On hot summer days, we all experience the same phenomenon. The sun rays shine on our bodies without mercy and we feel how our palms and the rest of our body begins to sweat. This natural reaction of our body can be caused by high temperatures in the summer, emotional reasons like anxiety or nervousness, very spicy food or big physical exertion. The feeling of sweating is for the most people an unpleasant and even embarrassing experience because it can be smelly and visible on clothes The smell of sweating can be very intense and unfortunately, sometimes durable, when we will not wash our bodies and clothes. But in fact, sweating is one of the most underrated positive and highly useful features of our body.
The most important function of sweating is the cooling effect it causes that works like an air conditioner for our body. In case that the body is “overheating” the sweat regulates the body temperature back down to the normal temperature. The sweat glands, that can be found on our whole body except for our lips, secrete a special liquid, the sweat. It forms a thin film on the surface of our skin and evaporates after some time. During this process, cold arises, and the blood vessels lose some of their warmth. This contributes to the cool down.
The main component of sweat is water but also electrolytes and some salt. That is why it is important to drink a lot after you sweated in order to not become dehydrated and fill your liquid household again.
In general, there we differentiate between two kinds of sweat glands, the eccrine glands and the apocrine glands. The eccrine glands are usually located on the foot soles, armpits, forehead and the palms of your hands. But of course, one can find them everywhere on the body. Next to the water, it contains a little salt, proteins, urea as well as some ammonia.
The apocrine glands are mostly concentrated on the breast area, armpits and groin. They are strong developed during puberty and this is one of the reasons, the body smells so bad when sweating.
Sweat does not smell, at least at first. The cause of the smell is the bacteria that starts to corrode it. Also, the sweat on our back or our forehead is not smelly because it almost only contains water and salt.
Another very important purpose of sweating is the indication of our health. Excessive sweating can be an indicator for diabetes, heart attacks, arthritis and even some types of cancer. It can also occur as a side effect of different medicines. Of course, not every excessive sweating is dangerous or a risk for your health, considering that the average number of sweat glands on your body is between 2 and 4 million. The number of them can vary, depending on age, gender, genetics and hormonal phases or changes like menopause or pregnancy.
Furthermore, the amount of sweat shows us on which level of fitness we are. Sweating quicker and stronger after a short walk uphill indicates that we should probably work on our stamina and improve our physical fitness routine.
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