Ask a Teacher
Why sometimes our hand becomes cold when we are scared? |
Medically, the condition of having excessively sweaty palms is known as “Palmar Hyperhidrosis”. In general, it can be caused by two different things- emotional stress and the result of your body trying to control its temperature (thermoregulation). In the case of being excited, scared, or nervous, the cause is stimulation of a specific type of sweat gland from your fight or flight (sympathetic) nervous system.We have three types of sweat glands, Eccrine, Apocrine and Apoeccrine. Eccrine glands make up most of the sweat glands you have. Depending on which study you want to go with, approximately 3 million of the nearly 4 million sweat glands are Eccrine. Their main function is to control body temperature. Areas of the body that have the highest concentration of Eccrine glands are the soles of the feet, palms of the hands, and the forehead. These are the sweat glands responsible for your sweaty palms. When they’re stimulated, they release a clear odorless fluid that evaporates into the air, thereby cooling you off when your body temperature gets too high. |