Are there any health benefits from sweating more during a workout? Does it matter whether sweat is induced by heat or exercise?

“There’s this entrenched idea that it’s good to ‘sweat things out,’” said Oliver Jay, an associate professor of exercise physiology and director of the Thermal Ergonomics Laboratory at the University of Ottawa in Canada - and that sweating heavily during exercise is healthier than “glowing.”

But in fact, “sweating, per se, provides no health benefits,” Jay said, apart from preventing overheating. The benefits derive from the exercise, and the more intense, generally, the greater the health benefits.

Core temperature rises during prolonged, vigorous activity, and the body must shed that heat. It does so in large part by sweating. The more vigorously you exert yourself, the more you must sweat. Such strenuous exercise improves health through many different physiological mechanisms.

Perspiring does not provide or amplify the effects, Jay said.

That situation does not change if you are sweating because of a hot environment. “Sweat is sweat,” he said.

You will perspire more if the air is humid, he said, because sweat does not evaporate efficiently in humidity, and it is evaporation that cools your body. You are not gaining extra health benefits from drenching your clothing with perspiration; you are only ensuring that you will need to sip from your water bottle more often to avoid losing too much fluid.

ActiveStyle, Pages 25 on 01/20/2014