Sweaty hands

Sweaty hands are annoying and embarrassing, particularly if you use a computer keyboard or your sweat smudges ink and wets paper. You can disguise sweaty hands to some extent by smoothing back your hair – so that you wipe your hands on your hair – before you shake hands with anyone. But it can be embarrassing if you leave sweaty handprints on anything you touch.

What you can do for sweaty hands

First ask yourself whether your sweaty hands mean that you are excessively anxious in certain situations. If this is the case, dealing with the anxiety will lessen the problem (see below and look at the section on shyness).

You may not be excessively anxious – it may simply be that even slight, normal anxiety triggers your hands to produce too much sweat. If this is the case, you can try rubbing your palms with astringent oils, such as cypress or geranium (from health stores). You can also buy a special powder to keep your hands dry, designed for use in sports to keep a grip on the ball or racquet (available from sports shops). You apply it as a liquid, which changes into a fine dry powder. Alternatively, try 20% aluminium chloride, painting it onto your hands as described for armpits. You can buy aluminium chloride from chemists without a prescription (ask for Drichlor, Anhydrol Forte or Perspirex Hand and Foot Lotion). Unfortunately, it is not as effective for hands as for armpits. If this does not work, you need to see your doctor.

What doctors can do for sweaty hands

Help for anxiety is the obvious solution if the sweating is caused by anxiety and stress. Your doctor can discuss your anxieties, suggest ways to deal with them and might suggest beta-blocker tablets to take a couple of hours before an anxiety-provoking situation.

Iontophoresis is a treatment available through some hospital physiotherapy departments. It used to be difficult to obtain this treatment, but more hospitals now have the equipment (your doctor can find out if it is available locally).

It involves placing your hands in a bath of tap water, through which a very small electrical current is passed for about 15 minutes.
You may find it a slightly uncomfortable, tingling or burning sensation, and skin irritation can occur.
It is not suitable if you could be pregnant or have a heart pacemaker.
At first, treatment is every few days, so it is time consuming, but it is gradually decreased to once every 3 or 4 weeks.
If you find it works well, you might consider buying the equipment to use at home (see useful contacts). It is expensive, so you should ask the physiotherapist’s advice. (Obviously, you should not try to make home-made equipment, because you could electrocute yourself.)

Botulinum toxin injections (Botox, Dysport; look at the section in sweaty armpits) will stop or substantially reduce sweating of the palms for about 6 months. After that, repeat injections are needed. However, there is a major problem with this treatment when used for hand sweating – some people notice weakness of their hand muscles for some weeks afterwards. For this reason specialists are reluctant to use this treatment on hands.

A sympathectomy operation is probably the most effective treatment for seriously sweaty hands. For more information, look at the section on sweaty armpits.

Sympathectomy is often done to control excessive sweating under the arms, but it is 95% successful for sweating of the hands.
The result is immediate; you wake from the anaesthetic with dry, warm hands.
The long-term results seem good; after about 14 years about 73% of people are still satisfied with the result (Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin 2005;43:77–80). However, it has a major drawback which is that the body may compensate by increasing sweating elsewhere – usually the trunk, but sometimes the feet – so you may end up swapping sweaty hands for a sweaty abdomen. This happens in between one-third and three-quarters of people who have had the operation. In 1 in 100, this ‘compensatory’ sweating is very severe, and they regret they had the operation. Unfortunately, the operation cannot be reversed.
Like any other surgical operation, the actual operation has risks so is not to be undertaken lightly.

Written by: Dr Margaret Stearn
Edited by: Dr Margaret Stearn
Last updated: Friday, February 26th 2010

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Comments on this article

Posted by daiay christina on 10/12/2009 at 09:15:00 am

i want treatment for my sweating hands and feets

Posted by Jess on 04/12/2009 at 05:47:00 pm

Thank you for this information. I found it extremely useful. I have suffered from sweating hands for most of my adult life. I finally cured my problem when I followed a guide that I found at: http://sweatinghands.net/ There is a lady that has a blog that recommended that I go there and it is good. http://palmssweaty.com/cure-for-sweaty-hands/ Maybe some other people might find this helpful!

Posted by Anonymous on 16/11/2009 at 08:53:00 pm

I am a young teen and my hands and feet are sweaty, and by sweaty sometimes sweat drops off. I don't know why it's happening. It happens for no reason even when i don't get anxious. Please help!

Posted by A troubled teen on 29/10/2009 at 12:44:00 am

My hands ruin my life, there always sweating 100% of the time. I hate going to school because of those emmbarasing moments, something as easy as high fivein some one is my biggest fears. I have tried gels and all that stuff i can afford i have tried to explain how my self-esteem Has banished but my parents simly dont belive that this is an actull problem. I dont have a life as a normal teen thanks to my hands. I fear ill never be able to do stuff normal pepople do with out worries.

Posted by ): on 27/10/2009 at 02:12:00 am

i have clammy hands. it runs in my family): i have to square dance in gym and in REALLY nervous about it. I cant stop my sweaty hands, ive tryed baby powder and all that chiz. any ideas?

Posted by Anonymous on 11/10/2009 at 07:31:00 pm

I jus recently had a kidney transplant about 3mths ago now im on a number of horrible medication i dont know if im having anxiety i have been feeling really worried about my fertility recently because im really late on my period, I have a constant butterfly feeling in my stomach, feeling sick, Hot and cold flushes, Jittery and cold and sweaty palms and cold feet. I had a hormone level done although i dont really know what they checked i do know however that my FSH level was 3.3 and LH level was normal. Docs dont really know whats wrong with me i seem to be the only person at clinic getting Symptoms like these. What do you think it is my medication or im suffereing from anxiety attacks, Please any help would be nice Thanx

Posted by Anonymous on 03/09/2009 at 09:45:00 pm

I am young and have sweaty palms- I want to do something about it but my mom just jokes about it- is there anything like home- remedys that can prevent this?

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