Excessive sweating can occur in entire body or in certain regions. Focal sweating problems such as on the hands, feet, underarms or face in particular forehead usually have no apparent cause; the conditions seem running in families. While excessive sweating over a large area of the body is usually aggravated by many internal and external factors, and may indicate an underlying cause, such as a sign of health problems commonly seen in menopause, low blood sugar, hyperthyroidism, anxiety, cancer and infections. It can also be a side effect of some medications. Therefore, for the treatment of abnormal sweating, it is necessary to target on the causes.
Enquiring about sweating is an important part of clinical consultation in TCM, physicians will pay attention to the details such as location (particular region or entire body), the time (day, night or specific hours), the nature (cool or warm, color and smell of sweat), and intensity as well as other signs to create an individualized remedy. The clinical information provides special meanings to physicians, some TCM diagnostic criteria of sweating problems are listed below.
Differentiate the color and smell of sweat
Sweat is actually colorless and odorless. However, food, drugs, environmental changes, diseases and even emotions can cause sweat to have an abnormal color and smell. The smell of sweat varies from person to person, and it also varies according to age, sex, and dietary habits. TCM claims that the change of sweat is closely associated with the states of organs as well as blood and qi (vital) activities,
disharmony patterns can easily disturbing the sweating process.
| Nature of sweat |
Associated internal disharmonies |
| Yellow sweat with or without a strong smell |
Damp-heat irritating skin or disorder in the nutrient and defensive levels |
| Red sweat |
Blazing heart fire |
| Dark-brown sweat |
Inherent deficiency, depletion of essence and blood |
| Bloody sweat |
Abundant heat-toxin or exhaustion of heart qi, or bleeding crisis |
| Cold and thin sweat |
Internal coldness accumulation or damp-coldness obstruction |
| Foul-smelling sweat |
Kidney failure, diabetes and gout |
Differentiate the causes of excessive sweating
Different
pathogens cause different clinical features which help physicians determine the cause of abnormal sweating as well as selecting remedies.
| Causes |
Pathogenic features |
| Heat evils |
Excessive or profuse sweating |
| Wind evils |
Excessive sweating with itchiness |
| Damp-heat evils |
Yellow sweat with or without a strong smell |
| Cold evils |
Sweating with blue-purplish complexion, it may also lead to little or no sweat |
| Dry evils |
Dry and coarse skin without sweating |
| Qi stagnation and blood stasis |
Focal sweating, or little or no sweating |
| Evils with a turbid nature |
A foul smell sweat which is yellowish or sticky in nature |
Associated organs or meridians in abnormal sweating
Sweating is closely related to the internal condition of the body. TCM believes that sweating process corresponds to the state of
blood,
qi (vital energy),
body fluids,
internal organs and
the twelve meridians. Based on
the order and arrangement of the meridian flow, physicians can identify the internal disharmonies that are associated with focal sweating problems.
| Regions of sweating problem |
Associated organs or meridians |
| Scalp and face |
Spleen and stomach |
| Nose |
Lung |
| Underarms |
Heart and liver |
| Palms of the hands and soles of the feet |
Heart, kidney, spleen and stomach |
| Groin |
Liver and kidney |
Sweating process is beneficial to harmonize the internal and external body, and nourish the skin. Besides excess sweating in hot weather that help regulate the body temperature, abnormal change in sweating may indicate a potential health problem, individuals should take care and handle it as soon as possible.
Basically, TCM treatment for excessive sweating can be divided into three categories:
