Sweat gets a bad rap. We blame it for stink. We accuse it of staining clothes and ruining white tees, and we react in disgust when it appears. But this ill will toward perspiration is misguided. Truth is, we need sweat — we just also need the right antiperspirant like Degree Men Black + White Deodorant to fight it and protect our clothing from white marks and yellow discolorations.
When your body starts to heat up, whether it's because of exercise, work, or outside temperature, your brain reacts by releasing sweat from the more than 2.5 million eccrine glands spread out across nearly all of your body, pouring liquid through pores to lower your body temperature. But when sweat simply drips off you and hits the floor, it can't lower your body temperature. To reap the cooling effect of sweat, though, that salty liquid must evaporate off the skin and turn into a gas, says William Byrnes, a sweat expert at the University of Colorado.
TRUTH IS, WE NEED SWEAT.
Cooling sweat isn't the only type of sweat. Humans also have apocrine glands, primarily in the armpit and groin. These glands also act as scent glands—in animals, musky sweat can help attract both males and females, Byrnes says. The milky fluid from this sweat contains more nutrients, which makes it more attractive to the bacteria Staphylococcus hominis that largely resides in the armpit and groin. When these bacteria and sweat interact, we get body odor.
Like eccrine glands, these glands get activated during exercise, but apocrine glands also come alive when we get emotional, nervous, or excited. That means the most smell-inducing (and white tee-ruining) activities may not be running up a hill or playing basketball, but rather going in for a first kiss or giving an all-staff presentation.
Sweat isn't triggered by heart rate or movement, but by receptors in the hypothalamus area of the brain. Individuals living in hot and humid environments will adapt to the weather, just as people aerobically trained will sweat more and sooner. The body welcomes "adaptions that help us with heat regulation," Byrnes explains.
Because the stink of sweat doesn't come from the odorless, colorless liquid the body produces in an effort to cool the skin, but rather from contact with bacteria present on the body, we have to combat it from all angles. With this bacteria concentrated in the armpit, applying a powerful deodorant to that specific area, instead of rubbing it all over, proves the most effective way to combat B.O.
To take odor protection one step further, researchers the world over continue to study how to limit this bacteria, and companies work to mask the smell with pleasant fragrances. Degree, for example, uses tiny capsules of scent meant to break down throughout a day for freshness.
But smell definitely isn't the only problem with sweat. The yellowing of our shirts, another unpleasant side effect, is again caused not by sweat alone but by acidic chemicals in some antiperspirants as they react with sweat. Thankfully, deodorants like Degree Men Black + White Deodorant don't cause those reactions, preventing staining on your white shirts. And not only will Degree not cause those yellow stains, it'll also save your darker clothing from the unattractive white marks left by some other brands.
The next time you want to curse your perspiration, just remember: Sweat offers the body-altering benefit of keeping us from overheating, while all these ill effects like stink and pit stains come from bacteria. The moral? Leave sweat alone and instead blame bacteria—and get yourself a great deodorant to fight it.