Sweating Like a Pig: The Impact of Sweat on Psoriasis

I just got back to Washington DC from Orlando, FL with my grandkids for the 4th of July holiday weekend. It was a long ride because traffic was so heavy coming and going.

On the morning of the trip, I loaded up the SUV as I set out on my journey. I had mapped out the trip, studied it in my head, and set my GPS as a backup. I was about 8 hours into my trip when I saw a sign that said “detour."

To most people this would have been a normal thing, they would have taken the detour and moved on. Not me, I went into panic mode. It’s 3 o’clock in the morning and I have 4 young children with me; suppose the car breaks down; will this be the day that Big Foot decides he wants to reveal himself!!

From beads of sweat to puddles.

I immediately broke out in a sweat. We know that sweating is good for us, but along with me starting to sweat; I could feel the pain in my joints, due to my psoriatic arthritis, starting to flare-up and my psoriasis was starting to get aggravated.

So I started thinking at that moment did sweating have anything to with my psoriatic arthritis? I have learned over the years that high humidity causes an increase in pressure in our blood vessels which causes our hearts to beat faster.

As I continued driving on the long dark road along with no other cars, I was sweating more and more. It was just running down my face. I knew at that moment I would do an article on psoriasis and sweating.

I started taking notice on what changes my body was making, it’s amazing what you can perceive at 3 o’clock in the morning when it’s pitch black on a dark side road.

The sweat started irritating my face, neck, and underarms. I had the air conditioning on full blast and it was not helping me to stay dry.

Let's take a clinical approach

Have you ever thought about what sweat is? Well, it’s fluid from the glands that gets released and is salty. This is how the body cools itself.

Failing to cool off will cause the body to overheat. If your body doesn’t cool off this can be dangerous with psoriasis patients as psoriasis can obstruct the sweating process.

I don’t have a problem sweating so I guess my skin pores are open. I would assume this would soften the flakes too, which was causing me to itch. Do people realize the challenges we have as psoriasis patients?

I have tried wearing loose clothing made of cotton over the years. This seems to help me some. I have also tried prescription strength antiperspirant creams and sprays to stay dry.

It's important for our bodies!

As an advocate for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis I always tell people that what is normal for you might not be normal for someone with this disease.

Just imagine this; we can sweat overnight and have an infection the next day. Or imagine that people with psoriasis are working out and not sweating the way they should. This could put us in the hospital.

It’s amazing how a simple road trip could become a life-threatening situation. These are the simple truths when you live with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. I’m just glad that on this day my body was functioning right. We made it safely to our destination!

Remember that sweating and perspiration is very important function for our bodies to run properly.