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Quick Facts: 6 Benefits of Sweating You Probably Didn’t Know About
- 1. Sweating more in the gym (when exercising) can produce endorphins which act as natural painkillers.
- 2. It opens your pores, releasing the gunk and grime that builds up in them, which eventually results in zits.
- 3. It helps control your mood swings by leaving you with a warm sense of well-being and relaxation.
- 4. Helps prevent colds and other infections because it contains an antimicrobial peptide called dermcidin that helps fight infections and germs.
- 5. Sweating regulates your body temperature so you don’t overheat — literally.
- 6. Sweating helps keep your skin and hair healthy.
Surprising Benefits of Sweating
We know all the embarrassing parts of sweat. But let’s explore some of the lesser-known benefits of healthy sweating.
Health Benefits of Sweating Everyday
The main reason our bodies sweat is to regulate our body temperature. This is really important because it keeps you from having a heat stroke. Normal body temperature also keeps all of your internal organs functioning properly. So when your core temperature gets hot, you start to sweat as a preventative measure.
Benefits of Sweating When Exercising
When you exercise, your body heats up and your heart rate increases. This causes you to sweat, and as the sweat evaporates, your body cools down. The benefit of sweating when you exercise is that simple. It keeps you from overheating during your workout, which in turn, keeps you from passing out. So basically, sweating during your workout is a good thing. But if you don’t sweat a lot when you exercise, don’t worry. It simply means your body temperature hasn’t risen to the point that your body needs to sweat.
Benefits of Sweating When Sick
When you’re sick, it’s common to sweat. The sweat helps regulate your body temperature, which can fend off a fever. This doesn’t mean that you should hit the sauna instead of taking the medicine your doctor prescribed though. It simply means that sweating is helping your body heal faster. It’s getting rid of the germs and bacteria that made you sick in the first place, and at the same time, helping to prevent a fever high enough to be fatal.
Benefits of Sweating for Skin
When it comes to skin health, sweating actually helps a lot. When you sweat, it opens up your pores and pushes out built-up gunk sitting right underneath your skin. This is this same build up that often produces pimples. So sweating basically cleanses your pores naturally, which helps you avoid getting unsightly blemishes on your skin. In addition to preventing zits, sweating also helps prevent rashes and irritated skin — both of which are often caused when built-up grime settles back into your pores.
Benefits of Sweating for Hair
Sweating from your scalp helps unclog your hair follicles, allowing room for new hair growth. It also opens up the pores on your scalp, releasing any buildup inside your pores that could be stunting the growth of your hair. It’s important to note though, that while sweating does open up your hair follicles to promote new hair growth, the salty sweat buildup on your scalp is not good for your hair. Salty sweat build up contains lactic acid, which when mixed with the keratin in your hair can cause damage. So while it’s important to exercise regularly so that your scalp sweats, it’s also just as important to wash your hair after your workout so any excess sweat isn’t sitting on your head for a long time.
How to Get the Benefits of Sweating You Want
The best way to reap the benefits of sweating is to exercise regularly. When you exercise, you sweat. It’s that simple. Also, regular exercise has several other benefits revolved around sweating. For example, regular exercise helps reduce stress and anxiety. So if you sweat when you’re nervous, it’s a good way to offset some of the anxious feelings you typically get that cause your body to produce embarrassing nervous sweat. That’s right, regular exercise can help prevent sweaty hands caused by nervous sweating!
The more time you spend outdoors when the weather is warm, the more sweat you produce too. So make it a point to try a few new outdoor activities on occasion. That doesn’t mean you have to take up extreme outdoor sports or anything. Just spend some time in the sun to promote healthy sweating — also, the vitamin D your body absorbs from the sun helps keep you calm, cool, and collected.
Does Sweating Help Me Detox or Lose Weight?
Have you been wondering whether sweating will help you detox your body or lose weight? Both are common questions, and both have complicated answers. (Sorry! There isn’t a simple yes or no answer for these questions.)
Benefits of Sweating When Working Out
Everyone is different. Some people can workout for an hour and leave the gym looking as if they simply walked out of their house, while others leave the gym drenched in sweat. But should you worry about not producing enough sweat when you engage in physical activity? The answer is no.
See, sweating when you workout is important for regulating your body temperature, but that’s it. The amount of sweat you produce during a workout doesn’t really matter, because the amount of sweat you produce during your workout doesn’t affect the number of calories you burn.
Are There Benefits of Sweating for Weight Loss?
Here’s the thing. The weight you lose from sweating is simply water weight. Sweat doesn’t burn fat. It regulates your body temperature. That’s it. When you rehydrate, any weight loss from sweating comes right back. So there’s absolutely no point in wearing warm clothes while you exercise in hopes that you’ll sweat more.
The key to losing weight is burning more calories than you consume. Exercise helps you do that, which is why it’s an important part of weight loss. But it isn’t the sweat your body produces that helps you reach your weight loss goals. Instead, if you want to lose weight, focus on the duration and intensity of your workouts to ensure you’re burning enough calories.
Benefits of Sweating in a Suana
Some people believe that sitting in a hot sauna will keep them from getting sick or will help them lose weight, but that simply isn’t true. When you take a sauna, the heat and steam work to open the pores on your skin and make you sweat.
Many people believe that saunas make you sweat out any toxins in your body. But that’s not true. Toxins are primarily released from your body through your liver and kidneys.
So while a steam room may help you clean out your pores, you aren’t really ridding your body of toxins. Basically, unless you need a quick fix for blackheads, you can skip the sauna completely.
Benefits of Sweating in Hot Yoga
It’s a common misconception that doing hot yoga — or any other kind of “hot” workout — helps you burn more calories. It doesn’t. The benefit of hot yoga is that the heat helps loosen up your muscles, making you more flexible during your session. So while you’re less likely to pull a muscle trying to get into the Downward Facing Dog position, you won’t burn any more calories than you would during a normal yoga session.
When Sweating Becomes a Problem
The benefits of sweating can be easily overlooked when you’re plagued with embarrassing sweat on a daily basis. Excessive sweat can do extreme damage to your confidence, social life, and career. If sweating has become a problem for you, there are things you can do to treat excessive sweating. Some of those treatments include:
- Clinical Strength Antiperspirant (NOT DEODORANT – learn more about the differences between antiperspirant and deodorant.)
- Relaxation & Meditation
- Exercise and Weight Loss
- Botox Injections
- Miradry Treatment
- Iontopheresis
- Nerve Blocking Medications
Check out this article on how to stop sweating for more details on extreme sweating treatments.
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