The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration

by Sarah Everts

Sweating may be one of our weirdest biological functions, but it’s also one of our most vital and least understood. In The Joy of Sweat, Sarah Everts delves into its role in the body—and in human history.

Why is sweat salty? Why do we sweat when stressed? Why do some people produce colorful sweat? And should we worry about Big Brother tracking the hundreds of molecules that leak out in our sweat—not just the stinky ones or alleged pheromones—but the ones that reveal secrets about our health and vices?

Everts’s entertaining investigation takes readers around the world—from Moscow, where she participates in a dating event in which people sniff sweat in search of love, to New Jersey, where companies hire trained armpit sniffers to assess the efficacy of their anti-sweat products. In Finland, Everts explores the delights of the legendary smoke sauna and the purported health benefits of good sweat, while in the Netherlands she slips into the sauna theater scene, replete with costumes, special effects, and towel dancing.

Along the way, Everts traces humanity’s long quest to control sweat, culminating in the multi-billion-dollar industry for deodorants and antiperspirants. And she shows that while sweating can be annoying, our sophisticated temperature control strategy is one of humanity’s most powerful biological traits. Deeply researched and written with great zest, The Joy of Sweat is a fresh take on a gross but engrossing fact of human life.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Health, History, Medical, Medicine

304 pages, Hardcover

First published July 21, 2021

Reviews

[Olive Fellows (abookolive) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at the science of sweat as well as the complex relationship we humans have with perspiration. On one hand, we love it: we don't feel like we get a good workout without starting to glisten and we hit up the sauna to get our relaxing sweat on. But then, on the other hand, we hate it: we cumulatively spend billions of dollars on antiperspirants and deodorants and feel shame if we sweat too much, even though sweat is an essential part of being human.

I loved the humor and curiosity with which Everts takes on this topic. I learned a ton and had a great time doing it.

Click here to hear more of my thoughts on this book over on my Booktube channel, abookolive!

[Left Coast Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know what's happened to me.

Before becoming engaged with Goodreads, 90+% of my reading was books like this one -- obscure-but-interesting topics written by scientists, physicians or science writers. Somehow I've been distracted off the scent by the infinite number of worthwhile fiction books out there and moved out of my comfort zone.

Sarah Everts made me comfortable.

Who knew that sweat could be so interesting? Can you imagine waking up one day and finding green, blue or red fluid trickling down your torso (chromohidosis)? Or have you ever been, or known, somebody who's hands and face are literally dripping nearly all of the time (hyperhidosis)? This latter group in particular deserves our pity, in that they are perfectly healthy and there's nothing really wrong with them, but one can imagine that in our hypersterilized society they're treated like lepers.

Did you know vultures shit all over themselves to cool off?

Sarah Everts on Sarah Everts:

During hot yoga, I surreptitiously peer at my neighbors' mats, looking for evidence that others are also dripping sweat on their mats when I should be focusing on my own downward dog. The utter absurdity of this scene--someone obsessing about their own perspiration during an intentionally sweaty activity that is ultimately supposed to leave one calm and grounded--is not lost on me.

Sarah Everts on people in general:

To borrow from the wine-tasting world, there a "top note" in human body odor. This dominant aroma is present in most of our perspiration; it's a stink we all have. In 1992, Preti and his colleagues discovered that the top note is a molecule called trans-3-methyl-2-hexanoic acid; most people describe it it as having a rather rancid goat-like stench with a hint of stinky cheese.

I love you too.

There were a few sections of this book that failed to enthrall -- a sort of speed-dating event in Russia in which people were paired off after anonymously sniffing one another's odors was surprisingly flat -- but Everts was wise enough to end the book after she'd run out of interesting things to say. You'd think that would be standard writerly behavior, but the evidence of the last few nonfiction books I've read does not support that.

This was fun.

Thanks to carol. for alerting me to this one

[Jesse Keljo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hate sweating? This book will help you come to terms with this amazing biological imperative and maybe, just maybe, even to have some love for it. The chapter on saunas was a highlight for me since I grew up with them, but every chapter brought to light things I didn’t know or hadn’t thought of, giving me a new appreciation for perspiration. The audiobook was well-performed so give it a shot if that’s how you prefer to read.

[Cade · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is boring. I say that as a man who had read and enjoyed books about sand, rust, and pencils. I say that as a man who read a thousand page college textbook about dinosaurs cover to cover.

That alone isn't enough to give this book one star as there are still interesting tidbits. The one star is for actually irritating me with the writing style. The things the author thinks are important or interesting or piquant are just not the things I find to be such. This book is extremely reminiscent of Mary Roach books in almost every way except with much lower quality of execution. If you like Mary Roach and have low standards, read this immediately.

[Betsy Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love learning how my body works, so this book was fascinating. Author Sarah Everts investigates every aspect of sweat and sweat-contiguous subjects, not all of which interested me, so I skimmed or skipped certain parts. For instance, a long history of saunas, the section on various devices to monitor health through analysis of sweat, a whole chapter on perfume, and several other sections. However, when she spent time on smell—of course relating it to sweat because smelling is how we receive the information—I was mesmerized. Likewise, a chapter on an “odor artist” who recreates smells of historical places and times and conditions. My interest went in and out in the chapter on deodorants. My mother was a copywriter and used to say if you could get people to believe advertising, you could control what they think. The marketing of deodorants and antiperspirants is a case in point; it played on people’s insecurities and thereby created a market (one that I have no doubt is expanding with the recent tsunami of advertising for a host of new whole-body deodorant products for places most people never thought of as requiring such a thing).

I’m convinced that my olfactory system has more in common with canines than humans, and after reading about it here, I suspect I simply have more receptors in my nose than the average human, and so I loved reading about smells of diseases (I can smell cancer, etc.), and other things that dogs pick up when tracking smells. I loved learning there is a job for people with my ability: sensory analysts who test all kinds of things.

Everts writes as a journalist, telling first-person stories about her research trips and adventures (nude group theater-watching in a sauna!), and it’s entertaining.

I recommend this book to people who are excited by learning about body functions. Squeamish people will most likely be turned off.

[Mehtap exotiquetv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die Sonne scheint und auf der Stirn machen sich ein paar Schweißperlen aufmerksam.
Doch warum? Welchen Vorteil bringt es? Und wie funktioniert dieser Mechanismus? In diesem spannenden Buch erzählt Sarah Everts nicht nur das wie, sondern auch das warum. Der erste Teil des Buches war aus wissenschaftlicher Perspektive sehr spannend.
Im zweiten Teil ist der wissenschaftliche Part sehr schnell abgeflacht und dann ging es eher um Sauna Grandprix, wo Menschen in der Sauna musikalisch performen oder über die Moleküle an unseren Fingerspitzen.

[Gretchen Rubin]

A fascinating look at a very common aspect of life.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, I have hardly ever thought about sweat and now it lives rent free in my mind because of this book. This is on my re-read list.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable little popular science book on a unique subject. It is a bit misleading however in so much as it is not a book purely about perspiration but is also very much about odor and how us as humans deal with both. Those topics mixed with a bit of travel log and you have this book in a nutshell.

A fun little rabbit hole of book that is well written and engaging on a topic not discussed very often.

[Fornia · Rating 4 out of 5]

good solid fun pop-science reading! even if i winced every time something got a Little too close to something i'd learned in one of my classes lol

[Jason McCracken · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is decent and the author clearly enjoys her subject but the only thing I really learnt is that I couldn't read more than a quarter of this book before realising i just didn't care enough about sweat to read more than 100 pages on the subject 😏

[Hom Sack · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful read. I don't know about "joy", but who knew how interesting sweat is. Topics like these reminds me of the books by Mary Roach.

[SY NA · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books that starts out very strongly on subject and then meanders through all related topics that are so tangentially related to the original topic that you have to go "really?". The book starts out with the story of a nurse that sweated red sweats and the whole story is fairly gripping and gives a great overview of the innerworkings of our bodies when we sweat. It then goes through the differences in how we cool our bodies compared to other animals/insects and the advantages/disadvantages of each method.

Then the book semi jumps the shark by going through things like perfume, and methods of forced sweating (like saunas) and how humans perceive sweat and all the stuff that are tangentially related to it, but not really science. To be fair, this is a science-lite book as clearly the science of sweat can be probably done in less than 2 chapters, so the authoress had to pad with a lot of other stuff.

All in all, I can't say I don't recommend the book, but in all honesty I was probably looking for more good stories that are more sweat filled than most of the book was. Mild recommend, maybe read the first 2 chapters and skip the rest if you're into more science.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard about this book on the Art of Manliness, and they usually have pretty solid book recommendations. This is a super comprehensive, well-researched book, covering the anatomy and physiology of sweat, cooling mechanisms of various animals, everything deodorant, hyperhydrosis, sauna culture, and I’m sure more, all written in an accessible, casual style. The conclusion of the book was one of the better-written conclusions I’ve come across in a nonfiction book.

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, for Mary Roach type fans.

1. aluminum deodorant is safe and does not give you cancer. The person/marketing agency that told you that is lying

2. Sweat does not “detox” you. That’s not how any of this works.

3. Sweating can only do so much when the wet bulb temperature is high.

[Tamar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels too short and a lame title, but a good read for people who enjoy the likes of Mary Roach and Rose George.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve got ichthyosis, a skin disease that affects my sebaceous (oil-producing) glands and gives me really dry skin. A side effect of this is that I don’t sweat correctly and overheat easily. When I picked up this book, I was very interested by the situations mentioned in the blurb, but I was also secretly hoping that the author might give me some insight into why I don’t sweat right. Sure enough, on page 12, I got a potential idea of why!

I would have given this 5 stars even if I hadn’t learned something about my own weird body- the writing is fantastic and each topic is fascinating- but I can say this book literally changed how I look at my own body in a permanent way. Thank you!

[Gemington · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the author treated this topic extremely thoughtfully. She acknowledged the stigma but also playful nature of an uncontrolled bodily process we have been unnecessarily shamed for. The premise: sweat is awesome and is relatively unique to humans. It may be something that saves our species from the climate apocalypse. I learned a lot about what the science can determine about sweat, how it is composed, what happens when we sweat too much, too little, and more.

More than anything this book taught me to appreciate and value my sense of smell. It is highly evolved and can tell us so much… if we can just learn to pay attention to it.

[Ian Kessler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great exploration of the evolution of sweat!

I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves learning about the unknown world around you everyday. Everts use of humor and awesome experiences around the world draws you in to keep reading (especially when traveling is at a low during Covid).

[Jacqueline · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
This feels like a 9 hour podcast about sweat. I have like 70 more fun facts to throw at people when they are least expecting it. Lost partial points because it put me in the mood for a sauna and there are none near me

[Moon Captain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweat is so cool.

[Dlmrose · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Maria Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned everything I didn’t know I wanted to know about sweat. I would probably read anything this author writes! Who knew sweat could be so interesting?

[Angé · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suuuuuper fascinating to read about sweat! I lowkey love armpits actually so this was quite the enlightening read haha. Loved that the intersectionality of it too.

[Deborah Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love science! This book was so interesting. Obviously, sweating can be gross, it it's also a vital function of our bodies!

This book explores sweat in so many different ways. 🤣 who knew that some people produce colorful sweat? I had no idea, but then again why would I when I'm not one of those people?

I learned a lot and yes, I read a variety of books. 😁👍🏼

[Sam S · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy to read, journalistic style micro history. It's got a Mary Roach style, coming at the one topic in lots of approachable angles.

The stories I won't forget are the lady sweating 40bags a week of chip dye out like blood, or the towel twirling sauna performance art.

[Karen Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

So long. Very thorough and well written, but I’d recommend the actual book over the audiobook. Some interesting storylines for sure but … maybe just listen to the podcast interview with the author on This Podcast Will Kill You.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5, I liked this overall but didn't love it. Was a little silly at times.

I appreciated the author's decision to include climate change commentary and criticise the exclusivity of scientific research though. I'm a sucker for criticism of academia

[Leanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good conversational writing. I learned a lot of stuff, some useful some not necessarily so.

[Sandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read but not very comprehensive.

Everts covers a myriad of topics related to sweat, but her research seems cursory and surface skimmed. I get the sense that there is more to this topic out there, but only random tidbits are covered, and unevenly. For example, Everts spends a lot of time detailing her trips throughout northern Europe to various saunas to experience Finnish and German sauna culture. She states that your kidneys do all of the detoxification in the body and that saunas and sweat diaphoresis cannot do that... but that's false. Saunas cause one to sweat out urea, water, sodium, potassium, chloride, lactate, and presumably other molecules. There are studies ongoing that are trying to determine whether it can be an adjunct of dialysis or used for early CKD.

That's not to say that her stories are uninteresting, but she spent a lot of time on the science of apocrine vs eccrine sweat glands and then it seems, spottily comes back to science every now and again again and then focuses on sauna culture, the impact of sweat on romantic chemical signaling, sweaty finger prints in criminal investigations, and the history of antiperspirants. I just feel like the investigative journalist side of the narrative was out of place and somewhat less interesting, when the actual science could've been quite compelling.

In many of the topics Everts covered, I feel like she found a story, but not quite the story, the compelling narrative that makes everything click.

In all, I like the attempt and learned a lot-I especially enjoyed learning about saunas, but I feel like this book could've benefited from a scientific editor, better organization, and more depth of coverage.