The Health Benefits of Perspiration

Let’s talk some more about sweat. No one wants to have sweaty armpits or clothes at a business meeting or a dinner party. You likely wear antiperspirant deodorant, which blocks the sweat ducts in your skin so sweat cannot reach the surface, or wear breathable clothing to improve airflow around your skin. Some people go to even more extraordinary lengths to not sweat by having medical treatments to stop sweating altogether!

The truth is that this naturally occurring body function serves many benefits for your body, including a natural way to remove toxins from your skin and regulate body temperature. I’m not saying stop wearing your antiperspirant or taking steps to avoid embarrassing moments when necessary. There’s a time and place for everything.

The most effective way to get your daily sweat is through exercise. However, I know that sometimes you may not feel like working out, or it may not be physically possible due to an injury or disability. The good news is that there are many ways to get the benefits of sweating without physical exertion.

Whenever I want to get in a good sweat or feel a bit stressed from my busy day and run out of time for exercising, I enjoy taking some time out of my day by doing a good Sunlighten infrared sauna session.

Let’s talk about sweat, why we do it, and the benefits of sweating.

What is Sweat?

Have you ever accidentally gotten sweat in your mouth? Did it taste salty? Part of what makes this watery substance we know of as sweat is sodium chloride, which you know as table salt. However, it’s only a tiny percentage of what makes up your sweat.

Sweat is about 99% water, and the other 1% is a mixture of salt and lipids (fat). The primary purpose of sweat is to regulate your body’s temperature. Up to a quarter of sweat normally evaporates from your body every day. When your body becomes overheated, you sweat even more, and the evaporation of sweat is what cools it down.

When your body temperature rises above 37.0 degrees Celsius, your brain signals to your sweat glands that it’s time to start producing sweat. The sweat is excreted through your pores and then evaporates, cooling the surface of your skin. Sweat comes from two main glands in your body.

• Eccrine glands produce most of your sweat, especially the watery kind. These glands exist in higher concentration in your palms, soles of your feet, forehead, and armpit but cover your entire body.

• Apocrine glands are larger and located on the armpits, groin, and breast area. They’re most often associated with body odour. However, sweat itself is odourless. Body odour comes from bacteria in or around your sweat glands or hair follicles.

Both of these glands play a role in why we sweat. Let’s discuss the three common reasons you sweat.

Why Do You Sweat?

The most common reason you sweat is a change in your body temperature. As I mentioned, your body cools itself down through the evaporation of sweat. The other two common reasons for sweating are stress and eating spicy foods.

I’m sure you have experienced the sweaty palms and underarms that come with being stressed, scared, or nervous. You likely do not realise that stress sweat is not the same as a cooling sweat and comes from the apocrine sweat glands.

When you face something stressful, your body enters its fight-or-flight response, regardless of your body’s temperature. Your body’s fight-or-flight response is a hard-wired response that our ancestors relied on to deal with the various threats such as being chased by a bear. As part of the fight or flight response, your adrenal glands release adrenaline and other stress hormones, which increases your heart rate, and blood flow and tenses up your muscles to get your body ready to react to the threat. It also activates your apocrine glands, releasing a thicker sweat rich in lipids and proteins.

If you’ve eaten spicy food and started sweating, it wasn’t because of the spicy food itself. You started sweating because of an ingredient known as capsaicin. Capsaicin, which makes spicy foods spicy, interacts with temperature-sensitive nerves responsible for detecting warmth in your mouth. This interaction tricks your body into thinking your mouth is hot, even though it’s not. Since your body thinks it’s getting overheated, it reacts the best way it knows how — sweating!

It’s also important to mention here that the metabolism of food increases your body temperature. So, even if you’re not eating something spicy, you may find that eating a big meal might induce a light sweat.

The Benefits of Sweating

While sweating in excess can be embarrassing, there are many health benefits to this potent liquid released from your body. From detoxification to skincare, the benefits of sweating go beyond body temperature regulation and let’s talk about them.

Detoxification

One of the most effective ways to detox your body naturally without turning to an ineffective juice cleanse is through sweating. When sweating, your body is flushing out toxins such as alcohol, cholesterol, and heavy metals such as mercury, nitrates, and perchlorate. Constant exposure to these heavy metals can lead to thyroid disease.

Better Skin

Your pores open up when you sweat, releasing the buildup inside them. Sweat purges the body of toxins that can clog pores and plague the skin with pimples and blemishes. Intense sweat isn’t necessary to get the benefits of sweating for your skin. Mild or moderate sweating can provide the same benefits of sweating.

Sweating also removes excess sebum from your pores, gives you a healthy glow, and enhances your skin’s microbiome by secreting a natural antibiotic called Dermcidin to protect it against germs and bacteria such as E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus.

Body Temperature Regulation

I’ve mentioned this already, yet it’s worth repeating. Your body maintains a normal temperature of 37.0 degrees Celsius. When it begins to overheat, your hypothalamus sends a message to your sweat glands, letting them know that it’s time to start producing sweat so you can cool off.

When the heat activates your sweat glands, they produce sweat and secrete it through your pores so that it coats the surface of your skin. Shortly after it reaches the surface, the sweat will evaporate, cooling your body down.

Improved Circulation

One of the easiest, most affordable ways to work up a good sweat is to exercise regularly. As you sweat, your heart rate increases to supply more blood to your active muscles. Over time sweating through exercise strengthens your heart and improves your circulation, which means your heart will require less effort to pump blood throughout your body.

Boosts Your Immune System

Have you ever wondered why you sweat when you’re sick? When you have a fever, your body raises its temperature to fight off the bacteria and pathogens that make you sick. Raising your body temperature and sweating helps to strengthen your immune system to prepare for the battle against viruses and bacteria.

Additionally, sweating lowers your stress hormones, improves white blood cell circulation, and filters out harmful toxins, all of which work collectively to enhance immune function and keep you healthy.

Benefits of Sweating During Exercise

Sweating is normal during exercise. Additionally, exercising increases your production of endorphins that boost energy, improve your mood, and even promote more restful sleep. Endorphins provide the euphoric feeling after exercise that gives you a sense of being happy.

Sweating during exercise for 30-60 minutes a day also positively affects your cardiovascular system and stress hormones and promotes weight loss.

The benefits of sweating are vital to optimal health.

• boosting energy

• maintaining healthy weight

• defending against many diseases and health conditions

• improving mood

• promoting good sleep

Infrared Therapy for Sweating

Infrared saunas work by increasing your core temperature by gently penetrating through several layers of tissue. This stimulation causes your cells to vibrate, and enhances your natural metabolic processes for healing, improves circulation, increases oxygenation, and makes you sweat!

Benefits of using an Infrared Sauna

• Detox When the sauna raises your core body temperature, your body’s natural reaction is to sweat. When you sweat in a relaxed state, it promotes blood flow to your organs, creating a detox that starts at the cellular level and reaches the whole body.

• Reduce Stress Relaxation is key in finding balance mentally, emotionally, and physically. Infrared light helps to boost natural feel-good neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine so you can have more happy days. Yes please to more of that! Creating a meditative ritual around your sauna time is a great way to achieve a deeper sense of calm.

• Anti Inflammatory Infrared sauna has been shown to reduce inflammatory markers in the body. We know that inflammation affects overall health so anything we can do to reduce it we are all over!

• Pain Relief By stimulating mitochondria at a cellular level, Infrared Sauna can improve circulation, oxygenation, and healing responses to give relief to joint and muscle pain sufferers.

• Cardiovascular Infrared Sauna provides a natural boost in circulation with regular use attributed to weight loss. It's like a gentle workout you have while sitting down, yay!

• Sleep Infrared sauna activates the para sympathetic nervous system leaving us calm and relaxed, book an evening session to help you wind down.

• Immune Boost Strengthen your immune response with an Infrared Sauna session. The heat of the sauna raises your body temperature, which triggers your cells natural immune response.

Sweating is a natural function of your body when you exercise or have a fever. Although we associate sweat with temperature control. Sweat also has numerous other benefits such as helping clear your body of heavy metals, PCBs and BPAs.