Secret superpower: 16 amazing facts about sweat, from armpit transplants to artificial BO

As we revel in the rise in temperature this week, we ask why do we perspire? Do men do it more than women? Can you really ‘sweat out the toxins’? Emma Beddington reveals all you need to know

Women tend to have more sweat glands than men, but research suggests that neither sex sweats “more” than the other. 

I’s getting hot again – and that means sweat. With the possible exception of Prince Andrew, humans are constantly producing “insensible perspiration” – the baseline level of sweat – to some degree. Despite that, we know surprisingly little about it. According to Sarah Everts, the author of The Joy of Sweat, which explores the science, culture and history of sweat and our attempts to fight it, there is “a dearth of sweat research; there’s so much more fundamental research on every other body fluid”. So what do and don’t we know?

It’s a gift to humanity