How To Stop Sweaty Hands: 11 Tips, Remedies, And Treatments

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If you’ve struggled with sweaty hands and can’t wait to find how to stop it, you’ve likely experienced the following…

  • Embarrassing, sweaty handshakes that sabotage first impressions.
  • Clammy hands that keep you from holding hands with that special someone.
  • Constant hand perspiration that soaks keyboards, paperwork, and game

While the perfect cure for sweaty hands may not exist, the remedies listed here will show you how to stop hands from sweating and provide some relief from the embarrassment this creates.
Before we break down these tips in detail and discuss how to get rid of sweaty hands, let’s first explore its causes.

Why Do My Hands Sweat So Much?

Most people experience sweaty palms during stressful situations, anxious moments, high temperatures, or physical exertion.

For example, it’s not uncommon to get clammy hands during a tense movie, playing your favorite video game, climbing, or weightlifting.

These activities and higher stress levels will raise your body temperature. This makes your sweat glands release extra heat via sweat. Unfortunately, your palms don’t get a pass on this cooling/sweating process.

If your hands are always sweating or sweating excessively, it could be something more…

Hand Sweating Common Causes:

  • Anxiety and emotional stress
  • Palmar hyperhidrosis
  • Genetics
  • Hormones
  • Physical activity
  • Hot environments
  • Diet
  • Underlying health conditions
  • Prescription drugs and medications

We’ll talk more about these later. For now, let’s cut to the chase…How do you stop sweaty hands?

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how to stop sweaty hands

11 Ways To Stop Sweaty Hands

If you’re wondering how to fix sweaty hands, here it is…the list you’ve been waiting for. Here are 11 ways to prevent excessive hand sweating with lifestyle changes, antiperspirants, and home remedies. Plus, we show you how medical procedures for palmar hyperhidrosis can help.

1. Antiperspirant For Hands

Antiperspirant is the easiest proven way to control sweating. Antiperspirants work by plugging and shrinking your sweat pores. As a result, you’ll sweat less wherever you apply antiperspirant.

Will any antiperspirant work for hands?

Antiperspirant sticks, roll-ons, and sprays are ideal for treating sweaty armpits, but lotions, creams, and gels are better suited if you’re dealing with sweaty feet or hands.

Before you get all crazy with natural remedies and medical procedures, try an antiperspirant lotion for your hands.

How does antiperspirant lotion work to stop hand sweating?

Dab a pea-sized amount of hand antiperspirant on your palms, rub it in and let it dry for 3-5 minutes.

If hands are wet or sweaty during the application, the antiperspirant lotion will NOT keep hands from sweating.

Depending on sweat severity, hand antiperspirants can reduce sweating for 1 to 3 hours per application.

You can apply when needed to avoid potentially embarrassing situations like awkward handshakes, slippery hand-holding, etc.

2. Alcohol-Based Hand Wipes

Alcohol Based Hand Wipes

If you’re wondering how to stop sweaty hands but don’t want to use antiperspirant, try using alcohol-based hand wipes. Alcohol is an astringent that, when applied topically, can help keep your hands temporarily dry with its pore-shrinking abilities.

This useful trick comes in handy right before an important interview or social event.

If your hands sweat excessively, you’ll want to stick with an antiperspirant lotion or a hyperhidrosis treatment.

3. Absorb Sweat With Cornstarch Or Baby Powder

Baby powder absorbs liquids. So every time you start to feel sweat on your hands, simply dust them with a bit of baby powder.

If you’re among those wondering how to stop clammy hands, consider carrying a travel-size bottle with you or keep one at work to use throughout the day. Look for a talc-free powder. Alternatively, you can use baking soda or cornstarch.

4. Drink Water…Lots Of It

how to stop sweaty hands by drinking water

Wondering how to stop sweaty hands naturally? Drink a generous amount of water throughout the day. Staying hydrated can cool your core temperature and help reduce excessive sweating.

5. Diet And Detox

Diet and Detox

If you’re searching for a sweaty hands’ cure, food might be the best medicine.

Did you know that your diet can impact your sweating? Certain foods will increase your sweating — while other foods can help you sweat less.

A healthy diet leads to balance and a healthier body. A poor diet leads to imbalance — physical, emotional, and mental.

Imbalance can lead to chronic illness, weight gain, anxiety, and you guessed it: excessive sweating.

Less bad stuff + more good stuff = a happier, healthier, and less-sweaty you.

Examine your diet. You might be able to calm your sweaty hands with a few simple tweaks.

If you’re looking for how to stop sweaty hands, start with avoiding caffeine, alcoholic beverages, and spicy, fatty, fried, and processed foods.

All of these foods can raise your body temperature and increase your heart rate. When your body temperature rises, you perspire more to release the extra heat.

You’ll also want to replace the bad stuff with good food options like whole grains and almonds.

For those looking for how to get rid of sweaty hands, Vitamins B and D can also be very useful in promoting balance.

Here are a few of our favorite vitamin-rich food sources:

  • Low-fat or skim milk
  • Calcium-rich foods
  • Olive oil

You should also add fruits and vegetables that have a high water content to your diet. Like regularly drinking water, they help keep your body hydrated, which regulates your body temperature. Some options include:

  • Broccoli
  • Cauliflower
  • Watermelon
  • Strawberries
  • Grapefruit
  • Apples
  • Blueberries
  • Plums
  • Oranges
  • Lettuce
  • Zucchini
  • Radishes
  • Celery

6. Sage Tea Soak

Sage Tea Soak

When it comes to how to stop sweaty hands, sage is known as Mother Nature’s antiperspirant. It contains a natural astringent called tannic acid. Tannic acid can constrict and shrink your skin and pores. This shrinking helps reduce sweaty hands, just like an antiperspirant.

How it works:

  1. Add 4-5 sage tea bags to a quart of boiling water.
  2. Let the tea steep until it’s cool enough to touch.
  3. Once cooled, soak your hands in the sage solution for 30 minutes.

Feeling Brave? Some “experts” claim that drinking sage tea can also reduce excessive sweat. Just make sure you don’t drink the tea you used to soak your hands. This also works well for sweaty feet.

7. Organic Rose Water

Organic Rose Water

Rose water can be purchased from any store that sells makeup and skincare products because it’s typically used as a skin toner. It works by closing the pores in your skin, which reduces the amount of sweat produced.

To use rose water on your sweaty hands, dip a cotton ball in it then, rub the cotton ball over your palms and let it dry.

Lemon juice and apple cider vinegar can also be applied to your hands this way, but if you use either of them, you should rinse your hands off once they dry. As an alternative, you can also use witch hazel.

8. Coconut Oil

how to stop sweaty hands with coconut oil

After your daily shower, take a small bit of coconut oil and rub it between your palms until they are fully coated. Coconut oil is a natural antiperspirant, and it has several other skin-related benefits, so it will help keep your hands soft to the touch too.

9. Regular Exercise

When you’re trying to find the answer for how to stop sweaty hands, it might seem odd to you to see exercising on a list of home remedies for sweaty hands. After all, when you exercise, you sweat. The thing is, exercise also helps reduce the amount of stress your body is going through.

Because of this, your body’s core temperature sits lower on a regular basis, which reduces the amount of sweat your body produces overall.

It’s a good idea to fit in about 30 minutes or so of exercise five days per week. If you don’t want to hit the gym, consider taking a walk or riding a bike through your neighborhood each evening. Just don’t exercise too close to bedtime, or you could have a hard time falling asleep.

10. Botox Injections

Botox

When used to treat excessive sweating in small areas — such as the palms of your hands — botox has been known to effectively reduce between 82 and 87 percent of sweating and give you completely dry skin when injected.

However, when used to treat sweaty hands, you should know that this treatment lasts for about 6 months meaning you’ll have to get injections regularly. Other than that, injections can cause temporary pain and weakness in your hands. Because of this, it’s best to discuss all of your options with your doctor before trying botox injections.

11. Iontophoresis Treatments

There is also a treatment available for palmar hyperhidrosis called iontophoresis. This treatment has been known to reduce the amount of sweat produced in one’s hands by up to 81 percent. However, this treatment can be a bit painful, so it’s typically used as a last resort.

Iontophoresis uses a medical device to pass a mild electrical current through water and the skin’s surface.

When it comes to how to prevent sweaty hands, no one is 100 percent sure how this works to prevent sweaty hands, but it’s thought that the electrical current and the minerals in the water thicken the outer layer of your skin, which in turn, blocks the sweat from getting to the surface.

You can have this medical treatment completed in your doctor’s office. Or, if you prefer to complete the treatments at home, your doctor can write you a prescription that lets you purchase the device.

In some places, tap water is too “soft” for the treatment to work. Basically, this means that the water doesn’t have enough minerals and electrolytes. If this is the case in your area, you can add a teaspoon of baking soda to your treatment tray.

The Relation Between Anxiety And Sweaty Hands

The relation between anxiety and sweaty hands

Anxiety, stress, and nervousness are actually some of the main culprits of sweaty hands.

In fact, you’ve probably noticed that your hands start sweating before you have to speak in front of an audience or during a first date. It’s completely normal.

Stress, anxiety, and nervousness are all feelings that trigger a fight-or-flight response in our bodies. These responses release the stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine.

While hormones help you cope with whatever makes you anxious, they also raise your body temperature. Of course, your body sweats to regulate your temperature, so when you’re anxious, your sweat glands are activated.

Are Sweaty Palms Genetic?

If your hands consistently perspire, you might have inherited a few bad genes. Excessively sweaty palms can actually skip generations, so, possibly, you’ve inherited it even if your parents don’t have it.

According to studies, two-thirds of patients with hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating) have a family member with the same condition.

Hand sweat is normal, but for some, it happens in Niagara Falls-like proportions and for absolutely no reason at all. This type of sweating is called palmar hyperhidrosis.

Is There Such a Thing as Overactive Sweat Glands on Palms?

When in desperate search for a solution to “how to stop sweaty hands”, you might also wonder if having overactive sweat glands can be a real thing. The answer is yes, there is a condition called palmar hyperhidrosis, which is characterized by excessive sweating of the palms. It can be caused by a variety of factors, including genetics, certain medical conditions, and stress.

What Medical Condition Can Trigger Hand Sweat?

There are a number of medical conditions that can trigger hand sweat, including:

  • Hyperthyroidism: This condition occurs when the thyroid gland produces too much thyroid hormone. Symptoms include weight loss, increased heart rate, and sweating.
  • Menopause: This is the time in a woman’s life when she stops having periods. Symptoms include hot flashes, night sweats, and mood swings.
  • Diabetes: Diabetes happens when the body does not produce enough insulin, a hormone that helps the body use glucose for energy. Symptoms include increased thirst, frequent urination, and weight loss.
  • Anxiety: This is a mental health condition characterized by excessive worry and fear. Symptoms include sweating, heart palpitations, and difficulty sleeping.

What Is Palmar Hyperhidrosis?

What is palmar hyperhidrosis

Palmar Hyperhidrosis is excessive and uncontrollable sweating of the hands or palms.

If this describes your situation, you’re not alone. Palmar Hyperhidrosis affects about one percent of the American population. Most of them, just like you, are looking for how to how to cure sweaty hands permanently.

While anyone can suffer sweaty hands periodically, if the situation persists, try to seek a medical assessment from a dermatologist to determine if you have palmar hyperhidrosis.

Symptoms can appear anytime, regardless of your age, but they commonly appear during adolescence, and in some cases persist throughout life.

What Causes Palmar Hyperhidrosis?

When it comes to how to stop sweaty hands, even the experts don’t know the exact reason causing this. Some believe that a hyperactive sympathetic nervous system could be the cause.

The sympathetic nervous system manages the fight-or-flight response which releases adrenaline, increases heart rate, constricts blood vessels, and controls sweating. In other words, a hyperactive sympathetic nervous system can result in hyper hand sweating.

Palmar hyperhidrosis can wreck confidence and cause extreme stress. This can impact social and professional interactions, causing real issues in every aspect of your life.

In fact, many dermatologists believe palmar hyperhidrosis causes a more significant negative impact on patient’s lives than any other dermatological condition.

How To Stop Sweaty Hands - The Key Takeaway

As you can see, stopping sweaty hands is not a one-size-fits-all type of thing. And yet, beginning to understand what are the underlying causes that trigger sweating will help you identify what you can start doing today to get your dreamed hand-dryness. If it gives you any comfort, know that you are not alone in this. At SweatBlock, we are here to support your breaking free from extreme sweat journey!

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