You are at the gym. A drop of sweat slides down your nose and falls to the floor. The instructor murmured, “So, flush out all the toxins!” Your pores dilate and your skin soon becomes covered in sweat. You continue your routine and leave feeling lighter. Cleaned, even. Is this euphoria due to the state of the body recently freed from toxins? How does the body eliminate toxins?
Well, there’s a problem with that idea: actually an excretory organ. Yoga, or any other exercise, is undoubtedly beneficial if practiced correctly.
? Indeed, vigorous activity helps the body rid itself of toxins by increasing the circulation of lymph and blood, which are filtered by the lymph nodes and kidneys. (Toxins filtered by the lymph nodes are redeposited in the bloodstream and eliminated by the kidneys.) The liver also filters some waste products, which are released into the intestine through bile.
How does the body eliminate toxins?
The truth is, however, that the endpoint of these poisons, both metabolic and environmental, is covered by most swimwear. it is not to purify the body of toxins, but to cool it by evaporation.
Sweat from the eccrine sweat glands, which cover most of the body, is 99% water and contains only very small amounts of salts, urea and carbohydrates, all of which are natural by-products of bodily processes.
Apocrine sweat glands, associated with hair follicles in the axillary and groin regions, release some fat along with water. When broken down by bacteria on the skin, these substances are responsible for the specific smell of a stressed or exercised person. Fats may contain incidental amounts of fat-soluble toxins, but the apocrine sweat glands are not a major route for their elimination from the body, .
Harmful substances collected by the body’s filters (to put it mildly) are carried down the body, not soaked into the gym shirt.
