Have you ever wondered what sweat does to your skin? We’ve broken it down to tell you how sweat can actually help your skin and when it’s issues come into play.
What and Why: When you exercise your body temperature rises. To help you cool off the pores on your skin open and release a fluid, which is what we call sweat. Sweat is mostly made up of water but also includes small amounts other things such as: salt, protein, and urea. While everyone says sweating detoxes your body, that is not actually true. Your Kidneys and liver are in charge of detoxing the body not your pores but sweat can help some benefits for your skin.
Benefits of Sweat for the skin
- Increasing Blood Circulation: As a result of exercising and sweating your blood circulation increases and gets oxygen and nutrients moving through your skin cells. This can help with decreasing inflammation and sun damage by flighting off free radicals and repair damage spots.
- Sweat does release a protein which is an antimicrobial peptide called dermcidin, that has antibacterial properties. Meaning it can help fight off germs and infections on the skin.
- Overall since its high water content, sweat is very good at temporarily hydrating the skin.
- The issue comes when you leave sweat sitting on your skin for long periods of time.
- Urea which can be found in sweat is what can irritate the skin.
- While the sodium (salt) from sweat can dehydrate the skin. (Note: If you’re someone who notices is layer of salt on top of your skin after you sweat, this can actually mean that you don’t have enough sodium in your diet.)