Sweating Out Toxins?

We are all toxic. Period. Breast milk, fetal core blood, meconium all contain toxins, and lots of them.

“Commercial chemical production has risen from 1 million tons in 1930 to 400 million tons in 2001. As of 2012 the number of industrial chemicals on the global market was estimated to be around 143,835.”
-Bijlsma et al. 2016

Think it is all pseudoscience bullshit and that the cumulative effect of these compounds doesn’t matter, read the 150 page report from the Endocrine Society’s 2015 Scientific Statement on Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals.

“Significant mixture effects are observed when chemicals are combined at concentrations that individually do not induce observable androgen receptor antagonistic effects.”
-Otron et al. 2014

Saunas seem to have spiked in popularity of late and I really really love when people do science math and argue in peer-reviewed journals.

“We have previously reported that the total POPs concentration derived from the sum of PCBs and organochlorine pesticides in individuals with obesity is approximately of 600 μg/kg lipids. Knowing that clean sweat, e.g. with no epidermal contamination, contained 0.08 μg/mL of lipids, it is estimated that 4.8 × 10−8 μg of POPs would be contained per ml of clean sweat. An individual losing 1 L of sweat per day (double the mean rate of insensible or perceived perspiration) would eliminate approximately 4.8 × 10−5 μg of POPs. Based on the occurrence of non-dioxin-like PCBs in food products consumed in The Netherlands that were collected in measurement programs carried out during 1998 and 1999, reported that the estimated median lifelong-averaged intake of the measured PCBs was 5.6 ng per kilogram body weight per day. This would correspond to an estimated daily ingestion of 0.392 μg of PCBs for an individual of 70 kg. If one assumes an additional 1 L per day of sweat loss during physical activity, the total amount of POPs excretion via sweating would amount to 9.6 × 10−5 μg per day; corresponding to less than 0.024% of daily PCBs intake…based on our estimates, POPs excretion via sweat is negligible.”
-Imbeault et al. 2018

“Induced perspiration does not seem to hasten the clearance of any of the common PFCs (perfluorinated compounds)—PFHxS (perfluorohexane sulfonate), PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate), or PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid)—from the human body. Induced perspiration does appear to hasten the elimination of some, but not all, PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) congeners from the human body.”
-Genius et al. 2013

So are saunas bullshit?

Maybe for lipophilic POPs, but before we drop the hammer, it looks like there is a lot more math to do.

“Sweating deserves consideration for toxic element detoxification.”
Sears et al. 2012

“DDT, DDE, DDD, methoxychlor, endosulfan sulfate, and endrin appear to be readily excreted into sweat, induced perspiration appears to be a potential clinical tool to diminish the body burden of these agents.”
-Genius et al. 2016

“Some parent phthalate compounds and metabolites appear to be readily excreted in sweat; others do not.”
-Genius et al. 2012

“Induced sweating appears to be a clinically useful tool to facilitate the release of BPA through the skin in order to eliminate this toxicant from the human body.”
-Genius et al. 2011

A lot of these resources were pulled from Dr. Bryan Walsh’s detox presentation last month in the Jungle. He has an online course on the topic as well.