Nervous sweat is something we all experience, it can form awkward pit stains on your favorite t-shirt, or warm clammy hands that are shy for a handshake. The medical term for excessive sweating is hyperhidrosis, which is excessive sweating not caused by temperature or physical exertion. This heavy sweating can be caused by overactive nerves in your sweat glands, hormones (i.e., menopause), or by an underlying condition (i.e., hypoglycemia or thyroid issues).

However, in addition to speaking to your healthcare provider for a proper diagnosis, there are several lifestyle tips that can help reduce excessive sweating:

1. Use a prescription or industrial antiperspirant
Prescription grade deodorant allows for the influence of sweat production by covering pores in the skin, much like a regular deodorant. However, the prescription grade deodorant has far stronger doses of the active ingredient, which also serve to eliminate odor-causing bacteria. Depending on your skin type, one can never say what the best deodorant for sweat and odor might be; prescription grade medicine offers an alternative to this troublesome problem.

2. Shave your armpits
This time-tested and simple trick can prove to be most effective as it helps to reduce excess sweat by cooling glands down with newly exposed pores. This also means less hair and less water retained by these other areas, and so this produces less heat for the body to hold on to.

3. Avoid sweat-inducing foods
This one is a given! Sweat inducing foods, in a time when you are trying not to sweat, don’t help at all. This means avoiding foods such as soup, hot meals, broth and of course, anything spicy. If you have to consume it, make sure you drink lots of water for this one.

4. Stay hydrated
As in the previous point, drinking water also helps to keep us cool naturally. This means a reduction in the amount of sweat produced to lower our temperature on a hot day. Staying hydrated and drinking at least four glasses of water a day is a great way to start raising your body’s water quota, and lowering its overall temperature.

5. Wear breathable clothing
This strategy can be done daily to help to keep us cool. Material such as cotton are very breathable and light to wear, allowing ease-of-access and subsequent retention of coolness, which goes a long way in how hot we get and how quickly this happens, as well as how quickly we cool.

6. Skip the caffeine
Caffeine causes our heart to speed-up, which in turn raises our body temperature, and activates our sweat glands continuously.

A sweaty face, sweaty palms, sweaty underarms, dampened clothing, and awkward encounters can be an uncomfortable and embarrassing experience. However, a few tips and tricks can quickly help you to counteract the effects of heavy sweating and live a more comfortable life.