The Ultimate Skin Care Routine: Sweat
With the popularity of various skin products rising faster than the bubbles in your vitamin condensation drink, it becomes easy to wonder if there lies a cheaper means by which to keep any wrinkles at bay. Well, turns out the body might have a solution: sweat.
Benefit 1: Glowing Skin
To begin sweating, your body temperature has to rise either by external temperature, exercise, or both. When your body temperature rises, your blood circulation increases, delivering more oxygen and nutrients to the cells (including those of your skin) throughout your body. As a result, skin begins to look moisturized or even "dewy" from the increase in nutrients.
Benefit 2: Reduced Acne + Unclogged Pores
When you sweat, your pores open to release the combination of water, salt (sodium chloride), vitamins and minerals (calcium, zinc, potassium, etc.), lactic acid, and nitrogen metabolites (ammonia, urea, uric acid) that is sweat. Because the pores are opening, when sweat leaves your skin, it makes way for dirt, excess oil, toxins, and other impurities to leave as well. These toxins and dirt is a contributing cause to pimples and blemishes; sweating directly mitigates acne.
Beware: It is important to note that if you do not wipe/rinse off sweat while it is still wet on your face or other areas of your skin, sweat can lead to a "sweat pimples" as the toxins that leave the pores are re-absorbed. Excessive sweating (hyperhidrosis) is also corerlated with skin infections, ezema, and rashes.
Benefit 3: Anti-Aging
Though this may not be as relevant for teenagers and young adults, this is an important benefit to keep in mind to encourage exercise throughout adulthood: Sweating has anti-aging benefits! U.S. Dermatology Partners explains it best:
"As we age, our outer skin layers thicken and become less flexible. The inner layers of skin become thinner and lose elasticity. This leads to dry, dull-looking skin on the surface that is more likely to crease, wrinkle, and sag as the inner layers of skin lose the fullness that provided the skin its smooth, youthful appearance. Regular exercise can help to prevent and reverse these changes to skin health by changing mitochondrial DNA. Essentially, regular exercise tells the skin to behave as if it’s younger by producing more collagen, retaining moisture better, and increasing skin cell turnover rates."
In short, the benefits of exercise and sweating helps preserve skin elasticity and therefore reduces wrinkles.
Written by: Siena