Struggling with excessive sweat? Maybe you’re missing out on these vitamins

Summer time can be a pain, especially for people who sweat excessively. Although sweating is essential as it helps your body cool down or even to flush out the body’s toxins to an extent, excessive sweating can be uncomfortable, irritating, and even embarrassing for some. Sweating after a workout is quite natural, but if you tend to sweat too much due to exposure to heat or by being nervous or sick, you can do with a few tips to avoid it. A key factor to adjust is your diet as a deficiency of certain vitamins and minerals can also lead you to excessive sweating.

Of course, there are the usual tips to reduce sweat – wear comfortable clothing, use antiperspirants, but dietary changes like consumption of water-dense fruits and veggies, are also important, according to Dr Swathi Reddy (PT), Consultant Physiotherapist and certified diet counsellor and MIAP, Motherhood Hospitals, Bengaluru.

“Apart from this, there are certain vitamins and minerals which can be added to your diet that will help regulate your body temperature and control the sweat.”

That means sweating can come under control by eating right and healthy.

These vitamins and minerals can help reduce excessive sweating:

1. B complex vitamins

These are essential as they perform the crucial function of maintaining and regulating the nervous system. They have an impact on our energy levels, cell metabolism, and brain function as well. When your sympathetic nervous system overreacts to stress, you start sweating. This happens because of the deficiency of vitamin B in the diet. It will cause over-sensitivity to anxiety, tense and stressful situations, leading to excessive sweating. Deficiency can also cause night sweats. Proper intake of vitamin B will ensure the nutritional support required to control this.

Foods like meat, eggs, poultry, green vegetables, beans, dairy products, legumes, nuts, etc can be rich sources of vitamin B. You can also take Vitamin B supplements along with vitamin B-rich food items.

Also, read: 6 foods to reduce sweat and improve body odour this summer

2. Vitamin D

One of the earliest symptoms of vitamin D deficiency is excessive sweating, especially a sweaty head. Lack of vitamin D will also cause fatigue, bone pain, muscle cramps, and depression.

You can regulate your vitamin D levels by consuming fatty fish, dairy products like milk and cheese, mushrooms, foods fortified with vitamin D, etc. However, sunlight is the best source of vitamin D. Exposing yourself to sunlight for around 20 mins before 11 am every day can help you increase your vitamin D levels.

3. Magnesium

When you sweat, you naturally lose magnesium. Excessive sweating can lead to magnesium deficiency. This will increase your stress levels and in turn cause even more sweating and loss of magnesium. Increasing your intake of magnesium will help to balance your levels thereby reducing the sweat to some extent.

Sources of magnesium include almonds, pumpkins, spinach, and soya beans to name a few.

4. Calcium

Calcium is a mineral that helps in regulating body temperature and can help in suppressing sweat levels. Dairy products, soya beans, green leafy vegetables, and nuts can help in increasing calcium levels in the body. Vitamin D is required for the absorption of calcium in our body.

Sure, sweating is good for your body because it does help you detox but if you want to avoid excessive sweating, make sure your diet is rich in these vitamins and minerals.