To maintain good health in summer, you must learn to protect your sweat glands

The skin covering the entire body is a natural barrier that protects the body. There are approximately 2 to 5 million sweat glands on the skin. The apocrine sweat glands are located in the armpits, nipples and near the hair roots of the pubic area; the eccrine sweat glands are densely distributed all over the skin. Sweat glands are important for regulating body temperature. In the hot summer, the body dissipates heat mainly through the sweat glands. When the temperature rises to 30℃, the sweat glands begin to secrete sweat. When the temperature is higher than 35℃, people sweat more. Some people have calculated that when a person works in a high temperature and high humidity environment, he can secrete 6000-8000 ml of sweat in a day and night, and take away 3480-4800 kcal of calories. If there is a problem with a person's sweat glands, such as sweat glands being destroyed due to large-area burns, or sweat glands malfunctioning for other reasons, excess heat in the body cannot be discharged, affecting health. When the ambient temperature is higher than 35℃, the body temperature will rise. When the body temperature exceeds 41℃, the heat in the body has nowhere to dissipate and will cause damage to some cells. The body temperature regulation center will lose its regulatory ability. If the body temperature reaches 43℃, a person will die within a few hours.

You see, sweat glands are closely related to health. So, how can we ensure the normal function of sweat glands in summer?

1. Preventing sweat gland fatigue is the key

99% of the sweat secreted by sweat glands is water, and the rest is sodium chloride, potassium chloride, water-soluble vitamins and urea. It is hot in the summer and people sweat too much, so more of these substances are lost, especially sodium. Sodium can "command the sailors", but if too much sodium is lost, it will be unable to "command the sailors" and the sweat glands will continuously secrete sweat. If salt is not replenished in time, the sweat glands will become fatigued over time, affecting their normal functions. Lack of salt in the body and excessive water loss will cause an imbalance in water and electrolytes, and the body's temperature regulation center will also fail, leading to heatstroke, which can be life-threatening in severe cases. Therefore, in summer, we should pay attention to dietary nutrition, allocate meals reasonably, and replenish salt in time. Eat fresh vegetables and fruits regularly to supplement vitamins and minerals. Drink small amounts of lightly salted boiled water or heat-clearing and heat-preventing beverages several times during or after work; watermelon is a great summer heat-relief product and is known as the "natural white tiger soup", and eating some every day is very beneficial. At the same time, we should do a good job in labor protection, do a good job in preventing heatstroke and cooling down the working environment, and try to reduce sweating. This way, you can prevent sweat gland fatigue.

2. Pay attention to skin hygiene

In summer, exposed skin gets dirty very easily. If you do not pay attention to hygiene, dust and dirt can easily clog your sweat pores and affect the excretion of sweat. It can not only easily cause inflammation of the stratum corneum of the sweat pores, but also cause the sweat ducts to rupture and form prickly heat. If bacteria invade and infection occurs, it will turn into prickly heat or carbuncle. Therefore, you should take a bath regularly to keep your skin clean and keep the sweat gland ducts unobstructed. But bathing requires science. Some people, sweating profusely, often jump into a pond or river to take a bath after working or doing strenuous exercise; some people rush into the tap water to get a momentary relief. This practice does more harm than good. Because the body produces more heat during labor or exercise, body temperature rises, and the sweat glands and subcutaneous blood vessels in the skin expand. If you suddenly jump into cold water, the cold stimulation will cause the subcutaneous blood vessels to constrict and the sweat pores to be blocked, which will not only cause prickly heat but also make you very likely to catch a cold, acute joint pain and other diseases, and in severe cases cause limb paralysis. Therefore, you should rest for half an hour and wait for the sweat to subside before taking a bath or shower, preferably with warm water.

3. Regularly participate in physical exercise and "three baths"

That is, air sunbathing and cold water bathing as well as other forms of exercise can increase the body's heat resistance, improve the body's skin resistance and adaptability to the environment, enhance the function of sweat glands, secrete sweat normally, regulate body temperature, protect body health, and happily spend the hottest summer.