Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, there,
Speaker 1: brain stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here. So you're sitting at
Speaker 1: a large table in a conference room with several of
Speaker 1: your colleagues, or maybe in a crowded classroom. Soon your
Speaker 1: manager or teacher will call you to the front of
Speaker 1: the room to give a presentation. All you can think
Speaker 1: about is how nervous you are. Your heart pounds, you
Speaker 1: feel tense, and now there's that unmistakable wetness under your arms.
Speaker 1: Why does feeling anxious about something like public speaking make
Speaker 1: your under arms so sweaty. Anxiety can evoke a body
Speaker 1: response called fight or flight, your body's way of readying
Speaker 1: you to deal with a potential threat. While public speaking
Speaker 1: isn't really a threat, the lower part of your brain,
Speaker 1: which controls basic body functions, doesn't know that. Ultimately, you
Speaker 1: can blame your hypothalamus, a part of the autonomic nervous system,
Speaker 1: for your anxious sweating. When faced with a stressful situation.
Speaker 1: It tells your adrenal gland to release dozens of hormones,
Speaker 1: including epinephrin or adrenaline. Epinephrin is responsible for putting your
Speaker 1: sweat glands to work. The idea is that your body
Speaker 1: will need to remain cool and slippery during your supposed confrontation.
Speaker 1: Not everyone has the same fight or flight responses. Some
Speaker 1: of us sweat mostly from our apocrine glands when we're anxious,
Speaker 1: such as those in the armpits in genital areas, while
Speaker 1: others sweat more from the ecrine glands found on the
Speaker 1: rest of the body. Ecrine sweat is bad enough because
Speaker 1: it can mean sweaty palms, but in addition to potential
Speaker 1: pit stains, apocrine sweat can make you smell bad because
Speaker 1: it's full of protein and fatty acids. This makes it
Speaker 1: prime fuel for bacteria that live on the skin, which
Speaker 1: eat your sweat and excrete the stinky compounds that we
Speaker 1: know as body odor. Anxious sweating can be a vicious cycle.
Speaker 1: Worrying about whether others can see sweat or smell body
Speaker 1: odor on you may make you feel even more anxious.
Speaker 1: For most of us, the fight or flight response that
Speaker 1: occurs when we're anxious goes away fairly quickly. We calm
Speaker 1: down as we warm up to the stressful situation, or
Speaker 1: at the very least, we feel better once it's over
Speaker 1: and we can better control this anxiety through repeated exposure
Speaker 1: to it. The more practice we get, the less scary
Speaker 1: it seems. But some people have an extreme reaction to anxiety,
Speaker 1: including excessive, under armed sweating that can last for hours.
Speaker 1: A stronger antiperspirant can help deal with the sweat, but
Speaker 1: sometimes an anxiety disorder is at the root of the problem.
Speaker 1: If sweaty symptoms never seem to ease, don't worry. A
Speaker 1: doctor can help fund a therapy that works for you.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Shannah Freeman and produced by
Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil. For more on this and lots of other
Speaker 1: bodily topics, visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.