Q: Good evening, Doctor! I have been having severe sweating all over my body. The most disgusting one is that most of the time I sweat uncontrollably on my leg even on a cold day! Please what’s wrong with me because it’s bringing a lot of shame to me!!

A: Sweating is normal during strenuous physical activity and in warm weather. In fact, as we sweat and it evaporates, we actually feel cooler. Unfortunately, for some people sweating is an issue as they ‘appear’ to pour the stuff by the buckets or would start the day with patches of sweat on their under-arms etc. This inevitably leads to body odour.

However, there may be other medical causes for your sweats. Symptoms that may suggest medical causes include night sweats, generalized sweating all over the body, worsening sweats etc

Medical causes of excessive sweating include Diabetes Mellitus, Stress, thyroid problems, pregnancy, menopause, cancer, obesity, alcoholism etc. Medications have been implicated in excessive sweating and a spinal injury may cause sweating on one leg.

Whatever the cause, the resulting body odour is always a challenging outcome of this problem. To deal with this, take a shower twice a day or failing that, at least once a day. This helps wash away sweat as well as reduce the number of bacteria on your skin. 

Towel off after a bath or shower. Pay close attention to areas where you sweat a lot. Sweat causing bacteria love moist areas. 

Use a deodorant or anti-perspirant on your underarms twice a day, in the morning and the evening. 

When sweating heavily or in very hot weather, please change your clothes and socks frequently.

If the condition is caused by medications, your doctor may consider changing it. Other treatment options that take care of the symptoms include surgery and medications. Other treatment options include the use of botox injections and using low intensity electrical current If you’re overweight, you may want to consider losing some weight.

Please see your doctor as soon as possible so he can make a definitive diagnosis and advice on treatment.

Good night, people 🙂