"Do you like to sweat?" may be a pick-up line to some people, but many athletes pose this question to other people when they are trying to learn whether those people like to exercise -- because sweating is inescapable with exercise.
The apocrine and merocrine forms of sweat glands, which are also known as sudoriferous glands, play a key role in letting your body cool itself. (Mammary glands, which produce milk, and ceruminous glands, which produce ear wax, are often considered to be modified sweat glands.)
Apocrine sweat glands:
are found in the armpits, around the nipples, and in the groin;
release their secretions into the hair follicles in these areas;
do not begin secreting until puberty;
are stimulated for secretion by the blood-borne hormone adrenaline.
Merocrine sweat glands:
are smaller than apocrine sweat glands;
are found just below the surface of the skin all over the body;
are found in highest density on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet;
release their secretions directly onto the skin;
are stimulated for secretion by hormones and by the autonomic nervous system.
Both of these forms of sweat glands contain myoepithelial cells, the contractions of which (Yes, that is "myo" as in muscle.) squeeze the glands to cause discharge of the secretions that have accumulated in the sweat glands.
Merocrine sweat glands are the ones that produce the secretion known as sweat, which is derived from blood plasma and therefore contains water and electrolytes (mostly sodium chloride). And sweat essentially works like an evaporative cooler to cool the skin in even a small wind -- such as the wind that you create by running.
All of this means:
The merocrine sweat glands are absolutely essential to your body's thermoregulation during and after a run in hot weather.
Drying your sweaty skin with a towel reduces or eliminates your sweat's ability to cool your body.
Controlling for temperature, your sweating in high relative humidity is less efficient at cooling your body than is your sweating in low relative humidity.
So what about gratitude? Well, the Law of Attraction reveals itself to us when we meet people who appreciate everything that they have in life, including their own bodies, for they are the people who attract more things for which to feel gratitude, too. And sweat glands, once you understand what they do, are a wonder of nature for which it is worth feeling gratitude, especially if you are a runner.
Here are some statements of gratitude for this part of your body:
I am truly grateful for how quickly my sweat glands secrete sweat when I run.
I deeply appreciate the evaporative-cooling function of my sweat.
I love how these glands protect me from overheating.
I am thankful that these glands secrete sweat even during especially humid runs.
Extend this list with your own statements. Then read it daily or weekly and pause after reading each statement to dwell on the positive emotions that you associate with that statement. This is yet another way to leverage the Law of Attraction to your benefit as a runner.
Author Resource:-
Kirk Mahoney, Ph.D., loves to walk and run, and his SpryFeet.com website provides practical research for runners and walkers. By going to http://www.SpryFeet.com/Reports/, you can get his FREE "Pace Tables for Runners and Walkers" special report, letting you look up paces needed to complete several different race distances within given durations and for different micro-level-pacing methods.
(c) Copyright - Kirk Mahoney, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
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