Sweat and temperature regulation

In short: Sweating is the body’s most important mechanism for keeping core temperature stable during heat or exertion. Evaporating sweat on the skin draws heat away from the body.

In more detail: The brain detects deviations from about 37 degrees via temperature sensors in the skin and hypothalamus, and controls sweat glands, blood vessels, and breathing accordingly.

In detail

• Sweat glands: Millions of eccrine glands spread across the whole body produce a watery, nearly odorless sweat.
• Evaporative cooling: Only evaporating, not dripping, sweat cools effectively; high humidity makes this harder.
• Blood flow: In heat, skin vessels widen to release heat outward; in cold, they constrict.
• Electrolyte loss: Sweat carries away salts like sodium and potassium, important to replace during heavy sweating.
• Hormonal sweating: Stress and nervousness additionally activate apocrine glands, whose secretion smells stronger.
• Fever: During infections, the body’s temperature set point is deliberately raised, often followed by heavy sweating (immunsystem-grundlagen).
• Acclimatization: Over days, the body adapts to heat and sweats more efficiently with less salt loss (blut-zusammensetzung-und-aufgaben).