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Sweating:
Sweating, or perspiration, is a normal phenomenon in Humans.
Sweating and Heat Loss:
The
evaporation of the water from the skin takes heat away from the body and
so sweating is essential for our temperature control. If we didn't sweat
at all, we could overheat especially after exercise or on very hot days.
In the
animal kingdom, we find that humans are the smallest animals that sweat.
Larger
animals, such as elephants, depend on sweating as well as other
behavioural patterns to control their temperature. Such behaviours include
putting dirt over their backs to protect their skin from the sun, staying
in the shade or going into water when available. Elephants also flap their
ears to radiate heat out of the blood that flows through the blood vessels
in the ears.
Smaller
animal, such as dogs, cannot sweat and as such have to lose heat in other
ways – for example dogs get rid of heat by panting. When they pant, the
movement of air causes evaporation of the water off of the dog's tongue
that cools the blood in dog's tongue, which then circulates and cools the
dog.
Sweat Glands - Eccrine and Apocrine Sweat
Glands:
Sweat
is produced from the "Sweat Glands" - the watery sweat comes from the
Eccrine glands deep in the dermis (skin) and the more greasy type of sweat
that can smell comes from the Apocrine glands, that are usually found
around the hair follicles.
Sweat and Toxins Removal:
Sweat
is mainly water. As it is produced from the blood, it does have some salts
in it - sodium ions, chloride ions and urea. In people with heavy metal
poisoning, some of the metal can be found in the sweat. However, despite
many people thinking that sweat gets "rid of the toxins", it is not a
major way for toxins to be got rid of by the body.
The Control of Sweating in the Body:
The control of sweating in the Human is
mainly via the sympathetic nervous system.
The
first nerve runs from the brain, down the spinal cord and then comes out
and communicates with a second sympathetic nerve which lies in the
sympathetic chain.
The
sympathetic chain lies on the bone of the spinal column. This second nerve
then runs from the sympathetic chain to the skin where it connects to the
sweat glands.
Of
course, adrenaline and noradrenline, the stress hormones, are also
released by the sympathetic nervous system as part of the "fight or
flight" mechanism. Therefore there is also effect of these hormones on the
system.
To
be able to treat excessive sweating - called "hyperhidrosis" - it is
essential to understand this chain. The treatments for excessive sweating
or hyperhidrosis all work on certain parts of this chain.
Good understanding is therefore essential to understand which treatment is
necessary for which condition.
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