Why Some People (Like Hillary Clinton) Just Don’t Sweat

Will Hillary Clinton sweat tonight (Oct. 13) at the first Democratic debate? (Photo: Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

Hillary Clinton is no stranger to public scrutiny. But one surprising factoid has been repeated about the presidential candidate: She doesn’t sweat.

Clinton talked about her seemingly superhuman ability in an interview for BuzzFeed’s Another Round podcast. “The weirdest thing about me is that I don’t sweat,” she said.

And then she had way too much fun with it.

“You guys are the first to realize that I’m really not even a human being. I was constructed in a garage in Palo Alto a very long time ago. … A man whose name shall remain nameless created me in his garage,” she said. “I’ve seen more people that kind of don’t sweat, and other things that make me think maybe they are part of the new race that he created: the robot race.”

Clinton’s apparent imperviousness to heat has been noticed and documented before. The writer of a 2012 feature in Conde Nast Traveler pointed it out in detail after spending nine days traveling with Clinton through China, Bangladesh, and India in early May.

“She does not sweat. Literally. She does not even glow,” wrote Kevin Doyle. “No matter how high the heat, not a drop nor a drip nor a bead nor so much as the faintest glisten can be detected anywhere about her person.”

Turns out, Clinton is not alone in her nonsweatiness. In fact, some people are born with a medical condition called anhidrosis, which causes them to not sweat. There’s also a group of conditions called ectodermal dysplasia that can affect sweat glands and impact a person’s ability to sweat, Delphine Lee, PhD, MD, a dermatologist at the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in California, tells Yahoo Health.

“There are people who have no sweat glands,” she says.

However, people with anhidrosis are more likely to overheat and may have to avoid vigorous activity and overly hot environments as a result.

But Lee points out that everyone’s bodies require varying levels of sweating in order to function properly. Some have clinical names (hypohidrosis, for example, is a name for decreased sweating) and others don’t.

And for some people, sweating can be localized and just may not be visible to the public, Ava Shamban, MD, a board-certified dermatologist practicing in Santa Monica, Calif., and author of Heal Your Skin, tells Yahoo Health.

Related: Diary of a Sweaty Girl

“Some people don’t sweat very much on their face or scalp and other people do,” she says. “Meanwhile, they could be sweating profusely under their arms.”

Even the speed at which a person becomes sweaty can vary, Ted Lain, MD, a dermatologist practicing in the Austin, Texas, area, tells Yahoo Health. “Some people just have a quicker sweat trigger than others,” he says.

Lain also points out that sweating can be very subtle, forming “mini droplets” on the skin that are not easily seen.

Of course, there are also medical means to lower a person’s visible level of sweating. Neil Sadick, MD, a clinical professor of dermatology at Cornell University and a dermatologist with a private practice in New York, tells Yahoo Health that a growing number of people are using Botox and microwave technology to diminish sweating.

Related: ‘Blowtox’ Injections Keep Hair Looking Good During a Workout — But Are They Safe?

He also notes that there really isn’t a quantifiable range of what’s normal in sweating, but says it’s not typically unhealthy to sweat less than the average person.

So, does Clinton’s lack of sweating make her a robot? Nope, but it’s definitely a cool — and useful — skill to have on the campaign trail.

Read This Next: Do You Sweat Too Much?

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