In the Season to Sweat, Do Not Fear Sweating

Summer is the season to sweat, yet many people hide in air-conditioned rooms or blow fans day and night, unwilling to shed a single drop. As a result, all sorts of problems arise: arthritis, eczema, rhinitis, frozen shoulder, frequent urination, unexplained headaches, and aversion to cold—all manner of strange complaints come from fearing to sweat when one should.

Sweating has many benefits. It protects the surface skin, maintains body-temperature balance, and boosts immunity. Sweating also detoxifies and helps prevent cancer; sweat is an important excretion route for harmful substances in the body such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Sweating also burns excess caloric heat, promotes fat breakdown, and helps control weight. Normal sweating helps prevent stone formation and can lower blood pressure, blood lipids, and blood glucose.

Sweating, vomiting, and purgation are three important TCM methods of expelling pathogen. Of these, the sweating method is the most frequently used; TCM has the greatest number of formulas for inducing sweating and releasing the exterior. Traditional TCM holds that many evil pathogens can be treated through the sweating method; among the formulas in the Shanghan Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage), those with diaphoretic action account for the highest proportion.

I rarely turn on the air conditioner in summer; if I sleep with it on, my muscles and joints ache. We should indeed escape the heat, but we should still sweat a little every day to flush out various toxins and burn off surplus heat. If these are not expelled but retained inside, they will cause disease.

Some patients cannot sweat normally, and we need to help them restore normal sweating. Many problems of the body are related to sweat glands failing to function properly. The human body is an extremely refined organism; nature equipped us with sweat glands for a reason. Some of their functions we now understand, while others may still be unknown. If we artificially block the normal sweating of the sweat glands, we are acting against the laws of nature—and there is a price to pay.

Of course, excessive ease of sweating or uncontrollable sweating is also pathological and requires treatment. But there are individual differences: some people sweat a little more easily than others. As long as it does not affect normal life or reduce physical strength, it need not be taken too seriously. Only when sweating is excessive and clearly harms health do we need treatment to restore well-being.