The inconveniences of sweating and how to compensate for them
Sweating is part of a bodily process called perspiration, a highly variable but completely natural response to high temperatures, physical activity or emotional stress.
Sweating is essential in controlling body temperature, and is therefore the mechanism used by the human body for thermoregulation.
Why do we sweat?
The basic function of sweating is thermoregulation. But, how does this process take place? Our body has neurological centres that act as thermostats. Increasing body temperature is mainly caused by higher concentrations of energy in our blood, either because the body is producing more energy or because the ambient temperature is higher than that of our skin. When this happens, the body must quickly reduce this concentrated energy; one of the ways it does this is through perspiration. The loss of fluids by evaporation allows the body to lower its temperature because we move one of the heat sources making up the body, water, out of our body.
What are the consequences?
- Dampness: as we are all aware, sweating is the excretion of fluid from the sweat glands. It mainly takes place in the underarms, the hands, the face and between our legs.
- Smell: the fluid secreted contains metabolites and degraded toxins, which are a food source for the bacteria that naturally live on our skin. The proliferation of bacteria causes fermentation, which creates a (usually unpleasant) smell.
- Dermatitis: excessive sweating can cause irritation of the skin’s surface and subsequently cause chronic skin damage, associated with pruritus and inflammation.
Advice
To minimise the effects of sweat and to make the unpleasant symptoms more manageable, we suggest using particular products that can help reduce perspiration in certain sensitive areas:
- Cleanliness: good personal hygiene with mild soaps that respect the skin’s surface is essential to control the concentration of excreted material.
Sweat can be produced by two types of glands: eccrine sweat glands (all over the body) and apocrine sweat glands (located in areas with hair follicles: the underarms, the scalp and the groin and genitals). The different glands produce different kinds of sweat:
- Eccrine sweat: transparent, mainly composed of water. - Apocrine sweat: contains lipids and amino acids that can be ingested as food by bacteria on the skin.Therefore, we need to take extra care of areas with hair follicles, as they are more likely to produce bad-smelling sweat.
- Deodorant: these contain substances that absorb odour-producing bacteria (bacteriostasis) or slow their reproduction (bectericide). They create an acidic pH on the surface of the skin to slow the growth of these bacteria, reducing the generation of body odour. They also tend to include a fragrance. Always use alcohol-free deodorants that respect your skin’s barrier function.
- Antiperspirants: these contain aluminium salts such as aluminium chlorohydrate or aluminium chloride. The main function is to create a partial, reversible blockage in the tract by which fluid is secreted from the eccrine and apocrine sweat glands. This causes a reduction in the amount of sweat produced.
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