I'm a sweaty Gamer...

[Munty]

Sadly, it's true. And before anyoen asks, I'm not fat, or lazy, or chronically unfit. I'm a 20-something man with just the ordinary beer and pizza weight and I'm kept busy by a toddler which constitutes the majority of my exercise!

But alas, I have this very unpleasant side-effect when gaming and I don't really understand why. For those of you out there (I imagine everyone but me) who don't get this, I sweat buckets when I'm gaming. I can't fire off a list of genres which do and do not have this affect but I imagine it's mostly FPS and that sort of thing when death is usually one bullet away. Certainly I don't recall it being an issue whilst petting my virtual dog and such (and no, I do not actually have a virtual dog...)

So I'm guessing it's maybe an adrenaline thing or something like that but it's really unpleasant and needless to say I friggin hate it! I'm just curious to the point that I MUST now ask, does anyone else get big problems with this? I can't say I expect many people to say yes but I'm hoping I'm not completely alone in this :p

[diluzio91]

just sweaty palms for me... usually in fps or rts games.

[AmEv]

Same here.


During the intense parts.


But only in my palms.

[farlo]

my back sweats, but i sit in a big comfy lounge chair.

[Airbozo]

My pits pour buckets when I am fraggiing in MW2 BFBC2 or the like. Same when I am playing the racing games, maybe even worse.

Other games do not have that effect on me (Like Portal).

My wife made a comment about it one day (been gaming on the laptop while sitting with her as she watches Hockey), then followed up with, "At least you don't stink like you do when you work out"...

[blaze15301]

I feel ya man I sweat buckets as well. Its odd maybe it has something to do with adrenaline.

[slaveofconvention]

If you aint sweatin' you aint tryin' hard enough :P

[nevermind1534]

I usually sweat, especially if it's really intense.

[Munty]

Yay it's not just me! Thank God for that :p Unfortunately I think it's safe to say I get a stink on as well. Probably not like a working out stink or a manual labour stink but it's a bit unfair that there's such a thing as a 'sitting in a chair and barely moving' stink in my opinion :p

[dr.walrus]

Leather chair = buttcrack sweat

[simon275]

Turn down the thermostat?

[dr.walrus]

I don't believe the sun has a dial. Almost noone in the UK has air con.

[simon275]

I don't believe the sun has a dial. Almost noone in the UK has air con.

Well the heating. Plus I noticed when none of the houses in the UK are designed for warm weather.

[jdbnsn]

Heavy sweat production can be a sign of medical illness as well as a sign of emotion. We tend to equate sweat production with panic or high heat/humidity in general but there are also a few diseases which can cause this.

Hyperthyroidism can do it, they tend to be thin people with a very low tolerance to warm conditions. Thyroid problems are easy to diagnose and treat if they are looked for.

Hyperhydrosis is another possibility (literally means too much water production, yeah I know there is a low threshold for imagination in medicine). Hyperhydrosis typically manifests in either bouts of sweatiness, facial blushing, or both. Two subtypes of sweaters are whole body and those that just get the palms/neck and head. There have been some experimental surgeries which involve cutting a pathway nerve which leads to the sweat glands but this is reserved for patients who have a rather extreme form and it is socially debilitating. Hyperhydrosis seems less likely unless using the term in general description because this ailment tends to be either provoked by any amount of anxiety (basically these people break out into shirt-soaking sweats at the drop of a hat) or completely randomly.

Side effects of many medications can cause it including cholinergics and rebound from when anticholinergics wear off (like the folks who use benadryl to get to sleep and get sweaty the next day).

I believe any variant of Cushing's disease or cushingism has it but not entirely sure, same goes for pheochromocytoma.

Paraneoplastic syndromes are clusters of issues you have caused by a cancer (don't worry, you don't have "Bioshock-o-sarcoma")

Most of the above things are rare, and extremely unlikely. Med side effects is more likely or just a mildly elevated sympathetic response to video game demands. It wouldn't hurt to mention it to your doctor during your next check-up just to get his/her thought, but it's probably nothing.