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Three types of sweat glands are housed in the skin - these being the sebaceous, apocrine and eccrine glands.
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The sebaceous glands are located near the hair follicle and produce sebum - the natural oil of your skin. Sebum is a mixture of different waxes and fats, and the facial skin contains nearly three thousand of these glands per square inch.
Sebaceous glands are primarily found on the scalp, face, back and chest and are present from birth, yet only mature and start secreting sebum when the person goes into puberty.
The sebum is manufactured in the glands and is secreted through a small duct leading from the gland to the hair shaft. It then moves up to the skin surface via the hair follicle. During this process the sebum also pushes out any accumulated debris that may be present in the follicle.
Sebum is produced to keep the skin lubricated and to prevent it from drying out, yet an over-production of sebum creates its own range of problems. For more on acne, please click here.
Apocrine glands are primarily found in the armpits, round the belly button, genital and anal areas of the body.
These glands are situated deep within the subcutis and produce a milky type of sweat, which causes body odor when bacteria breaks it down on the skin surface. The sweat is secreted into the upper parts of the hair follicle and exits to the skin via the follicle.
In animals these glands produce body odors that attract sexual partners. Some popular belief subscribes that the same holds true for humans, but no conclusive evidence has been produced to sustain these claims.
These glands are also present from birth, but as with the sebaceous glands, only mature at puberty and start manufacturing sweat at that time.
During periods of stress and a heightened emotional state these glands also appear to produce more sweat.
The eccrine glands are also situated deep in the subcutis, but unlike sebaceous and apocrine glands, they do not use the hair follicle to exit the sweat to the skin, but each has its own
dedicated pore, or duct, to move the sweat to the surface of the skin.
The skin contains between 2 - 3 million eccrine sweat glands. These are found all over the body, yet are more concentrated on the palms, armpits and soles of the feet.
The production of sweat is triggered by hot weather, exercise, fever as well as emotional stress.
Emotional stress seems to trigger the production of eccrine sweat in the concentrated areas of the soles of the feet, palms, armpits as well as those found on the forehead.
The main function of eccrine sweat is to regulate body temperature, since the evaporation of the sweat helps to lower body temperature.
Over and above the regulation of body temperature, eccrine sweat is also helpful in eliminating waste salts from the body.
Since eccrine sweat is mostly composed of water, it does not contribute much to body odor forming.
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