Can You Really Sweat Out Toxins?
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I have some very good news for everyone who’s planning to drink lots of wine and then log zero hours at the gym over the weekend: Don’t feel too guilty. While exercise has many benefits, detoxing, as it turns out, is not one of them.
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"You can’t sweat it out," says Dee Anna Glaser, a dermatologist in St. Louis who is one of the consulting dermatologists behind SkinBetter (our free skin-analysis tool). And before you get all “I run three miserable hungover miles each Sunday because it works,” know that Glaser is an expert on sweat. “People get focused on the need to sweat a lot because they think it helps you release toxins from the body, but it doesn’t—the kidneys do that.”
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So what are you supposed to instead? For starters, log some couch time: “The best thing for a hangover is rest,” says John Brick, the author of The Doctor’s Hangover Handbook (Booklocker). “Losing water at the gym will actually make your hangover worse.” Bonus points if you chug coconut water or Gatorade during yourRHOBH marathon (just me?). “Alcohol depletes the body of electrolytes,” he says. But you knew that part, right?
By Elizabeth Siegel
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