Story highlights Sweat glands mature during the first two years of life

Want to sweat less? Don't overdo the AC; drink cold water

The annoying thing about being a sweaty person — and I am, I am a bit ashamed to admit, a fairly sweaty person — is the way it sneaks up on you. It's never "Oh, the temperature is rising, therefore I am about to get sweaty." Rather, it's always, "How the hell did I get sweaty? It isn't even that hot!" For we sweaty folks, there's a certain helplessness to our condition, and this is right around the time of the year when it manifests itself the most, because the population's distribution of sweatiness seems so randomly, unfairly determined. All around us, we see friends, co-workers, family, and strangers with enviously dry skin. How do they do it? Why can't we be like them?

To find out more about why some people sweat more than others, and whether there's anything that can be done about it, I reached out to Dr. Laure Rittié , a researcher in dermatology at the University of Michigan Health System. Five really interesting points came out of our email conversation.

1. Yes, you start sweating before you get that hot. The evolutionary purpose of sweating is, of course, to keep our temperature regulated. So the body responds pretty quickly even to subtle changes in temperature. As Rittié explained, "we sweat before we feel uncomfortably hot, and at lesser rates (instead of all of the sudden and profusely)." So that clamminess that comes before you even feel noticeably hot may be annoying, but it's normal and by design.

2. A lot of your sweatiness comes down to stuff you can't control, and was partially "set" when you were really young. Explaining why some people sweat more than others, Rittié said that "[w]e think this is because of the following interesting fact. Everyone is born with virtually the same number of sweat glands, but sweat glands mature during the first 2 years of life. Not all sweat glands become able to produce sweat (it depends on the need during that time). So people who grew up in warm climates tend to have more active sweat glands than people who grew up in a climate-controlled environment or in cold climates. As adults, we keep all our sweat glands but only a portion of them are able to produce sweat. This percentage varies between individuals."

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