Stop Sweating - What is Sweat?

You can't stop sweating. Why? What is sweat anyway? How is sweating controlled by your body?

Water is the main ingredient in sweat. Sweat also contains some minerals, such as lactate and urea. The concentration of these minerals vary with each person and with the environment and physical activity. Other minerals in sweat include sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, nickel, iron, copper and chromium.

Sweat is your body's way of controlling body temperature. Temperature receptors in the skin sends signals to the hypothalamus which turns on or off your sweat glands. Your hypothalamus works like a thermostat; when skin temperature is too high, your sweating mechanism is turned on. When your skin temperature reaches an internal setpoint, you stop sweating.

This internal setpoint can change over the course of a person's life. When you move to a hot climate and adapt to it. This setpoint moves higher, so you won't start sweating until your body reaches a higher temperature. Likewise, if you move to a cold climate like Alaska, your internal setpoint decreases and you'll start sweating at colder temperatures than before. This adjustment of your internal sweating setpoint is called acclimatisation.

Physical activity is one factor that will raise your body temperature such that sweating occurs. But emotional stress is another factor than can also stimulate your sweat glands. Emotional sweating is usually, but not always, restricted to your palms, soles and underarms. Again, it can depend on the individual.

Aside from regulating body temperature, sweat may also serve as a pheromone that attracts the opposite sex. Modern culture look upon sweating as unattractive, but the primal part of the brain may sense sweat as an indicator of how attractive a potential mate is. So if you want to snag that lady, don't stop sweating?