Digital DeconstructionDon’t sweat (or wipe away) sweat
It gets hot. Your body starts to sweat in a biological effort to cool you off. So should you wipe that sweat off, or does that defeat its purpose?
Don’t wipe unless you’re drenched. Sweat releases heat by evaporative cooling. As each gram of sweat transitions from liquid to gas phase, it absorbs 2,427 joules of energy from the body and dissipates the heat into the environment. But if you wipe away the perspiration before it evaporates, that process will get cut short, and you’ll need to sweat more just to achieve the same degree of cooling. On the other hand, any sweat that drips to the ground before it can evaporate won’t do you any good, so if you’re really soaked you may as well reach for the towel.
When you put on weight and muscle, you don’t add sweat glands. As a result, those with bigger frames have a lower density of glands at the surface of their skin, with more space between each one. That means their perspiration won’t cover their bodies as evenly, and they’ll have to increase their sweat output to compensate. Large people also sweat more because it takes them more energy to move around.
Thankfully the more time you spend in hot climates, the more acclimated your body gets to the heat. But to really keep cool, drink hot writes to Palmer:
But if you really want to exploit the full potential of your sweat glands, drink hot beverages. An ice-cold glass of water briefly lowers your core temperature and feels good on a hot day, but it’s only a temporary fix. Drinking a hot cup of tea will warm you up inside, but it will also make you sweat, and the increase in perspiration more than compensates.
Hot tea on a hot day? No thank you.
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