JUST HOW MUCH SWEAT DO I PRODUCE A DAY?
It depends on your level of activity and the environment you’re in. Typically, a healthy, average-sized person produces 500ml of sweat every hour when performing a low-intensity activity (such as yoga or walking), said Dr Kok Wai Leong, a senior consultant and dermatologist at StarMed Specialist Centre. This rate can double to around 1 litre per hour with high-intensity exercise (any activity where you can’t say more than a few words without gasping for breath).
“In athletes and heavier individuals, the sweat rate can reach 2 litres per hour. In a day, the total sweat output can be as high as 10 litres, especially in hot and humid conditions,” said Dr Kok.
WHY DO I SWEAT MORE THAN MY FRIENDS?
There is a number of factors, said Dr Wang Ding Yuan, a consultant with National Skin Centre. In general, individuals with a large body mass, better physical fitness and better acclimated to hot weather tend to sweat more. Age is another reason; for example, older individuals tend to sweat less than younger people.
“Beyond that, there can be pathologic reasons why one sweats abnormally less or more than others,” said Dr Wang. “These can include the use of certain medications, neurological diseases, alcoholism, other systemic disorders (thyroid problems, heart failure or lymphoma) and rare genetic disorders.” And sometimes, there is simply no reason for the excessive sweat, he added.
CAN I SWEAT OFF TOXINS?
Let’s clear this up: Sweating’s primary purpose is to cool you down, not to help you detox. While small amounts of metabolic waste such as urea and ammonia are excreted through sweating, you lose more waste through your urine than sweat.
For instance, a drop of sweat is about 99 per cent water with the remaining 1 per cent containing traces of urea, ammonia and other substances. Urine, on the other hand, consists of 95 per cent water, 2.5 per cent urea and 2.5 per cent other waste products.
Many people have this misconception perhaps because they regard sweat as “an excretable bodily fluid”, much like urine, said Dr Wang. “The popularity of saunas and their supposed ‘sweat it out’ benefits, and the common belief of sweating as a means to overcome hangovers are probably symptoms of such a notion.”
