How To Stop Sweaty Hands: 11 Tips for Less Sweat (2024)

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If you’ve struggled withsweaty handsand can’t wait to findhow to stopit, 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 forsweaty handsmay not exist, the remedies listed here will show youhow to stopit and provide some relief from the embarrassment this creates.

Before we break down these tips in detail and discuss howto get rid of sweaty hands,let’s first explore its causes.

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…

• 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 youstop sweaty hands?

Antiperspirant is theeasiestproven way tocontrol 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 treatingsweaty armpits, but lotions, creams, and gels are better suited for hand and feet application.

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

How does antiperspirant lotion work?

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.

If you’re wonderinghow to stop sweaty handsbutdon’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 ahyperhidrosis treatment.

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

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.

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, andless-sweatyyou.

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

If you’re looking forhow to stop sweaty hands, startwithavoiding 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.

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

When it comes tohow to stop sweaty hands,sageis 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 sweat, 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 forsweaty feet.

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.

When you’re trying to find the answer forhow 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.

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.

However, when used to treat sweaty hands, you have to get injections every six months, and it 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.

There is also a treatment available for palmar hyperhidrosis callediontophoresis. 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.

No one is 100 percent surehowthis worksto stop 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 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 medical 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.

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, andnervousnessare 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.

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.

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 forhow to stop sweaty hands.

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.

When it comes tohow 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 moresignificant negative impacton patient’s lives than any other dermatological condition.

There’s no way to put lipstick on a sweaty hand situation. However, when you arm yourself with the right information and the right tools, you can give yourself a fighting chance against embarrassing hand sweat.

We’d love to hear how you deal with hand sweating. Comment below and tell us how you’re surviving and thriving…