What are the Causes of Night Sweats?

What Causes Night Sweats?

Why do people tend to get sweaty heads and hot flashes more at night and in the evening?

Some thoughts.....

We did a lot of research a few years ago to try to figure out why one of our sons was getting night sweats. One of the things we found highly interesting was that in Ayurvedic (traditional Indian) medicine, night sweats can be linked to excess stomach acid and ulcers. This caught my attention because I'd noticed in the past from some home tests I did with nytrazine paper that my body was always more acid in the evenings than in the morning. Some of my friends had noticed the same thing - an increase in acid levels in the evening.

So I suspect there is some kind of built in body rhythm for many people where in general stomachs churn out more acid at night, which in turn raises a person's body temperature and speeds up their metabolism. Perhaps at one time this was some kind of built in survival mechanism to keep people warm at night to compensate for the loss of warmth from sunshine during the day, as well as making up for body heat generated by moving around during the day. For our cave dwelling ancestors it was probably a protective trait, but now has become problematic for some people in this day and age of furnaces and houses like ours with automatic thermostats, especially for people who already have high metabolisms to begin with.

Interestingly though, at a later date my son developed night sweats again after a course of antibiotics when his body pH was too alkaline. So I suspect his body wasn't getting something it need whenever his digestive tract was out of kilter, either too alkaline or too acid. During this second episode of night sweat what helped was having him ingest supplements and foods with good bacteria, which helped to acidify his digestive system and bring his body pH into a more normal range.

Night Sweats - my son's saga and the diet

treatments we found helpful for him

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