Yes, one function of sweating is detoxification of your body. Common sense should tell you that. But, in spite of the vast body of evidence that continues to mount, there are still people that refuse to believe it. To the shrinking number of those who cling to that stubborn refusal, here is a question for you…
How do you explain why numerous scientific studies have shown that toxicants including arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury are excreted through the skin from sweating?
Over the weekend, one such “stubborn” individual boldly stated that health benefits from sauna usage was a myth. I argued that the only myth in that stream of online debate was his purporting to actually know something about fitness. He asked for any evidence from a scientific journal. Well, sir, here it is:
I like to quote from a Canadian research paper that was published in the Journal of Environmental and Public Health in 2012. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3312275/
In this article, the authors cite 52 references from various other health and medical journals.
Please take a moment to read a few notable quotes from the article…
“Sweat contains metals not only from the blood plasma, but also evidently originating from dermal layers (particularly with significant dermal exposures, as for workers in welding, smelting, or battery manufacturing).”
“Arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury may be excreted in appreciable quantities through the skin, and rates of excretion were reported to match or even exceed urinary excretion in a 24-hour period. This is of particular interest should renal compromise limit urinary excretion of toxic elements.”
“…the available evidence suggests that physicians could consider recommending sweating as tolerated via exercise (preferred) and/or use of a sauna as a low-risk, potentially beneficial treatment for individuals who may be experiencing effects of toxic elements, or for individuals with regular exposure to or accretion of toxicants.”
“Sweating is not only observed to enhance excretion of the toxic elements of interest in this paper, but also may increase excretion of diverse toxicants, as observed in New York rescue workers [47], or in particular persistent flame retardants [48] and bisphenol-A [49].”
Here at the HOTWORX Blog, we take sweating seriously!
