BE A SWEATY BETTY

Be proud of your sweat! Sweating is not just about B.O. and ruining gray shirts. It is your genius body’s way of cooling you down, excreting toxins, and preventing harmful substances from entering the body.  What’s more, sweat is designed to improve your sex life! 

There are two different types of sweat glands: eccrine and apocrine.  

Eccrine sweat glands are all over your body and are mainly concentrated in your hands, feet, and forehead. These glands flush directly through pores on the skin. Eccrine sweat glands play a massive role in cooling the body through evaporative cooling. Eccrine sweat is mostly water. The heat of the skin enters the sweat water droplet.  When the hot sweat droplet meets the cooler, drier surrounding air temperature, it causes vaporization of the sweat droplet.  This results in dissipated heat. When the surrounding air is humid, there is already a lot of water vapor in the air, making it harder for the sweat droplets to evaporate and, thus, more challenging for the body to cool down.  Eccrine sweat is also associated with the sympathetic nervous system, which is connected to the fight or flight response. That is why many of us sweat when we are anxious. 

Apocrine sweat glands are located in the armpits and genital region. These glands are connected to hair follicles and flush sweat into the hair follicle shaft. (You may have heard of people getting laser treatments to decrease sweat production in their armpits. The laser attacks the hair shaft's dark pigment, damaging the sweat gland.)  Interestingly, apocrine sweat glands do not start secreting until a person hits puberty. This is connected to the concept of pheromones and attraction for mating.  Apocrine sweat is more viscous and is milky or yellowish. It contains fatty substances and proteins. Our body is covered with healthy bacteria. The bacteria eat the apocrine sweat particles, and the end product (aka bacteria farts) is body odor.  

So next time you are tempted to hide your sweat, remember why sweating is good for you and the vital role sweat plays in your health. Pretty soon, you’ll be rockin’ your sweaty shirt like a badge of honor.