# Sweating and Toxins **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 11, 2008, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweating-and-toxins/433171 "2008-01-11T19:15:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweating-and-toxins/433171/1 "2008-01-11T19:15:57Z")
Do people sweat to release waste products? Or is sweating really only a cooling mechanism. I often hear people say that they sweat more after dirking or using drugs and that this is part of the bodies natural way of ridding it self of Toxins (waste products). It seems pretty clear to me that we pee to rid our bodies of waste products is sweating part of that? ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweating-and-toxins/433171/2 "2008-01-11T19:32:10Z")
Kinoki Foot Pads can pull the toxins right through your skin. Sweat or no sweat! Parasites too! YMMV! Note that I’m referring to earlier threads [Kinoki](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=451072&highlight=Kinoki+foot+pads) and not being serious. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweating-and-toxins/433171/3 "2008-01-11T19:33:39Z")
I wouldn’t say “toxins,” as that’s just a buzz word used mostly by the new-agey healing type crap. But yes, sweating does release more than just water and salts, and certain things besides being overheated can trigger the sweating mechanism. Ever notice that after eating a lot of garlic and/or onions, your sweat smells like them? Lots of other foods and spices are the same way. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweating-and-toxins/433171/4 "2008-01-11T19:35:50Z")
Yeah I probably should never have written toxins at all in the OP. That word attracts the woo. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweating-and-toxins/433171/5 "2008-01-11T19:37:54Z")
[QUOTE=bouv] I wouldn’t say “toxins,” as that’s just a buzz word used mostly by the new-agey healing type crap. But yes, sweating does release more than just water and salts, and certain things besides being overheated can trigger the sweating mechanism. Ever notice that after eating a lot of garlic and/or onions, your sweat smells like them? Lots of other foods and spices are the same way. [/QUOTE] I have noticed that. I guess the question is not so much that things like that come out in sweat but does the body make you sweat to release those things or do you just sweat to maintain body temperature and the other stuff in sweat is just a by product. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweating-and-toxins/433171/6 "2008-01-11T19:40:50Z")
[QUOTE=gazpacho] Do people sweat to release waste products? Or is sweating really only a cooling mechanism. I often hear people say that they sweat more after dirking or using drugs and that this is part of the bodies natural way of ridding it self of Toxins (waste products). It seems pretty clear to me that we pee to rid our bodies of waste products is sweating part of that? [/QUOTE] > [@](#): > > Some toxins dissolve naturally in sweat and leave the body through the sweat glands. Because of this, some believe that stimulating sweating with heat or exercise helps clear toxins from the body. However, scientific medical evidence for this is scarce [http://www.maxim-magazine.co.uk/fitness/asktheexperts/2952/health.html](http://www.maxim-magazine.co.uk/fitness/asktheexperts/2952/health.html) > [@](#): > > “Alcohol tends to dilate the vessels in the skin, increasing your body heat, and tobacco increases your body’s levels of adrenaline, both of which will make you sweat more,” says Dr. Landow. [http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/16/220.cfm](http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/16/220.cfm) > [@](#): > > Thus, alcohol influences thermoregulation so that body core temperature is lowered not only by automatic mechanisms (sweating and skin vasodilation) but also behaviorally. [http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/alc/article/PIIS0741832905001503/abstract](http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/alc/article/PIIS0741832905001503/abstract)