than forehead and trunk.
In menopause the fluctuating value shifts temperature regulation in the midbrain: the range in which the body does nothing narrows — a small warming is then enough to trigger sweating.
Sweating with trembling and ravenous hunger two to four hours after eating comes in some people from a too late, too strong insulin surge. That is measured not on the hormone but on the sugar at exactly that moment.
All three stimulate the sweat glands within minutes, the effect lasts one to two hours. Anyone wanting to check leaves one after the other out for two weeks.
Sage is the traditional remedy for heavy sweating; small studies show an effect. It is not intended in high doses over months because of its thujone content — here too amount and time frame count.
AWMF 013-059 · S1 · 2023-07 — in force
Definition und Therapie der primären Hyperhidrose
checked 2026-09