Why Do We Sweat?

We may be able to answer this simply by saying that we sweat because we have to, in order to keep our bodies working properly. But this doesn’t cover the details of how we sweat and what triggers the activity at certain times.

The human body has many sweat glands in the skin that create the liquid we know as sweat. There are different types of sweat glands though. One is responsible for making us sweat under our arms, for example. This is almost all water. Another type of gland puts out a substance that contains less water. This spreads on the skin where it is worked on by bacteria.

Everyone has to sweat to some extent. It’s natural. One of the key benefits of “healthy” sweating is regulation of body temperature. The surface of the skin is moist with sweat that evaporates, providing a cooling effect.

However, there is another occasion when many people find themselves sweating. We don’t have to exercise or go outside on hot days in order to produce sweat from our bodies. Scientists believe that strong emotions often stimulate sweat glands in the human body. In fact, certain nerve cells are closely associated with the sweat glands.

Research indicates that human beings probably sweat more after they move into adulthood than they do when they are children. This happens because our sweat glands grow more active as we go through the physical changes of puberty. Certain parts of the body change more drastically than others at this time, when the millions of glands begin producing more sweat.

If we could see a cross-section of our skin as doctors and scientists do we would see that the sweat glands of the human body are located below the visible skin. In fact, our skin has several layers and the sweat glands are located in a secondary layer. Close study of the science of the skin shows that sweat glands are tube-like and coiled, and reach to the exposed skin.

In summary, when our body is overheated through exercise or by high temperatures from sunlight it automatically produces sweat to help with the cooling process. Some of the unneeded waste products and excess salt are eliminated through the sweating process as well. Much of the moisture in sweat comes from the liquid part of our blood known as plasma.

Since the plasma in our blood has natural salts as part of its makeup, our sweat is salty as well. Though we do lose some of our salt through sweating, the sweat-gland mechanism is designed to retain some of the salt. It’s easy to see that much of our internal salt is lost through sweating, especially if we sweat on a day when the air around us doesn’t contain much moisture (when it’s not humid).

The water portion of sweat evaporates quickly, leaving behind a residue of salt that may even be visible. The answer to our original question is that we sweat to keep our body cool or in response to stressful situations.