The skin is the largest organ in the body. It covers more than 20 square feet in an average adult and accounts for as much as 15% of our total body weight, more than any single internal organ. The average square inch of skin contains about 20 blood vessels, 60,000 melanocytes (which produce pigment), more than a thousand nerve endings, and 650 sweat glands. The skin has multiple functions, not the least of which is simply to hold your body together and prevent entrance of foreign objects and pathogens into the bloodstream and tissues. Often referred to as our third lung, the skin acts as an interface between our internal and the external environments as it regulates exchange processes like absorption and elimination. Skin is a semi permeable barrier through which your body can not only absorb substances but can also release them.
The skin detoxification pathway Sweating is one of the primary functions of the skin. It accomplishes both temperature regulation (cooling) and toxin removal. Your sweat is made up many different components. These include water (up to 99%), and substances like salt and other electrolytes, sugar, metabolic wastes like ammonia and urea, metals and heavy metals, and drug metabolites. Because our sweat can be as revealing as urine, sweat analysis is becoming an ever more common clinical procedure for detecting a multitude of substances in the body.
Sweat in humans is produced by two types of glands. The eccrine sweat glands are present over the entire surface of our bodies and are especially concentrated on the palms of our hands, soles of the feet, and the forehead. They produce sweat composed mostly of water and salts. Apocrine sweat glands are predominant in the armpits and genital area. Apocrine sweat contains protein and fatty materials and is the source of the sweat odor which is caused by bacterial breakdown of organic compounds.
When sweat glands are stimulated to increase production, they secrete a substance (sweat) which is synthesized from the fluid which fills the spaces between our body‘s cells (the interstitial spaces). This fluid comes from blood plasma leaked into the tissues by capillaries. Any circulating toxins present in the blood system are carried into the interstitial spaces along with the plasma. In this way toxins make their way into sweat, which is a filtrate of the plasma. Heat stress and exertional activities speed up the circulation of blood and thus accelerate the release of fluid into the interstitial spaces. This in turn prompts sweat glands to produce more toxin-laden sweat.
Most people living in modern times do not sweat very much. Lack of adequate exercise, the prevalence of climate control technology at home and in the workplace, and the non-physical nature of most jobs contribute to minimal sweating. Unfortunately, decreased sweating means decreased toxin removal.
Nenah Sylver, Ph.D., in her book The Holistic Handbook of Sauna Therapy, cites several published scientific studies which illustrate the ability of the body to detoxify via sweat production. For example, from her book we know that nickel, mercury, and cadmium are eliminated more effectively through sweat than through urine. Also, people with known chemical exposure who have symptoms of peripheral neuropathy and/or multiple sclerosis can obtain between 90 and 99% reduction of symptoms through the skin detoxification pathway.
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