5 Surprising Facts & Myths About Hyperhidrosis
For something we’re so familiar with, sweating still has so many mysteries and misconceptions. Researchers have discovered many insights about sweating over the last few centuries. They’re worth knowing especially for people who have hyperhidrosis (or any sweat-related condition) and encounter individuals who may seem apathetic to their plight. This post will take a look at the truths and myths behind sweating, excessive sweating and hyperhidrosis.
5 Surprising Facts About Hyperhidrosis
There are many surprising and frankly, jaw-dropping facts about sweating you’re probably never heard. Here’s a look at some surprising truths about your sweat.
Sweat is a natural antibiotic
Yep, you heard that correctly. Sweat contains a chemical compound known as dermcidin, which appears to regulate bacterial growth of bacteria on the skin. This can help fight or prevent infections and in theory, keep body odour under control. Ironic, isn’t it?
Humans can smell how you feel
Your emotional state can alter the chemical composition of your sweat. An Austrian study made this discovery. The participants wore sweat-collecting pads while they watched scary films one day, and then more family-friendly films the next day. Another group of volunteers were told to smell the pads and correctly identified the pads viewers wore while watching the scary movie. In other words, you can smell the fear.
Humans can smell if you’re well
You may have heard before that being sick changes your body odour. This isn’t a myth or urban legend. Being sick produces metabolic changes that emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs), an occurrence that can happen in the presence of a chronic disease or acute infection. Don’t worry though - your doctor won’t be sniffing you anytime soon.
You have a unique sweatprint
Everyone on Earth (yes, that includes you) has their own sweat profile (or sweatprint), much like your own fingerprint. No two people are exactly the same. What makes your sweat different from others? The blend and consistency of the 373 compounds found in your sweat. Although you carry the same “ingredients'' for sweat like everyone else, the concentration you have of each one differs from the next guy or girl. Coming soon - sweat readers for security purposes.
You enter and leave this world with the same number of sweat glands
You couldn’t grow new sweat glands even if you tried. The amount of sweat glands you were born with is the amount you’ll have for the rest of your life. With that said, you can decrease the number of sweat glands you have by means of surgery, a procedure sometimes recommended for severe or extreme hyperhidrosis.
5 Surprising Myths About Hyperhidrosis
Naturally, there are many misconceptions about sweat that research has brought in the spotlight, yet the masses still believe. Here’s a look at some of these myths.
You need to sweat to have a good workout
Sorry, sweating after a workout is really just an ego boost. The amount of sweating you do after a workout depends on your genetics, room temperature, air flow and the amount of rest you take between sets or intervals. You can determine the quality of your workouts by the type of movements and results you obtain from them, not how drenched you get.
Sweating helps you lose weight
This one is tricky because sweating can lower body weight, but it does it indirectly. Real fat loss occurs hours after your workout session and sweating ends, usually when you’re asleep. Yes, sweat does coincide with a rise in temperature and metabolism, but that doesn’t mean you’ll lose fat. Don’t get fooled by MMA fighters and boxers who dehydrate themselves to make a weight class - they’re simply losing water weight, which they usually regain as quickly as they lose it. It’s all smoke and mirrors, folks.
Sweat causes sweat stains
Nope, it doesn’t. Your deodorant or antiperspirants cause those unsightly stains you love to hate. The compounds in antiperspirants react with proteins in your sweat creating that yellowish blemish. Also, the oils and fragrances in deodorants stain fabrics, giving you the impression that your sweat causes them. Your sweat has no colour (unless you have chromhidrosis), meaning it can’t stain your fabrics in another colour.
You can sweat toxins out of your body
If your sweat was made out of toxic waste, this might be true. But considering the fact that your sweat is 99% water with a little protein, salt, and carbs, there’s no toxins for you to sweat out. So no, sweat doesn’t cleanse you. That’s a job for your liver and kidneys, as well as your intestines. So if you really want to detox your body, drink more water, cut down on sugar and alcohol and eat plenty of fibre. Those are the keys to a toxin-free you, not the sauna.
Excessive sweating is a hygienic issue
This is one of the more insulting myths about hyperhidrosis (and heavy sweating in general). Hyperhidrosis from a dysfunctional sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, as well as an increased sensitivity to the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine. The condition is largely genetic and requires specialized treatment. Science aside, hyperhidrosis sufferers often take hygiene more seriously than most, because of the stigma that comes with sweating and the desire to look and feel normal.
Bring the Truth of Sweating to Light
Humans have been curious and studious about sweat and its effects since the beginning of time. We’ve learned plenty, but still have plenty to learn when it comes to sweat. Nevertheless, understanding how facts and myths about sweat can help you develop a more realistic viewpoint of your own health and fitness.
It can even help you eliminate unrealistic expectations and think more positively about yourself. And in this age of information overload and confusion, a little more self-acceptance isn’t a bad thing.
Want to learn more about hyperhidrosis and ways to manage it? Check out our Neat Freaks blog for helpful tips and insights to control excessive sweating.


Because the peak operating times for wind and solar systems occur at different times of the day and year, hybrid systems are more likely to produce power when you need it.
According to many renewable energy experts, a small "hybrid" electric system that combines home wind electric and home solar electric (photovoltaic or PV) technologies offers several advantages over either single system.
In much of the United States, wind speeds are low in the summer when the sun shines brightest and longest. The wind is strong in the winter when less sunlight is available. Because the peak operating times for wind and solar systems occur at different times of the day and year, hybrid systems are more likely to produce power when you need it.
Many hybrid systems are stand-alone systems, which operate "off-grid" -- not connected to an electricity distribution system. For the times when neither the wind nor the solar system are producing, most hybrid systems provide power through batteries and/or an engine generator powered by conventional fuels, such as diesel. If the batteries run low, the engine generator can provide power and recharge the batteries.
Adding an engine generator makes the system more complex, but modern electronic controllers can operate these systems automatically. An engine generator can also reduce the size of the other components needed for the system. Keep in mind that the storage capacity must be large enough to supply electrical needs during non-charging periods. Battery banks are typically sized to supply the electric load for one to three days.


IN THE HALLOWED ANNALS of the stalwarts of the modern Indian Renaissance, we have some like Prof. M. Hiriyanna who wrote very less but what he wrote became immortal by the sheer dint of authoritativeness. Then there are folks like Radhakumud Mookerjee, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Jadunath Sarkar, and P.V. Kane, the variety of whose body of work ranges from doing original, seminal research to writing correctives, summaries, digests, and encyclopaedias in just one subject.
Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade belongs to the latter category.
An examination of even some portions of his monumental body of work is the standing proof of his eminence.
Occupying the topmost spot are the aforementioned twenty-two volumes of the sources of the history of Maharashtra. These apart, he wrote six original volumes on the various aspects of history, compiled three volumes of his translations and contributed critical and other articles to about fifteen magazines and newspapers. On an average Rajwade brought out one volume every year.
Here are the brief contents of the twenty-two volumes of Rajwade’s Sources of Maratha History.
The introductions that he has written to these volumes are extraordinary lessons in history-writing meriting an independent study in its own right. As we mentioned in the previous part of this series, Rajwade’s analysis of the events leading up to the third battle of Panipat is not only original but explodes several myths mostly propagandized by the British. Needless, Rajwade is at his passionate best when he writes about Shivaji based on a thorough and critical examination of his Bakhairs and other primary source materials.
Another notable theme of these introductions is Rajwade’s intense feeling and pathos about the mindset of our people who were—and continue to remain—criminally indifferent to their own history.
If this was not enough, Rajwade also managed to find time to write essays and columns in various Marathi newspapers, journals and magazines including Granthamamla Vishvavritta, Lokashikshana, Sarasvati-mandir, Rashtrodaya, Itihas, Aitihasik, Ramdasi, Vidyasevak, Chitramaya-jagat, Kesari, and Dnyanprakash. The gamut of subjects included history, philology, social issues, critiques, literature, politics and others of a general nature. I am told that these columns were highly influential in Rajwade’s own time, and after his death, an effort to compile them all into a single volume was made.
The other area of Vishubhau’s phenomenal contributions is how he patiently listed down by hand the names of thousands of cities, towns, and villages that had seen the impact of the Maratha rule. He examined and explained their meanings from the strength of his mastery over philology, etymology, and linguistics. The result was an extraordinary series of articles with the general title, The First Colonisation of Maharashtra.
Rajwade’s conviction, which reflected in all his works, was that history research was not merely an academic discipline or a hobby but was the very foundation on which a nation must be built and nourished. This indeed was the precise trait shared by all such luminaires of his time including K.M. Munshi, Jadunath Sarkar, S. Srikanta Sastri, et al. He was also not blind to the hardships that this pursuit entailed. Like all honest scholars, he realized that a big contributor to these hardships was the appalling lack of selfless patronage given by a duty-conscious society. And he didn’t shy away from expressing his blistering criticism against it. In his own words,
An increase in the number of research-workers and their associations accomplishes half the task only; the other half is dependent on money. There are rich people, associations and princes in our land, but they have not yet developed the sense of knowing why, where and for which object money should be spent for the advancement of learning. The rich can patronise pets, wrestlers and even cheap actors but they have not yet cultivated the sense by which they could discover the learned, the research-workers and the leaders of thought. When they do that, this land will abound in the growth of fine arts, sciences and literature of a high order. To fill up the want caused by absence of money, young men must come forward to make self-sacrifice.
Indeed, Rajwade had embraced self-sacrifice by leading the life of a renunciate. History was his Karma-bhoomi on which he first reaped and then distributed substantial harvests year after year expecting nothing in return, and when we briefly examine his method of agriculture, we are stunned into speechlessness.
Vishubhau was first stirred into action when he read the racist and imperialist versions of Maharashtra’s history written by the likes of Grant Duff. It was the typical conqueror’s history not essentially different in its basic nature from the “histories” of medieval Muslim chroniclers. Among other things, these histories floated the inflated balloon of falsehood that Shivaji was a rebel, and that the Maratha people were uncultured marauders.
In the initial years of his research, Rajwade received a letter from a student which changed his life in one stroke. The letter mentioned the discovery of a metallic trunk full of old documents located in Wai. Rajwade immediately rushed to the spot. It was the beginning of countless such journeys dotting Vishubhau’s life. The trunk was a veritable treasure-chest of 202 primary records related to the third battle of Panipat. He took the trunk home and meticulously catalogued each record, and drew up timelines for each event and then began editing them. The outcome was the first volume of the aforementioned Marathyanchya Itihasachi Sadhane.
Its immediate success transformed him into an irresistible magnet in the world of historical scholarship. Scholars, academics and laymen began sending him news and documents related to the history of Maharashtra. He began touring the whole state. Wherever fresh historical material was reported, he would be there. He was fine with any means of transport. He travelled on foot for several days at a stretch carrying with him minimal clothing and cooking utensils. An orthodox Chitpavana Brahmana, Rajwade washed his own clothes, cooked his own food, and did not miss his Nitya-Anushtana for even a single day, no matter where he was.
The decades-long culmination of this ardour was a huge hoard of historical material on art, iconography, architecture, war records, bureaucratic and ministerial notes, correspondence, social customs, language, literature, and folk traditions. A highly prized discovery was the oldest commentary on the legendary Jnaneshwari. Rajwade edited it, added explanatory notes and published it by retaining its original (i.e., earliest) grammatical form. He also edited Jayaram Pindye’s Radha Madhav Vilas Champu, written during Shahaji’s time. The scholarly world also hailed this work for its importance in understanding the history of Karnataka’s relationship with the Maratha Desha.
Till the very end of his life, Vishubhau remained a true Karma Yogi impelled by ceaseless activity in the service of Bharatavarsha and his beloved Maharashtra. He lived an austere life dedicated to the service of Saraswati and put in as many as fourteen hours of work each day.
This is what he wrote on his 46th birthday:
On the 8th of Ashadh, this Vishvanath will commence his 46th year, which means that he has 54 years more to live. During that remaining period, may he do such actions as will be beneficial to all the world and give strength to his nation. So far, he has spent his time in compiling material for our national memory or history. In future he must devote himself to action. Otherwise, his life will have been spent in vain. He must work and toil unremittingly for at least forty years more. If he will be blessed with health, pure air, good water, clean habitation and wholesome food, this will become possible. God's grace must abound.
Unfortunately, God’s grace did not abound. An extremely taxing schedule, incessant travel and long hours at the writing table axed his earthly life in 1926, at the relatively young age of sixty-three.
Thankfully, his legacy survived him. A few months after his death, the Rajwade Sanshodhak Mandal (Rajwade Research Institute) was established at Dhule, Maharashtra, and his works and historical collections were preserved there. Among the legions of his disciples, D.V. Potdar, V.S. Bendrey and G.H. Khare are notable.
In the next and concluding part of this series, we will publish some excerpts from Rajwade’s conception of history and his notes on undertaking historical research.
To be continued
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