Sweating Is Healthy. Here's Why
Sticky, smelly, wet — there's not much to love about sweating. Besides dampening your clothes and causing embarrassing stains to appear, sweat has a tendency to show up in the most uncomfortable places. According to Medline Plus, some of the most common areas that sweat are your feet, palms, and, of course, under your arms. Sweat often creates a strong smell too, particularly in the areas where you sweat the most.
This funky scent occurs when moisture combines with bacteria that are lingering on your skin. There are plenty of ways you can combat smelly perspiration, including wearing breathable material that allows your skin to air out, per Insider. For armpits, you can try natural deodorants that are good both for you and the environment.
While sweating does come with some unpleasant side effects, getting sweaty has amazing perks that benefit your health. So, the next time you're freaking out about working up a good sweat, keep the following fun facts in mind.
Sweating prevents you from overheating
Pit stains and a damp back may not be the most appealing parts of exercising, but sweating a lot when you work out is actually very beneficial to your health. WebMD explains that sweating is your body's natural way of cooling itself off. You usually sweat the most when you're in the middle of an intense workout or when you're out in the hot sun. The main reasons for this are exertion and heat exposure, which cause your body's temperature to steadily climb higher.
To get you back down to your average temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, your sweat glands will pump out moisture, which cools your body down as the sweat evaporates. Marlyanne Pol-Rodriguez, a dermatologist at Stanford Health Care, adds that nervous sweat has a potential benefit, too. While speaking with HuffPost, Pol-Rodriguez shared that your palms are likely to get sweaty when you're nervous because your body kicks into fight-or-flight mode.
When faced with such an encounter, sweaty palms can offer a better grip on objects. This could boost your chances of escaping something dangerous.
Toxins are expelled from your body when you sweat
Sweating doesn't just cool down your body; research suggests sweating eliminates toxic materials from it, too. Bisphenol or BPA is one product we'd rather have in plastic products than our bodies. Mayo Clinic warns exposure to high amounts of BPA can lead to harmful side effects in children and increase your risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. A 2011 study on the BPA contents of human excretion in the forms of blood, sweat, and urine found that BPA is most commonly discovered in one's sweat.
The same study concluded that induced sweating is a viable method of cleansing BPA from your system. However, other medical experts believe that the ability to sweat out toxic materials is nothing short of a myth. As Dr. Harriet Hall, a retired family physician and Air Force flight surgeon, explained to The New York Times, 99 percent of sweat is made up of water. Therefore, visiting a sauna to sweat away harmful toxins is a claim "not backed by science." Thankfully, there are plenty of other great benefits to sweating profusely.