Diaphoresis (Cold Sweats): What Excessive Sweating Can Signal and When It Is an Emergency

A man in his fifties sits down at a family dinner, loosens his collar and reaches for a napkin. Nothing about the room has changed. The air conditioning is on. Yet his shirt is soaked through, his forehead glistens, and when his daughter touches his hand it feels like a glass left out on a cold porch. He waves it off as the chili. Twenty minutes later he is in the back of an ambulance.

That kind of sweat has a name in medical charts, and the word appears in emergency notes far more often than in everyday conversation. It shows up in the story of heart attacks, of blood sugar crashes at 3 a.m., of panic attacks in parking lots and of fevers finally breaking. Sometimes it means nothing more than a spicy meal. Sometimes it is the body sounding an alarm the only way it can.

Knowing the difference is not about memorizing a Latin term. It is about reading the sweat in context.

What is diaphoresis, and how is it different from ordinary sweating?

Sweating is a thermostat. When your core temperature creeps up on a July afternoon or during a run, roughly two to four million sweat glands release fluid onto the skin, and evaporation carries heat away. That is normal, expected, and mostly welcome.

Diaphoresis describes sweating that has slipped free of the thermostat. Clinicians use the word when someone is drenched without an obvious reason, often with skin that feels cool and damp rather than hot. The temperature in the room does not justify it. The person has not been exercising. The sweat may pour from the whole body rather than the usual armpits and palms.

The distinction matters because the two kinds of sweating are driven by different signals. Heat-related sweating is a measured response from the brain’s temperature center, dialed up or down as needed. Diaphoresis is usually a burst of sympathetic nervous system activity, the fight-or-flight branch, firing all at once. The same surge that races the heart and widens the pupils also opens the sweat glands.

You will also see the phrase ‘cold perspiration’ or ‘cold sweats.’ These are everyday names for the same experience. The sweat itself is not colder than usual; the skin feels cold because stress hormones narrow surface blood vessels at the very moment the glands are working. Warm blood retreats inward, moisture sits on the surface, and the touch is clammy.

One more term sometimes causes confusion: hyperhidrosis. That is chronic, excessive sweating as a condition in its own right, often focused on palms, soles or underarms, and it is discussed later. Diaphoresis is a moment; hyperhidrosis is a pattern.

Why does the body sweat when it is not hot?

The answer sits in a small region deep in the brain, the hypothalamus, which does two jobs at once. It monitors core temperature, and it coordinates the body’s response to stress. Both jobs share the same wiring out to the skin.

Sweat glands are switched on by nerve fibers that release a chemical messenger called acetylcholine. Under heat stress, that message is targeted and proportional. Under sudden danger, real or perceived, the sympathetic system fires broadly, and adrenaline and related hormones flood the bloodstream. The glands do not know whether the threat is a bear, a bleeding ulcer or a plunging blood sugar. They simply respond.

Picture it as a house with one alarm panel serving both the smoke detectors and the burglar sensors. Heat trips one sensor politely. A crisis trips the whole panel.

Why cold? Adrenaline also constricts the small vessels in the skin, redirecting blood toward the heart, brain and large muscles. With less warm blood near the surface, the skin cools even as it dampens. The combination of pale, cool, wet skin is why experienced nurses pay attention to the feel of a patient’s hand before they read any monitor.

This mechanism explains a puzzle many people notice: cold sweats often arrive with nausea, a racing pulse and lightheadedness. Those are not separate symptoms. They are the same adrenaline surge acting on the stomach, the heart and the blood vessels at the same time.

What does diaphoresis indicate? A map of the common causes

On its own, a cold sweat points nowhere in particular. Paired with the right companions, it becomes one of the most useful clues a body can offer. Here is how the common cold sweats causes tend to sort themselves.

Likely trigger	What usually accompanies the sweat	How urgent
Low blood sugar	Shakiness, hunger, fast heartbeat, confusion; often in someone treated for diabetes	Act now; eat or drink fast-acting carbohydrate
Heart attack	Chest pressure or discomfort, breathlessness, nausea, pain spreading to arm, jaw or back	Emergency
Fainting (vasovagal)	Warmth, nausea, tunnel vision, then brief loss of consciousness	Usually benign if quickly recovered; recurrent episodes need review
Shock or major blood loss	Pale skin, weak rapid pulse, confusion, collapse	Emergency
Fever or infection	Chills, aching, high temperature that then drops	Routine unless severe
Anxiety or panic	Sense of dread, trembling, tingling, rapid breathing	Not dangerous, but distressing
Heat exhaustion	Heavy sweating, cool clammy skin, weakness after heat exposure	Move to cool area; escalate if no improvement
Menopause or hormonal shift	Sudden warmth in face and chest, flushing, often at night	Routine
Medicines or withdrawal	Timing that matches a new prescription or a missed dose	Discuss with prescriber

Notice what separates the emergencies from the rest: not the amount of sweat, but what comes with it. Chest symptoms, confusion, collapse and trouble breathing move a cold sweat into the ‘call now’ column every time.

Why does a heart attack cause diaphoresis?

Ask an emergency physician which symptom worries them most alongside chest discomfort, and many will say sweating. The American Heart Association lists ‘breaking out in a cold sweat’ among the warning signs of a heart attack, alongside chest pressure, shortness of breath, nausea and lightheadedness.

The physiology is direct. When a coronary artery becomes blocked, heart muscle downstream is starved of oxygen. The heart is a pump under strain, and the body reads that strain as a life threat. The sympathetic nervous system responds with a massive adrenaline release intended to keep blood pressure up and blood flowing to vital organs. Sweat glands, wired to the same system, open wide. The vessels in the skin clamp down. The result is the classic gray, sweaty, frightened patient.

Pain itself adds to the surge. Ischemic chest pain is deep, visceral and often accompanied by a sense that something is badly wrong. That sensation is not imagined; it is the nervous system registering a real emergency.

Two details deserve emphasis. First, the sweat can be dramatic even when the chest discomfort is mild. People describe it as ‘a pressure’ or ‘indigestion,’ then mention almost in passing that they were dripping. Second, presentations differ. The American Heart Association notes that women are somewhat more likely than men to experience shortness of breath, nausea or vomiting, and pain in the back or jaw, sometimes without the crushing chest pain of textbook descriptions. A sudden cold sweat with any of those features should be treated as a possible heart attack until proven otherwise.

Cold sweats and low blood sugar: the 3 a.m. pattern

Glucose is the brain’s preferred fuel, and it keeps very little in reserve. When blood glucose falls below the body’s comfort zone, the response is swift: adrenaline is released to push the liver into freeing stored sugar. Sweating, trembling, a pounding heart and sudden hunger are the visible side of that hormonal rescue. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases describes exactly this cluster as the early warning signs of hypoglycemia.

The people most at risk are those whose diabetes is treated with medicines that lower glucose, particularly when a meal is skipped, exercise runs longer than planned or alcohol is involved. Night is a vulnerable window. Someone may wake at 3 a.m. with soaked sheets, a racing heart and no idea why. Bed partners sometimes notice first: the person is restless, damp and hard to rouse.

Low blood sugar can also occur in people without diabetes, though it is less common. Prolonged fasting, heavy drinking on an empty stomach and certain rare hormonal conditions can produce it.

What matters is speed. If sweating, shakiness and confusion appear together in someone who uses glucose-lowering treatment, the standard advice is to check blood sugar if a meter is available and to take fast-acting carbohydrate without waiting for certainty. Guidance from the National Institutes of Health describes checking again after about 15 minutes and repeating if the level remains low. When a person cannot swallow safely or is unresponsive, that is an emergency call, not a juice box.

Recurrent episodes are a signal to revisit the treatment plan with the prescribing clinician. The goal is not simply to treat each low, but to understand why they keep arriving.

Fever, infection and the sweat of a fever breaking

Most people have felt this one. A fever climbs, chills rattle through the body, blankets pile up. Then, hours later, the sheets are wet and the skin is cool. The fever has ‘broken.’

The mechanism is a reset of the thermostat. Infection prompts the immune system to release signaling molecules that raise the hypothalamus’s target temperature. The body shivers and constricts surface vessels to reach that higher set point; this is the chill phase. When the infection is brought under control, or when a fever-reducing medicine takes effect, the set point drops back. Suddenly the body is too hot for its own target, and sweating switches on to shed the excess. MedlinePlus lists fever and infection among the ordinary, expected causes of heavy sweating.

This kind of diaphoresis is usually reassuring. It marks the down slope of a fever rather than the crisis.

Some infections, though, produce drenching sweats that repeat night after night without a clear peak-and-break rhythm. Tuberculosis is the classic example in textbooks; certain long-running bacterial infections and some cancers of the blood and lymph system can behave similarly. The pattern to watch is persistence: sweats that recur for more than a couple of weeks, especially with weight loss, ongoing fever or swollen glands, deserve a medical appointment rather than another change of sheets.

A single febrile illness with a sweaty night at the end of it is the body doing its job. A calendar filling up with soaked mornings is a different story.

Shock, blood loss and fainting: when cold sweat means the pressure is falling

Blood pressure is the force that pushes oxygen to the brain. When it drops sharply, the body reacts as if to a catastrophe, because in physiological terms it is one. Adrenaline pours out, the heart accelerates, skin vessels clamp shut and the sweat glands open. Pale, cold, clammy and confused is the picture of shock, whatever its cause.

Causes span a wide range. Internal bleeding from a stomach ulcer or a ruptured vessel. Severe dehydration from days of vomiting and diarrhea. Overwhelming infection spreading through the bloodstream. A serious allergic reaction. A blood clot lodging in the lungs. Each starves tissues in a slightly different way; all produce that same gray, sweaty warning.

Fainting sits at the milder end of the same spectrum. In a common vasovagal faint, a trigger such as pain, standing too long or the sight of blood causes a brief misfire: the heart slows and vessels widen at the wrong moment. Blood pressure sags, the person feels warm and queasy, breaks into a sweat, and slumps. Lying flat restores flow within a minute or two, and recovery is usually complete.

The differences are in what follows. A simple faint ends quickly, the person knows where they are, and color returns. Shock does not resolve when someone lies down. The pulse stays fast and weak, confusion lingers, and the skin remains cold and wet.

Anyone who is sweating, pale and either unable to stay conscious or increasingly confused needs emergency services, not observation from the sofa.

Heat exhaustion versus heat stroke: the sweating paradox

Here is a counterintuitive point that saves lives on hot days. Heavy sweating during heat exposure is a sign the body is still coping. The moment sweating stops while the person remains hot, the situation has become far more dangerous.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention separates the two conditions clearly. Heat exhaustion brings heavy sweating, cold and pale clammy skin, a fast weak pulse, nausea, muscle cramps, dizziness and headache. The advice is to move to a cool place, loosen clothing, apply cool wet cloths, sip water, and to seek medical help if vomiting occurs, symptoms worsen or they last longer than an hour.

Heat stroke looks different. Body temperature climbs to 103°F or higher, the skin may be hot and red, and it is frequently dry. Confusion, loss of consciousness and a rapid strong pulse follow. The CDC’s instruction is blunt: call 911 immediately, move the person to a cooler place, cool them with whatever is available, and do not give fluids to drink.

So the cold, clammy sweat of heat exhaustion is diaphoresis working as intended, an overworked cooling system still trying. The danger sign is its disappearance.

Older adults, infants, outdoor workers and people taking medicines that reduce sweating or alter fluid balance are most vulnerable. On a hot day, the friend who has gone quiet, stopped sweating and seems confused is the one who needs attention first, not the one complaining loudly and dripping.

Hormones: menopause, thyroid and adrenaline surges

The hypothalamus takes cues from hormones, so when hormones shift, the thermostat can misfire. Menopause is the most familiar example. As estrogen levels fall, the brain’s temperature-regulating zone appears to narrow its comfort range, so small changes it once ignored now trigger a full cooling response. The result is the hot flash: a wave of heat in the face and chest, flushing, and a sweat that can leave nightclothes damp. Mayo Clinic lists menopause among the leading causes of unexplained sweating, and many women find the episodes cluster at night.

These sweats are typically warm rather than cold, and they arrive with a sense of heat, not dread. That distinction helps, though it is not absolute.

An overactive thyroid gland turns the body’s metabolic dial up. Everything runs hot: heart rate, appetite, anxiety, heat intolerance and sweating. People describe feeling as though they are always in a warm room. Weight loss despite eating well, tremor and trouble sleeping often travel alongside. A simple blood test can confirm or rule this out.

Rarer still is a tumor of the adrenal gland that releases adrenaline in bursts. The pattern is dramatic: sudden episodes of pounding heartbeat, pounding headache and profuse sweating, often with very high blood pressure, then calm. Doctors call this triad memorable precisely because it is uncommon.

Low testosterone in men, pregnancy and the days after childbirth can each shift the thermostat as well. Hormonal sweats are rarely emergencies, but persistent unexplained episodes deserve a blood workup rather than guesswork.

Anxiety and panic attacks: real sweat, real chemistry

People in the grip of a panic attack are sometimes told it is ‘just anxiety,’ as though the drenched shirt were imaginary. It is not. A panic attack is an adrenaline surge in the absence of an external threat, and it produces the same physical cascade a genuine emergency would: pounding heart, rapid breathing, trembling, tingling fingers, chest tightness and cold sweat.

The sweat is why panic attacks are so frequently mistaken for heart attacks, and why emergency departments see many people whose hearts turn out to be healthy. The distress is real, and so is the physiology.

Certain features lean toward anxiety rather than a cardiac event. Episodes tend to peak within about ten minutes and fade over half an hour. The person can often identify a trigger, or a history of similar spells. Tingling around the mouth and fingers, a sense of unreality and a fear of dying or losing control are characteristic. Chest tightness in panic tends to be sharp or fluttering rather than the heavy pressure of ischemia, though this is not a reliable way to tell the two apart at home.

That last point matters. The first time anyone experiences sudden chest discomfort with cold sweat, the safe assumption is cardiac until a clinician says otherwise. Once a heart problem has been excluded, treating the anxiety itself becomes the priority, and it responds well to structured psychological approaches.

Chronic stress without full panic can also raise baseline sweating, particularly on the palms and underarms. Sweaty handshakes before a presentation are the same system on a lower setting.

What drugs cause excessive sweating?

Medicines are among the most common and most overlooked cold sweats causes. Mayo Clinic and MedlinePlus both list medications as a leading explanation for sweating that appears without heat or exertion. The details vary by drug, but a few mechanisms account for most cases, and none of them require naming specific products.

Some medicines act on serotonin and related brain chemicals. Many antidepressants fall into this group, and because serotonin also influences the hypothalamus, sweating is a well-recognized effect. It often begins within the first weeks of treatment and can settle, persist or improve with a change in timing or dose decided by the prescriber.

Glucose-lowering treatments can cause sweating indirectly by pushing blood sugar too low, as described earlier. The sweat is the body’s alarm, not a direct side effect of the medicine.

Fever-reducing and pain-relieving medicines cause sweating in a different way: by resetting the thermostat downward during a fever, they trigger the sweat that breaks it.

Hormone-related treatments, including some used in cancer care and some contraceptives, can provoke hot flashes and sweats by altering estrogen or testosterone signaling.

Withdrawal is the other side of the coin. Stopping alcohol, opioids or certain sedatives abruptly unleashes a rebound of nervous system activity, and drenching sweats are a hallmark. Alcohol withdrawal in particular can become medically dangerous and should never be managed alone.

The practical step is to line up the timeline. If sweating began within days or weeks of a new prescription, a dose change or a stopped medicine, say so. Decisions about adjusting treatment belong to the prescribing clinician, but the observation belongs to you.

Night sweats versus daytime cold sweats: how doctors think about it

Waking soaked is common enough that most people have done it after a heavy meal, a warm room or a bad dream. Clinicians draw a line at true night sweats: episodes that drench nightclothes or sheets, repeat over weeks, and happen regardless of room temperature.

The list of causes overlaps heavily with daytime diaphoresis. Menopause leads. Low blood sugar overnight is frequent in people using glucose-lowering treatment. Infections, an overactive thyroid, anxiety, alcohol and several medicine classes appear on both lists. Sleep apnea adds itself at night: the repeated struggle to breathe against a collapsed airway drives surges of adrenaline, and heavy sweating is a recognized companion to loud snoring and daytime exhaustion.

What makes night sweats a distinct question in a doctor’s mind is the small group of serious conditions that favor them. Certain lymph and blood cancers, tuberculosis and a few other chronic infections can announce themselves with recurring night sweats, often alongside unexplained weight loss, fatigue or fever. These are uncommon, and most people with night sweats do not have them. Still, the combination of persistent sweats plus weight loss plus fever is one that every clinician takes seriously.

A useful exercise before an appointment is a two-week log: what time the sweat occurred, how wet the bedding was, room temperature, alcohol that evening, any fever, and what else was happening in life. Patterns often emerge on paper that are invisible night to night, and a log turns a vague complaint into a specific clue.

Hyperhidrosis: when the sweating itself is the condition

Not every case of excessive sweating is a symptom of something else. For some people, the sweat glands are simply set to high, with no underlying disease to find. This is primary hyperhidrosis, and the NHS describes it as a common problem that can affect the whole body or specific areas, most often the palms, soles, underarms and face.

It tends to begin in childhood or adolescence, often runs in families, and usually switches off during sleep, a detail that helps distinguish it from night sweats driven by illness. The mechanism appears to be an overactive nerve signal to otherwise normal glands rather than any change in the glands themselves.

The effect on daily life is easy to underestimate from the outside. Handshakes become a source of dread, paper smudges, keyboards slip, and clothing choices revolve around what will not show. The NHS advises seeing a general practitioner if sweating is affecting daily life, has lasted for six months or more, occurs at least once a week, or runs in the family, and to seek care promptly if it comes with weight loss, fever, chest pain, breathlessness or a pounding heartbeat.

Secondary hyperhidrosis, by contrast, is generalized sweating driven by a cause elsewhere: a hormone problem, an infection, a medicine or a nerve condition. It more often starts in adulthood and can occur during sleep.

Treatment options for primary hyperhidrosis range from topical approaches through prescription and procedural treatments, chosen with a clinician according to the body areas involved and how much the sweating intrudes on life. The condition is manageable, and it is not a character flaw.

When to see a doctor, and when to call 911

Most cold sweats have an ordinary explanation. A few are the first minutes of a medical emergency. The deciding factor is company.

Call emergency services immediately if a sudden cold sweat arrives with any of the following: chest pressure, tightness or pain, including discomfort described as indigestion that does not settle; pain spreading to the arm, jaw, neck or back; shortness of breath; fainting or near-fainting that does not fully recover within a minute or two; confusion or unusual drowsiness; a very fast or very irregular heartbeat; signs of heat stroke, meaning hot skin, high temperature and confusion; or a known allergy exposure with swelling or wheezing. Someone treated for diabetes who is sweaty, confused and cannot safely swallow also needs an emergency call.

Do not drive yourself. Do not wait to see if it passes. If a heart attack is the cause, the hours before treatment are when the most heart muscle is lost.

Make a routine appointment if sweating is new and unexplained and has persisted for more than a couple of weeks; if it soaks bedding at night; if it comes with unintended weight loss, fever, swollen glands or persistent fatigue; if it began after a new medicine or after stopping one; or if it is interfering with work, sleep or relationships. Episodes of shakiness and sweating relieved by eating warrant a blood sugar evaluation even without a diabetes diagnosis.

One faint that resolved, one sweaty night after a fever, one soaked shirt during a nerve-wracking interview: these rarely need a visit. A pattern does. Your body is offering information. The job is to listen and, when the signals cluster, to act quickly.

What to expect at the appointment, and what helps in the meantime

A visit for unexplained sweating usually begins with a conversation rather than a machine. Expect questions about timing, triggers, medicines, alcohol, sleep, mood, menstrual history and weight. Bring your log. Expect a physical examination that includes the thyroid, lymph nodes, heart and lungs.

Blood tests are common: blood glucose, thyroid function, a blood count and markers of infection or inflammation. Depending on the story, a clinician may add an electrocardiogram, a chest X-ray or hormone tests. If night sweats and snoring travel together, a sleep study may follow. When the pattern points to medication, the prescriber may adjust timing or switch approaches; that decision rests with them, informed by your report.

Meanwhile, a few measures ease the burden without masking anything important. Keep the bedroom cool and layer bedding so it can be peeled back. Choose breathable natural fabrics. Limit alcohol in the evening, since it dilates skin vessels and disrupts sleep. Notice whether caffeine, spicy food or stress reliably precede episodes. If you use glucose-lowering treatment, keep fast-acting carbohydrate within reach, particularly at night, and check levels when symptoms strike rather than guessing.

Most of all, resist the two opposite errors. One is to treat every damp collar as a cardiac event, which breeds constant fear. The other is to normalize a pattern that has quietly changed, dismissing the drenched sheets or the sweat that now arrives with a heavy chest. Sweat is not a diagnosis. It is a message about what the nervous system perceives, and the sensible response is curiosity backed by a clinician’s judgment.

Frequently asked questions

What does diaphoresis indicate?

Diaphoresis indicates that the sympathetic nervous system has fired strongly, usually in response to stress on the body. The stress may be trivial, such as anxiety or a spicy meal, or serious, such as a heart attack, low blood sugar, shock or a severe infection. The sweat alone does not identify the cause; the symptoms arriving with it do. Chest discomfort, confusion, collapse or breathing trouble alongside a cold sweat signal an emergency.

What is the difference between diaphoresis and sweating?

Ordinary sweating is a proportional cooling response to heat or exertion, controlled by the brain’s temperature center. Diaphoresis is sweating that the environment does not explain, typically sudden, heavy and generalized, often with cool pale skin because stress hormones narrow surface blood vessels at the same time. In short, one is the thermostat working; the other is an alarm that happens to use the same glands.

Why does a heart attack cause diaphoresis?

A blocked coronary artery starves heart muscle of oxygen, and the body interprets that strain as a life threat. It releases a surge of adrenaline to maintain blood pressure and flow to vital organs. Sweat glands share the same nerve supply and open wide, while skin vessels constrict, producing cold, clammy skin. The American Heart Association lists a cold sweat among heart attack warning signs, and it can be pronounced even when chest discomfort is mild.

What drugs cause excessive sweating?

Several medicine classes can cause sweating. Antidepressants that act on serotonin influence the brain’s thermostat. Glucose-lowering treatments can trigger sweating by pushing blood sugar too low. Fever reducers produce the sweat that breaks a fever. Hormone-related therapies can cause hot flashes. Abrupt withdrawal from alcohol, opioids or sedatives causes rebound sweating. If sweating began after a prescription change, tell the prescribing clinician, who decides any adjustment.

What is cold perspiration and why does it feel cold?

Cold perspiration is the everyday name for diaphoresis: sweat that appears without heat or exertion. It feels cold because adrenaline constricts the small blood vessels in the skin at the same moment the sweat glands activate. Less warm blood reaches the surface, so the skin cools while moisture evaporates from it. The sweat itself is not colder than usual; the skin beneath it is.

Can anxiety cause cold sweats?

Yes. A panic attack is an adrenaline surge without an external threat, and it produces the same physical response as a real emergency: pounding heart, rapid breathing, trembling and cold sweat. Episodes typically peak within about ten minutes and ease over half an hour. Because the symptoms overlap with a heart attack, the first episode of chest discomfort with sweating should be evaluated medically before it is attributed to anxiety.

Are cold sweats and nausea together a warning sign?

They can be. Nausea and cold sweat arise from the same adrenaline surge, so they often appear together in a simple faint, a panic attack, low blood sugar or food poisoning. They also appear together in heart attacks, particularly in women, and in shock. The distinguishing features are chest discomfort, shortness of breath, confusion or collapse. With any of those, call emergency services rather than waiting.

Why do I wake up in a cold sweat at night?

Common reasons include a warm bedroom, alcohol in the evening, menopause, anxiety and, in people using glucose-lowering treatment, low blood sugar overnight. Sleep apnea can also drive adrenaline surges and heavy sweating. Persistent night sweats that soak bedding for more than a couple of weeks, especially with weight loss, fever or swollen glands, warrant a medical appointment to check for infection, thyroid problems or other causes.

How is diaphoresis different from hyperhidrosis?

Diaphoresis is an episode: sudden heavy sweating in response to a trigger such as stress, illness or a medicine. Hyperhidrosis is an ongoing condition of excessive sweating. Primary hyperhidrosis usually begins in youth, affects palms, soles, underarms or face, and stops during sleep. Secondary hyperhidrosis is generalized sweating caused by another condition or a medicine and can occur at night.

When should I go to the emergency room for sweating?

Seek emergency care when a sudden cold sweat comes with chest pressure or pain, pain spreading to the arm, jaw or back, shortness of breath, fainting that does not quickly resolve, confusion, a very fast or irregular heartbeat, or signs of heat stroke such as hot skin with confusion. Someone with diabetes who is sweaty, confused and unable to swallow safely also needs an emergency call. Do not drive yourself.

References

• MedlinePlus — Sweating
• NIH NIDDK — Low Blood Glucose (Hypoglycemia)
• NHS — Excessive sweating (hyperhidrosis)

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.