Sweat, Science, and Healing: A New Frontier in Mental Health

Help Fund Groundbreaking Cortisol & Mental Health Research 

I’m studying something no one else has tested yet: Can your body learn to sweat out stress hormones like cortisol?
This project is based on an idea:
Cortisol excretion through sweat might be a learned neural response—formed through early life stress or repeated adult stress—where the brain rewires itself to use sweat as a hormonal release valve.
This is not just about “stress makes you sweat.”

This is about how the HPA axis (the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system that controls your stress hormones) may create new neuroendocrine pathways in the body that shift cortisol clearance into your sweat glands.
This might explain:
Why some people sweat uncontrollably when anxious.

Why others wake up in buckets of sweat at night.

Why cortisol sticks around longer in some people, worsening symptoms of depression, PTSD, anxiety, bipolar disorder, panic, and autism—all conditions where HPA axis dysregulation plays a major role.


I’m using ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) kits to measure cortisol in sweat from a wide population—some athletes, some not—to see if the body’s ability to excrete cortisol through sweat depends more on life history and fitness level. This includes early stress, trauma, physical activity habits, and experiences like stress sweating, panic sweats, and night sweats. My goal isn’t to compare athletes vs. non-athletes, but to uncover a neural signature for how the body learns to regulate cortisol in unique ways.

If we prove this theory, it could change how we:

Diagnose chronic stress in a non-invasive way (no needles, no blood).

Create biofeedback therapies to retrain the body’s hormone regulation.

Better understand the biological roots of emotional overwhelm, burnout, and stress disorders.

This is my thesis work—but it’s also a deeply personal mission. I’ve lived through the symptoms I’m studying. And I’m crowdfunding this because there is no existing grant for a study like this. It’s never been done. If you’ve ever experienced night sweats, panic-induced sweating, or unexplained exhaustion—this research is for you.

Every dollar goes directly toward ELISA kits, lab testing, sweat collection materials, and data analysis. Thank you for helping me uncover a hidden layer of the human stress response—and potentially transform how we detect and treat mental health conditions, using the science of sweat.