Your sweat

The average person can sweat up to 1 litre of fluid each hour – that’s the same as a 1 litre carton of milk from your fridge!  If you live in a hot country, your body can sweat an amazing 2 – 3 litres of fluid per hour – all of which has to be replaced!

When you are too hot, the fluid from your sweat glands appears on your skin.  Sweat comes from glands in your skin.  Your have over 2.5 million sweat glands on your skin, almost everywhere on your body.  To keep cool, your body sweats all the time, even though you may not notice it!  Your internal organs, like your intestines and liver, produce heat as they work.  Sweating is your body’s way of getting rid of the extra heat.  You only really notice it on a very hot day or if you add extra heat like when you work your muscles when you exercise or if you are nervous, scared or excited!

You will notice that you sweat more in some places, like under your arms (your armpits).  This can sometimes smell, but it isn’t the sweat that makes the smell.  Bacteria on your skin and on the small hairs that will grow under your arms love your sweat!  They feed on your sweat and it is their waste products (their poo!) that make the smell.  It is a very good idea to wash all of your body every day but to pay very close attention to areas like your armpits where you sweat a lot!

If you live in a cool climate, when you sweat, the water in your sweat evaporates in the heat from your body, which helps you to cool down.  Apart from water, you sweat contains salts and waste products which are removed from your body onto your skin and washed away when you bathe or shower.  If you don’t wash these away, your skin can taste a little salty!  Sweat also contains substances that help to control some of the bad bacteria that live on your skin.  If you get a cut on your skin, bad bacteria can get into your body and cause an infection.  Your sweat helps to prevent too many bad bacteria from getting inside your body!

Sweat needs water to work at its best.  Make sure you always drink enough to support this constant defender of your health!