There Are Benefits Of Sweating! 10 Surprising Facts

Sweating can be so embarrassing. You just take a shower, dress up for the party, and just arrive, and you are already all wet because of sweat. This can leave you in a predicament.

What to do now? How to stop that embarrassment? What will my friends tell me? These are burning questions and all you wish is for sweating to disappear.  But you know what? There are benefits of sweating and you are about to learn more about some positive things that sweating does to you.

You’re not alone in dealing with sweat-related problems. I have been managing and dealing with hyperhidrosis for over 2 decades now so I do know how hard it is. Read my story here.

Reasons Why We Sweat

Do the above-asked questions sound familiar to you? Do you hate sweating as much as I do?  Would you rather not sweat at all?  And would you sometimes like to drop a few feet to hide?

Let me tell you: Welcome to the club. I have had excessive sweating issues for more than half of my life. And all these years, sweating has left me embarrassed quite often.

I remember my first date night very well. My armpits were completely wet long before I even met my future wife. I sweat excessively in my armpits because I was so nervous, but also because I have been suffering from primary hyperhidrosis since my early teens.

It is a good thing that my girlfriend never mentioned it that evening; she must have been sweating too. However, I did not care if she was sweating or not because I was obsessed with the fact that I was sweating.

Sweating affects your confidence and your self-image, especially if you sweat excessively.

Sweating can be induced by doing exercise, working physically, being in the hot sun, by living in humid weather, being in a sauna, among others.  But there are people that do not sweat because it is induced, but because they suffer from primary hyperhidrosis, as I do.

Although sweating can be embarrassing, there are some benefits to sweating. Indeed, research has found that there are more benefits to sweating than you ever believed to be true. In this article, I will show you 10, not well-known benefits that you can “enjoy” while sweating.

Nevertheless, you must also know that induced sweating can even more benefits than you regular sweating, as is the case with people suffering from hyperhidrosis. You will find out in this article why that is so.

10 Surprising Benefits of Sweating

When I started out on my journey to learn more about sweating, I was surprised about the many facets sweating actually has.

Sweating has an effect on your mental well-being, either negative or positive, it has so many health benefits, yet so many of us, including myself, are looking to sweat less or not at all. You might be surprised by one or the other health benefit.

1) Helps You Get Rid Of Toxins

If there is one effective way of detoxifying your body than it is sweating. Instead of juicing or doing other detox programs, you can alternate heavy induced sweating to lower cholesterol, salt, sodium, and other toxins that can be detrimental to your health.

Our wonderfully designed bodies purge all these things out through pores that are often times clogged. Why do you think some people have so many pimples?

Clogged pores or blemishes are often due to a lack of sweating. Through the foods that you eat, your levels of toxic substances increase and they do not have a way out; therefore, they settle down and that could result in pimples, blemishes, and in some cases diseases.

Induced sweating mostly means that you push or make your body sweat. You increase your body temperature through exercising, dancing, sauna and other different types of activities. When inducing sweating, you will most likely start to sweat all over the body and not just in certain parts as is the case with hyperhidrosis.

When you have your body sweating all over, you are letting your body do what it was designed for: Get rid of toxins naturally.

There are studies that show that different toxins are excreted in sweat. In fact, there is a strong belief among researchers that body toxins could be found in sweat samples, instead of using urine or blood samples. More testing needs to be done, however.

There is an interesting study that was made in Finland.  This north-European country is known for having saunas intertwined with culture.  There is an estimated sauna for every two people.  That would make at least one sauna per household.

This study found that Finnish men had a 65% lower risk of Alzheimer’s when using the sauna once per week.

What does that have to do with getting rid of toxins?

When you sweat, you release toxins produced by stress and you produce the “happy” hormones, which are essential for Alzheimer’s prevention.

Therefore, sweating helps you get rid of stress and unnecessary toxins that have a negative impact on your health in the long run.

2) Protects You From Germs

Believe it or not: Sweating protects you from germs that your body cannot get resistant too in a short time through antibiotics. Researchers believe that germs, like tuberculosis, are neutralized through sweat.

Since sweat is slightly acidic, it neutralizes infections, viruses, germs, fungi, and bacteria that your body comes in contact with. Dermcidin, the name for the protein that is responsible for breaking down harmful bacteria, is only activated through sweating.

Sweat contains antimicrobial molecules that charge positively and attract negative molecules and break them down.

It is not surprising that people living in hot weather, that are more prone to all kinds of fungus, sweat more. They need it to protect themselves from harmful bacteria that can have negative impacts on your body.

Why would we go for antibiotics every time we have an infection if our bodies make antibiotics which could fight viral infections before they enter the body.  I guess it is a necessary evil.

Inducing sweat regularly will indeed help you to stay stronger and healthier. How little attractive are the winter months when we are trying to beat the flu? There is research that found that sweating can reduce the risk of the flu by at least 30%. If this problem could be solved simply by inducing sweat regularly, who would not be willing to try that?

3) Reduces Risk Of Kidney Stones

Mild or moderate physical activity makes you sweat and get rid of excess salts in your body, yet retain calcium in the bones, which makes for stronger bones.

Surprisingly, sweating helps get rid of toxins in your body which build up over time in your kidneys.  Eventually, these toxins form stones that cause much pain.

People that sweat regularly tend to drink more water (or fluids). That is a great natural way to flush away toxins that you do not want to build up in your body.

Think of sweating as a way to keep your kidneys healthier along the way. Your kidneys are often stressed either by too few liquids or in some cases by too many. How good if you give your kidneys a break and let sweating do a part in getting rid of those toxins.

4) Reduces Harmful BPA Levels

It is no brainer that all plastics that we use every day mostly contain harmful BPA, the endocrine disruptor.

In recent years, there has been a focus towards BPA free plastics, although much has to be done to achieve that. High BPA levels in food containers are reason enough to stay away from plastic as much as possible, except when you find BPA free plastics.

Larger studies have proven that our body can get rid of BPA through sweating more effectively than through any other methods of detoxification. As stated before, metals and toxins are often reduced in our body by induced heavy sweating.

Interestingly, these elements, including heavy metals, are not excreted through urination but through sweating.

There are millions of people around the globe that lead a passive lifestyle which will not lead to sweating regularly. You have to get yourself moving, exercising, walking or doing other activities that get your body hot so your brain can signal the sweat glands to cool off.

Cooling off helps you to get rid of things you do not want your body to store.

5) Makes Healthier Skin

You could have guessed this surprising fact about sweating. By sweating frequently, as discussed before, you get rid of pimples and blemishes. Fat, sodium and other components can unclog pores that can cause skin issues.

Just like your gut needs healthy bacteria to digest food properly, your skin needs a good number of healthy bacteria to keep your skin healthy.  Sweat helps build up the good bacteria and neutralize bad bacteria.

It sounds kind of nasty to look for situations to sweat to get healthy skin, but that is very true.

As said before, I am a heavy sweater, suffering from primary hyperhidrosis, and I do not use any creams but my skin is rarely dry or cracked.  I get it, when going to a dermatologist or a beauty shop, they would have hundreds of objections to my skin.  Nevertheless, I know that my skin is staying hydrated and nurtured through sweating.

And nope, excessive sweating is not comfortable, nor a condition that you would like to run after, but there are surprising things that happen to people that sweat regularly or at least induce sweating regularly.

6) Improves Heart Health

It sounds unbelievable that sweating has something to do with heart health, but it has, and in the most logical ways.

Induced sweating means you are doing something, making an effort to get your body temperature up.  And what organ has to work harder when you are doing moderate or heavy physical activity? Your heart.

Your heart rate increases, blood vessels dilate and more blood is pumped around the body and more rapidly.  This strengthens your heart and prevents many cardiovascular diseases.

The thing that I found surprising is that regular sauna goers reaped great benefit.  By going to the sauna once per week, negative cardiovascular events were reduced dramatically over time.  Not only because you induce sweating by increasing your body temperature, but also because the sauna relaxes you and relieves stress, which contributes to heart health, undoubtedly.  There is a double benefit for the heart.

Getting passive people out of their comfort zone and get them to do things to induce sweat is not very easy.  I am a perfect example of it.  However, I try to push myself every now and then to induce sweating and not just go for the regular heavy sweating that I am suffering from.

7) Decreases Stress Hormones

Among the first things that counselors, therapists, and psychologists recommend their patients you will find exercising as part of their healing process.  The fact is that exercising, along with induced sweating, decreases stress hormones.

People suffering from anxiety, depression and other mental disorders or behaviors are seeing results after some time of exercising or getting physically active.  In some cases, exercising and eating healthy will reduce the symptoms that come along with these problems.

Cortisol levels are decreased immediately after exercise, while other hormones get the body into the right balance again.

Having experienced feeling better and happier when exercising regularly will make you want to continue to do it.

8) Boosts Hormone Production

Hormones are your medicine.  They rebuild the body and keep it healthy.  Studies show that sweating increases hormone production, which again makes you recover easier.

Recovery from illnesses and injuries can be sped up through sweating because of increased hormone production.

Have you not experienced, after a bad cold when you start to exercise again, that you feel better in no time?  We use to say, ” I need to get back on track”, but really getting back on track means to recover from illness.  And sweating does help you get “on track” quicker.

Not only can you recover quicker, but wounds will heal better with lots of sweating.  Did not I mention that sweating makes a healthy skin?  Ways for new skin are made quicker through sweating.

9) Pain Killer

You did not know that sweating actually reduces aches and pains, or?.  Endorphins produced by sweating, act as natural painkillers.

Nowadays, I often hear people say how they need Aspirin or Advil daily because of all kinds of pains.  If there is no serious cause for those pains, you should consider intense workouts or saunas to reduce pains.

As said before, the hormone boost that sweat gives to you helps with healthy skin, recovery and also act as natural painkillers.

Running around the block a few times can relieve you from a headache, or other pains.

10) Regulates Your Temperature

This is probably the most commonly known benefit; your body regulates its temperature by sweating.  You have your heating and cooling system along with you wherever you go.

Your sweat glands keep strong and healthy when sweating regularly and they can do what they were made to do much better when you sweat regularly.

Excessive sweating can be annoying and in some cases is not good for you, but if you are not sweating regularly, you need to start doing some intense workout or go into a sauna to sweat heavily at least once a week.

Conclusion

People that sweat excessively want to get rid of their sweat because it is so embarrassing to have those sweat marks on your clothes, or all those sweat marks that you leave behind with your feet and hands, and so on.

However, there are awesome benefits to sweating and we would not be able to get these benefits if we could not sweat.  In fact, there are people that do not sweat at all!  They do not get these benefits.

After reading about the health benefits of sweating you are probably more than willing to embrace sweating and accept is of an essential function of the body and not just a sticky embarrassing situation that you want to avoid as much as possible.

If you found this article informative, please don’t forget to share via social media with friends and family.  Also, for questions, please contact me by leaving a comment below.