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THE SKINNY ON SWEATING

By November 23, 2022No Comments

Where does it come from? What’s in there? Does it detox you? How long until you really need to wash off before it’s bad for your skin? And do we know if athletes sweat more than non athletes?

What causes sweat and what’s in it?

Sweat is produced by glands in the deeper layer of the skin, the dermis.
There are two types of glands that produce sweat – eccrine glands and apocrine glands.

When we think about sweating we are thinking of the watery type of sweating from exercising. This is from the eccrine glands. This type of perspiration contains mostly water and bits of salt, protein, urea, and ammonia mixed into it. These glands are mostly concentrated on the palms, soles, forehead, and armpit, but cover your entire body. When we exercise or when our body heats up, the eccrine glands are triggered and sweat is released in order to cool our bodies down and regulate our body temperature.

When you are stressed or in fight or flight mode, the other gland called the apocrine glands are triggered. They’re mostly located on the armpits, groin, and breast area. They’re the ones most often associated with body odor (BO) and produce more concentrated secretions after puberty. Since they’re near hair follicles, they typically smell the worst. This is why people often say stress sweat smells worse than other types of sweat.

Do certain foods or drinks make you sweat more? Smell more?

Spicy foods and drinking alcohol can stimulate our sweat glands and make you sweat more. Spicy foods that contain capsaicin trick your brain into thinking that your body temperature is increasing. Alcohol can speed up your heart rate and dilate blood vessels just like when you’re exercising, so tricks your body to thinking it needs to cool down by sweating

Foods that contain high levels of sulfur like garlic, onions, cabbage, broccoli and brussels sprouts can cause a foul smelling odor. These foods secrete byproducts that interact with bacteria in your skin to cause an unpleasant smell.

Do men actually sweat more than women?

Researchers found that it actually has nothing to do with sex, but instead has to do with body size.

What’s the difference between antiperspirants and deodorants?

Antiperspirants stop you from sweating, deodorant masks your smell. Deodorants simply mask the smell of body odor, while antiperspirants actually block glands from sweating, typically using aluminum to do so.

What causes the yellow stains on white shirts when you sweat?

Sweat is colorless but when the salt in sweat is mixed with Aluminum, an active ingredient in many antiperspirants, it leads to yellow stains.

Does genetics affect how much we sweat?

The amount you sweat is dependent on genetics, both on average and to the extreme. For example, hyperhidrosis is a medical condition that causes someone to sweat more than the average person. “People with hyperhidrosis sweat approximately four times more than what is needed for cooling the body,” Friedman explains. Nearly 5 percent of Americans have this condition, notes a 2016 review. Some cases are due to genetics.

Can You Sweat Toxins out of Your Body?

Sweat is mostly made up of water and salt. It is not made up of toxins from your body, and the belief that sweat can cleanse the body is a myth. Therefore you cannot sweat out toxins. That is the job for your liver, kidneys and intestines.

Should you wipe off sweat?

Most of the time, if you are sweating especially in high temperatures, it is best not to wipe off the sweat. The sweat transfers heat from our body to the environment when it evaporates off the skin. This helps the body’s temperature from getting too high. So, when in hot temperatures or during exercise refrain from wiping your sweat away if you can resist the urge.

There are some times when it is important to wipe your sweat off. This applies if you have been sitting in sweat for a long period of time. The longer sweat sits on a person’s skin the more time bacteria will have to break it down and create a foul odor. Also since sweat helps to clear out the pores, if you leave it on too long and the sweat settles into your pores then you can cause acne to form.

Do athletes sweat more?

Athletes sweat more because they need to. They generate more heat and have to produce more sweat in order to maximize their evaporative cooling capacity. That means fit athletes have to consume more fluid so they have more to contribute to sweat.

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