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Tor3today at 12:47 AM2 repliesview on HN

From the article: "..promotes sweating and therefore the elimination of toxins,.."

That false statement really makes me unsure about the quality of the article. And I'm saying this as someone who uses sauna daily, when possible (I have one at home, and I grew up with saunas).

"De-toxification" by sweating is a myth. Sweat glands are very simple organs (think salt on one side, which results in pressure, i.e. osmosis) and can't do anything of the sort. You'll be much better off peeing.

Saunas probably have good health effects. I'm certainly happy as a sauna user. But there's no de-toxification in this.


Replies

Ey7NFZ3P0nzAetoday at 5:28 AM

> You'll be much better off peeing.

Actually, the rate of blood filtration by kidney glomerulae is pretty constant and independent of the amount of urine in your bladder. Except if you overflow to the point of drowning your kidney of course.

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majkinetortoday at 8:57 AM

Actually, this is why one shouldn't believe HN comments about medicine. The quality is this low.

This is simply laughable and very easily checked out. Here is one random study:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00244-010-9611-5

> Many toxic elements appeared to be preferentially excreted through sweat

Here is another quick one

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1155/2012/184745

> Sweating deserves consideration for toxic element detoxification.

Its even observable directly - just go next to the heavy smoker during exercise.

While it might be less than dedicated organs, the skin is the largest organ by far.

Ofc, the topic is debated like every single thing in medicine, but calling it a myth is nonsence.