Get super-sweaty on hot days or when you exercise? Could be your hormones

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23 Sep Get super-sweaty on hot days or when you exercise? Could be your hormones

Posted at 15:24h in hormone research, hormonology tip, Week 3, Week 4 by
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I love love love to jog on my treadmill. It’s a great stress-reliever, it’s good for my health, it really helps with my migraines and it’s the only time I get to listen to the cool tunes on my iPod (though I swear one day I’m totally going to end up maiming myself with my overly-excited treadmill jog-dancing).

Anyway, the only problem with jogging is that I sweat. Like, a lot.

I keep a variety of sweat soaker-uppers at hand to help stem the tide of saltwater into my eyes and prevent the constant drips from rusting my machine, which I use in-between my super-cool soon-to-maim-me dance-jog moves.

While I shruggedly chalked up my profuse perspiration to some really large pores that simply couldn’t hold in my sweat, turns out, for at least half my cycle, hormones are really behind my salt bath.

That’s the word from a small study from Loma Linda University that found during the second half of our cycle–our Week 3 and Week 4–we sweat more compared to the first half of our cycle–Week 1 and Week 2.

As the researchers explain it, progesterone during these weeks of our cycle raises the body’s core temperature slightly, which makes us more sensitive to heat and humidity and prompts more activity in our autonomic nervous system, which, among other things, regulates how much we sweat.

So, besides learning something a little interesting about how your body works, what’s the practical takeaway here?

When you’re in the second half of your cycle, be aware that being in hot, humid temperatures and exercising up a storm will make you perspire more. So, be sure to have plenty of fluids on hand to re-hydrate. And, if you’re a particularly heavy sweater like me, also bring a mop to clean up the puddle you leave under you so you don’t gross everybody out.

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