11 Facts About Sweat That Are Kind Of Mind-Blowing

Everybody sweats, but excessive sweating can be a major problem. Talk to your doctor about hyperhidrosis.

1. Sweating doesn't actually cause pimples or acne.

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It's not the sweat itself that causes breakouts; it's not cleansing the skin properly after sweating that can clog pores, leading to zits.

2. The average person has over 2 million sweat glands on the surface of their body.

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And about 250,000 of those sweat glands are on your feet, which is why...

3. Each foot can secrete roughly a pint of sweat a day.

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The bottoms of the feet are the part of the body where the most sweat glands are concentrated: about 250,000 of them. That might explain it.

4. There's a difference between stress sweat and regular sweat.

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There are chemical differences in the perspiration you get from running around on a hot day (which is caused by the eccrine sweat glands) and the clammy sweat on your palms when you're nervous (which is released by the apocrine glands).

5. Odor from sweating isn't actually caused by sweat.

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Sweat itself is odorless; bacteria that shows up to the sweat party on your body causes the stink.

6. Your happy sweat may make other people feel happier.

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A study shows that we produce chemical compounds called chemosignals through our sweat when we experience happiness, and those chemosignals are detectable by others who can smell our sweat. Cute!

7. Sweat stains aren't really sweat stains.

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Turns out it's not your (colorless, odorless) sweat to blame for those yellowish pit stains on clothing but rather the aluminum in your antiperspirant interacting with it.

8. Though women use the same amount of sweat glands as men when working out, they generally produce less sweat than men.

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Still doesn't really explain why there needs to be gendered deodorant, but fine.

9. And the sweat of vegetarian men may be more alluring than the sweat of carnivorous men.

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Based on a study at the Charles University in Prague, women prefer the BO of guys who don't eat meat. OK!

10. Sweating way more than your body needs to is called hyperhidrosis.

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Your body automatically sweats when it needs to cool itself down; those with hyperhidrosis experience excessive sweating regardless of temperature or stimuli, which can interfere with quality of life.

11. And no other sweat is exactly like your own sweat.

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Our sweat fingerprint is unique, just like us. No two people sweat exactly the same or have the exact same kinds of sweat.

Sweating is something everyone deals with, but not everyone deals with excessive, problematic perspiration. Talk to your doctor about hyperhidrosis.