Did you sweat out the toxins today?

"Sweating is your body's natural way of eliminating toxins".

If you have been running in the health circles, you will not be a stranger to this statement. Let's debug this with a simple question. Does your sweat contain toxins? The simple answer is, Yes! 



Your sweat has 99% water combined with small amounts of protein, fatty acids, carbohydrates, urea and negligible amounts of various environmental pollutants aka toxic substances. If you were to do 30-45 minutes of high-intensity workout every day, you will sweat about two litres a day. That's not enough to get rid of even 1% of toxic substances from your body. Sweating them out is not going to improve your health in any way. 



When your body gets overheated, your brain reacts to it by releasing sweat and cools it down. Some of the sweat is evaporated and the rest drips off. Toxic substances such as mercury, alcohol and others are eliminated by your kidney, liver and intestines. Sweating will not offer any kind of cleansing or detox benefit. In fact, studies suggest that by forcing your body to sweat by exposing it to heat can make your kidneys save water and retain any toxins that may be circulating in your body. There isn't much any of us could do besides observing a healthy diet and keeping ourselves active. It's better to leave the rest to the body and allow it to do its thing.

Please don't buy into this detox myth as there is no scientific merit to any of it. Please share your experience in the comments below so that others could benefit from it.