Health

How To Remove Heat From The Body

Archive The skin is the largest sensory organ in the human body and measures just under two square meters. It protects the body and ensures that it does not overheat. Responsible for this are around two million tiny glands that are distributed over the surface of the body and secrete sweat as needed. When it gets hot, the body sweats especially. (dpa / picture alliance / Sebastian Kahnert) A wellness facility somewhere in Germany. Relaxation pools, splashing waterfalls, saunas. “First of all, one distinguishes between two types of saunas. First, the Finnish sauna, which provides heat to the body at a humidity of five to fifteen percent and a room temperature of 80 to 110 degrees Celsius. And secondly, the Roman steam bath, in which air saturated with water vapor at a temperature of 40 to 50 degrees with a humidity of 100 percent supplies heat to the body,” says Dr. Jürgen Ramacher, a sports physician in Leverkusen. Regardless of the type of sauna, one effect is the same for all of them: The body dissipates heat so that the organs do not suffer any damage. In return, it stimulates blood circulation, and if that’s not enough – which is likely – it activates sweat production. “Women have fewer sweat glands, 1.8 million, while men have more sweat glands, approximately 2.5 million,” explains Dr. Jan Hundgeburth, a dermatologist in Frechen near Cologne. Doctors distinguish between two types of sweat glands: eccrine and apocrine. Eccrine glands are distributed throughout the body and provide temperature regulation by removing heat from the body as the sweat they produce evaporates. In extreme cases, eccrine glands secrete two to four liters of sweat per hour. A person loses 200 milliliters of sweat per day Without physical exertion in a moderately warm environment, people lose about 200 milliliters of sweat per day. “This is 99 percent water, but it contains many minerals, which is why sweat tastes so salty, and in smaller quantities it also contains hormones and fragrances, depending on where the sweat gland is located,” says dermatologist Hundgeburth. Apocrine sweat glands are located exclusively in the armpit and genital regions as well as on the nipples, where they produce fragrances. The milky secretion contains proteins and lipids, and its pH is also almost neutral. In contrast, the sweat of eccrine glands creates an acidic environment on the skin surface. In an intact acid mantle, undesirable and harmful bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microorganisms cannot multiply and invade the body. Without the acidic environment, the skin surface would be the ideal breeding ground for germs that thrive in alkaline environments. By the way, sweating does not have one commonly assumed function: sweat does not remove pollutants. “No, actually it is not, it is not that sweating serves a slag removal. The body’s mineral balance is mainly regulated by the kidneys, but minerals are also excreted through sweat, but it’s not an excretion of toxins,” explains Jan Hundgeburth. Sweating regulates body temperature and ensures a healthy skin surface – a process controlled by the brain. Hundgeburth: “This works via the autonomic nervous system, which then stimulates the sweat glands to produce when the temperature rises. When the temperature drops again, sweat production is curbed again.” No life without sweat Sweating is important for humans – without sweat, no life. It’s just stupid that this protective function gets out of hand now and then. As in the case of this woman, who has been sweating for years, especially under her armpits: “It started slowly, you didn’t even notice it at first. You sweat a little bit and don’t worry about it, you just put a little more effort into it. It’s also only noticed when it really just ran down like water. It’s also a little embarrassing sometimes. You watch what you wear so that you don’t have these sweat marks. It’s very distressing when you have that.” Hyperhidrosis, the medical term for abnormal sweating, is a torment in everyday life. However, the reverse case is far more burdensome and a health concern: sweat does not occur. Doctors refer to this as Ross syndrome. Such people have to compensate for their temperature themselves, either in cool rooms or in the shower. There are no therapies. This is in contrast to hyperhidrosis, which is pathological sweating. Drugstores and pharmacies offer a wide range of deodorants and other products – some of which, unfortunately, have little effect. There are remedies for pathological sweating In case of doubt, however, the dermatologist can help. Popular is the use of botulinum toxin A – known under the trade name Botox – which is often used in cosmetics against small wrinkles. “This is a solution of botulinum toxin, of which I inject a drop into the skin every two centimeters. This drug acts at the junction of the nerves of the autonomic nervous system on the sweat gland. A synapse is blocked and as a result there is no more stimulation of the sweat gland. Then the sweat gland also stops producing sweat. It takes about six months for the effect to be lost again,” explains Hundgeburth. The only disadvantage is that the treatment is not pleasant, says Jan Hundgeburth’s patient: “Well, it has to be said that it is very unpleasant and minimally painful, but it is bearable. It is pain that can be endured. The treatment takes five minutes, so it’s over very quickly.”

  • Are we burning ourselves out? In the South, everyone has actually known it all along! “Siesta”, from 12 – 4 pm. Or do you know anyone who finds physical exertion particularly “cool” in a heat of over 30 degrees Celsius?Why? Over 70 percent of human heat production is developed in the muscle during movement. The longer and the more intensively it is moved, the more excess heat is produced. In addition, there are other processes in the body and then, of course, high temperatures from the outside with exposure to the sun, etc.. The body must first be able to absorb these temperatures, process them and release them to the environment so that there is no increase in heat or temperature in the body. If the organism then runs really “hot”, the heat thus generated can often no longer be completely compensated for by sweating. But certain illnesses or their symptoms also worsen or contribute to the heat problem. To protect itself from overheating, the body therefore reduces its output from a certain point onwards. The critical value is at a core body temperature of about 38.5 degrees Celsius. The human thermoregulation system can compensate for higher temperature differences. However, this is only possible with a high heart rate and changes in other performance-dependent body parameters. This is why, in hot weather, people feel listless and exhausted from the 2nd half of the day or in the evening at the latest. Humans have four different mechanisms for releasing internal body heat into the environment: Conduction – Convection – Radiation – Evaporation.
    • When there is direct contact between the skin and a material (liquid or solid), heat conduction occurs.
    • Heat convection (heat flow) is the transport of heat energy. This takes place in the thin layer of air above the skin.
    • Long-wave infrared radiation emanates from the skin. Heat emission by radiation occurs when the body absorbs less radiation than it emits. The amount of heat emitted by radiation increases as the skin temperature increases.
    • Evaporative heat release occurs when the body’s own sweat or externally supplied water evaporates from the surface of the skin. This evaporative cooling cools the skin and subsequently the body.

    Of all these heat dissipation mechanisms, the fourth and thus last option predominates by far. This is also the most effective: THE SWEAT EVAPORATION Through this mechanism, the most heat can be released, since evaporative cooling is physically created by the evaporation of sweat on the skin, thus cooling the body. In addition, the lungs also help in this process. The body’s goal is always to remain in the optimal temperature range of 37 degrees Celsius core body temperature – this is when it is most efficient, as all processes in the body function best at this temperature. Everyone knows that at 38 degrees Celsius you don’t really feel well anymore and at 39 degrees you have a fever and stay in bed. One does not even like to think about 40 degrees and more. Nevertheless, this is also possible in many people with pre-existing conditions, and that is why it is so dangerous. DID YOU KNOW? That there are people who cannot sweat at all? There are people who have no or hardly any sweat glands, as in the case of the hereditary disease ectodermal dysplasia. In addition, sweating is no longer possible in people with paraplegia that occurred relatively far up (quadriplegics). Therefore, these groups of people can hardly tolerate heat, and their body temperature reaches fever temperatures relatively quickly. The sweating process itself begins at around 25 degrees Celsius skin temperature: The sweat, which does not drip off but remains on the surface of the body, evaporates. This physically creates what is known as “evaporative cooling”. The evaporation of one liter of sweat extracts a heat energy of about 500 kcal from the body. The body must react with various processes and expend energy to stabilize the body temperature. Another problem is that during intense exercise, especially exercise that is completed in high ambient temperatures, with air-tight clothing or even high humidity, the body’s own heat dissipation or cooling is not sufficient to stabilize the body temperature. Drinking alone is also often insufficient. While drinking enough prevents the risk of dehydration, it does not stop the sweating process. It also keeps the heart rate high. DID YOU KNOW? That too much fluid can also lead to negative consequences, such as edema, and that muscular cramps can occur even at an outside temperature of 21 degrees Celsius? Scientific publications show that even too much water can be dangerous to health. – The Institute for the World Economy has calculated: Work productivity decreases by up to 12 percent on heat days. – Every year, nearly 25,000 people are hospitalized for heat-related ailments. – 25 percent of firefighter accidents in the U.S. are caused by heat stress. – Heat injuries, such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, sunstroke, etc., occur more frequently under conditions of high ambient temperatures or conditions that impair heat dissipation (high temperatures and high humidity) than under lower ambient temperatures. WHAT TO DO? External heat protection is needed. This can be easily visualized by taking body temperature measurements. Then body cooling measures are doubly useful. Adequate cooling can reduce these heat-related negative phenomena. In particular, cooling by means of a cooling vest or cooling shirt conserves the body’s own water reserves because the water stored in the vest or shirt evaporates and thus contributes to evaporative cooling. Thus, if the temperature of the body periphery or skin is reduced by cooling, the temperature gradient increases and the faster the temperature existing inside the body is released to the outside. When cooling, e.g. by means of a cooling vest, there is also no risk of hypothermia of the skin, since heat is transported from the inside of the body to the outside. Note that this temperature flow can also take place in the opposite direction and that is when conditions prevail in which the outside temperature or the ambient temperature is correspondingly high. As the outside temperature and skin temperature rise, the core body temperature continues to rise. This can then lead to dangerous overheating and extremely unhealthy effects, such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion or heat stroke with fatal consequences. This does not have to be the case. Because E.COOLINE cooling clothing protects against the health effects of heat.

How To Remove Heat From The Body.




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