--- title: Excessive Sweating and Exercise: Is It Healthy to Sweat A Lot? description: If you’re hot, perspiration is normal—even lots of it. But there are other times when excessive sweating could be cause for concern. canonical: https://time.com/3947804/sweating-healthy/ author: Markham Heid article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-08T14:02:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:42:21.830Z article:section: Health og:title: You Asked: Is It Healthy to Sweat A Lot? og:description: If you’re hot, perspiration is normal—even lots of it. But there are other times when excessive sweating could be cause for concern. og:url: https://time.com/3947804/sweating-healthy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb9b53cd2f9c64a33/69885a063c1639733a458bac/sweat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2650 og:image:height: 1491 og:image:alt: sweat og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: You Asked: Is It Healthy to Sweat A Lot? twitter:description: If you’re hot, perspiration is normal—even lots of it. But there are other times when excessive sweating could be cause for concern. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb9b53cd2f9c64a33/69885a063c1639733a458bac/sweat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # You Asked: Is It Healthy to Sweat A Lot? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: We Tried This: Aerial Vinyasa Yoga [Watch (HLS stream): We Tried This: Aerial Vinyasa Yoga](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/68PN7sJl.m3u8) (1:28)  _Published 2012-08-20. A total body workout while you hang from a hammock._ by [Markham Heid](https://time.com/author/markham-heid/) ## Markham Heid Markham Heid is a contributor at TIME. He is the author of The Habit Trap, due out in early 2027. Jul 8, 2015 2:02 PM UTC  Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME by [Markham Heid](https://time.com/author/markham-heid/) ## Markham Heid Markham Heid is a contributor at TIME. He is the author of The Habit Trap, due out in early 2027. Jul 8, 2015 2:02 PM UTC Here’s the tricky thing about using sweat as a barometer for health: “A lot of it comes down to biological variation,” says Dr. Craig Crandall, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Crandall says if you examined two people—same height, sex and build—one might produce twice the volume of perspiration as the other. “It could just be one person has more sweat glands,” he explains. “Everybody’s baseline is different, so it’s hard to say what amount of sweat is ‘healthy’.” Still, patterns emerge when you look at big groups of people. [A 2010 study](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20696786) from Japan examined how fit men and women sweat in response to exercise, and compared their sweating rates to those of unfit people. Fit people not only perspire more, but they also start sweating sooner during exercise, says study coauthor Dr. Yoshimitsu Inoue of Osaka International University. Men also tend to sweat more than women, Inoue says. Crandall says the differences between fit and unfit people has to do with each person’s capacity for heat generation. “A high fitness level allows you to exercise at a higher workload, which generates more heat, which in turn leads to more sweat,” he explains. He says men tend to sweat more than women for the same reason overweight or obese adults often sweat more than thin people: Their bodies are larger, which leads to greater heat generation during activity. Crandall’s own research has found people sweat more after spending time in hot climates. “An athlete training here in Texas versus someone up in Montana may sweat differently in the same conditions,” he says. “Their bodies adapt in response to hot or humid environments.” So sweat is complicated. But most of the research suggests perspiring in response to heat or exercise—whether you sweat a little or a lot—doesn’t mean much about your health. Of course, there are other forms of sweat that have nothing to do with heat regulation. People sweat when they’re nervous, and Crandall says nervous sweat tends to come from different glands than exercise- or heat-induced sweat. “The sweat glands that are sensitive to emotions are mostly under the arms, in the palms, and in the soles of the feet,” he says. While that’s unfortunate for nervous sweaters, there’s no evidence that people who sweat a lot due to worry are less healthy than those who aren’t as emotionally sweaty. There’s also a condition called _hyperhidrosis_, which is excessive sweating either all over your body or in one particular area, such as your palms or pits. Excessive means up to four or five times what most people would sweat, says Dr. Adam Friedman, a dermatologist and residency program director at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences. While the cause of this pernicious perspiration is often not identifiable, it can stem from an infection or illness, certain medications or an underlying endocrine condition like thyroid disease, Friedman says. Because of these links to health concerns, he says people who sweat all the time, day and night, should speak with a doctor. Regardless of how much you perspire, exactly _what_ you’re perspiring doesn’t vary much from person to person. Crandall says, “Sweat is basically water, sodium chloride, and potassium”—all of which you have to replenish after sweating heavily, he says. And no, despite what you may have heard from the detox circuit, sweating does not rid your body of “toxins”. “It’s not like parts of the junk food you ate are going to escape through your sweat,” Crandall says. “There’s just no evidence of that.” ### You Asked: Your Top 10 Health Questions Answered  You Asked: Are Cleanses Healthy? Potions that claim to clear your body of toxins might sound alluring, but do they deliver? Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Is Eating Dessert Really That Bad For Me? Bad news for sweet-eaters—except if you end your meals with this kind of treat. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: What’s the Best Way to Whiten My Teeth? Yes, teeth whitening actually works—but here's why you have to dish out major bucks to see results. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Is Meditation Really Worth It? From easing stress to lowering heart disease risk, focusing your mind can do some amazing things for your body. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: What’s the Healthiest Sweetener? Take a taste of the unsettled science of sweeteners. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Should I Go Paleo? The pros and cons of eating like a caveman. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Is Cracking Your Knuckles Bad? Here's what really happens to your joints when you snap, crackle and pop. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Is Running on a Treadmill as Good as Running Outside? You'll fool your body into thinking it's outside with this one small treadmill tweak. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Does Laughing Have Real Health Benefits? Here's proof that everybody could use a belly laugh. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: What Is My Poo Telling Me? If you listen hard enough, you'll hear all kinds of health stories from #2. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] This is Aerial Vinasa. Using the strength of your thighs to control. A type of fusion yoga that combines traditional Vinyasa Yoga, with the art of aerial dance. [ MUSIC ] One of the things about the hammocks is that you're gonna be using muscles in different ways than you would in your regular Vinyasa class. And exhale right. I'm Alexandra Sifferlin for Time. I decided to visit the OM Factory in Manhattan, and see how these hammocks add to the yoga experience. So say for a warrior three pose, right, which is usually a challenge for a lot of people. So with the hammocks we can actually use it as a tool to stabilize the upper body and that way we can work on squaring the hips towards the ground. This fusion still maintains the basic elements of Vinyasa Yoga, letting your breath guide the movement. And as you exhale, just release, sink into the fabric and let it help you stretch. The result is better controlled movements as you strengthen your core muscles. Pull yourself all the way up to stand. And as I discovered, using a hammock adds one very important element to a yoga class. In a regular yoga class sometimes you forget to have fun and to smile, and the hammock really brings out the kid, in, in the yogi. You guys are troopers. I like it. 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