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My wife was watching one of those doctor shows and they had a woman on who sweats profusely all of the time. She wears tank tops so she doesn't get stains on her clothes. They did some Botox injections to stop some of the glands from producing sweat. Just the idea of using Botox makes me scared.

I know that following Paleo principals, sweat does not smell as bad, but what about quantity? Has anyone noticed that they sweat any more or less? Does anyone have advice for people who have a problem with excessive sweat? I actually feel that I don't sweat as much, but I was never a schvitzer anyway.

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Regarding body odor, see previous threads: http://paleohacks.com/questions/3042/lemon-juice-as-a-deodorant and http://paleohacks.com/questions/1484/how-did-grok-deal-with-bo .

RE quantity of sweat, excessive sweating is called hyperhidrosis. It can occur either in eccrine or apocrine (armpits and groin) sweat glands ( http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sweating-and-body-odor/DS00305/DSECTION=causes ). Your sweat glands are connected to your sympathetic nervous system. This means that anything that stresses you out will increase sweat output. Conversely, I would expect a relaxed, paleo lifestyle to actually decrease sweating, except during intense exercise.

Botox is one approach to excessive sweating, but it wears off after about 4 months and treatment must be repeated to be effective.

The most effective antiperspirant I've seen is a prescription agent called Drysol. Quoting myself from a previous post: "Anti-perspirants do not work on the surface of your skin. They actually penetrate the sweat glands, which takes several hours. The best time to apply anti-perspirants is at bedtime. If you shower the next morning, the anti-perspirant will still work because it's inside your sweat glands, not on the surface. A good resource for those with hyperhidrosis is the Hyperhidrosis Society ( http://www.sweathelp.org )."

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I don't use anti-perspirants. I use deodorant, and skip some days. I don't stink, and actually sweat very little unlike when I used anti-ps. It took a while for my body to adjust. – KD Apr 9 2010 at 15:52

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