Don't Sweat It: Sweat Solutions and Dryness Tips That Work

Sweating It Out

When I'm out running early in the morning, I love the way I get all sweaty. My armpits, my face, my whole body. It's proof positive that I've got my heart rate up and I'm doing something good for myself. Who cares if my sports bra is sopping wet? Isn't that what it's made for?

Then there's the sweating-at-my-computer or pitted-out-at-parties perspiration that has nothing to do with exercise. Through the years, I've gone to great lengths to cover up these sweat rings. I've banned pastels and silk from my wardrobe. (Darker colors and heavier fabrics conceal better.) I've parted with cashmere. (It's too expensive to ruin so quickly.) My all-time low: In high school, wearing a 1960s contraption that consisted of two pieces of cloth under my armpits held up by an elastic band around my chest. (It had been my mom's. I've since learned that heavy sweating is usually genetic.)

I'm not the only woman who perspires profusely. U.S. Women's National Soccer Team player Abby Wambach told FITNESS she sweats three liters per game. Then again, she's scoring goals for gold, while I'm just trying to survive a barbecue without sweat rings. But even this kind of sweat is common. A recent study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that almost eight million people suffer from excessive sweating, that it affects men and women equally and that the most common trigger for sweating is stress and anxiety, not a tough game on the soccer field. Here, the sticky truth about sweating.