If your breasts sweat during exercise, maybe you are wearing the wrong sports bra? The answer is not what you think...

Compiled by: Gong Zixin

A few days ago

A friend talked about

She sweats a lot from her chest when she exercises...

I want

What's the point of discussing such an embarrassing issue...

However

I just saw a study yesterday.

It’s actually related to it!

So I quietly passed it to her...

New research from the University of Southampton in the UK has revealed a surprising link between the size of a woman's breasts and the amount of sweat they produce during exercise.

The study, published in the journal Experimental Physiology, looked at 22 women of varying ages and breast sizes, having them run in a warm climate chamber and measuring how much sweat their breasts produced, how much heat their bodies generated, and how many sweat glands were present in different parts of their breasts.

Sports Bra Thermal Scan

Perspiration is primarily influenced by factors such as body shape, metabolism and environmental conditions. However, the research team hypothesized that breast size could also affect breast sweat production and comfort during physical activity.

The study, by Hannah Blount, a thermophysiology researcher at the University of Southampton's Thermosensation Laboratory, found that larger breasts were associated with fewer sweat glands and less sweat produced during exercise.

More than 85% of women consider sports bras a must-have for working out, but it’s actually hard to find a bra that’s both comfortable and supportive, so many women struggle with it. “The idea was to look at how sports bras can provide support and comfort for women of different breast sizes, especially in hot weather when women are more likely to experience issues like rubbing and excessive sweat buildup in their bras.”

Schematic diagram of the experimental design

"Specifically, we were interested in understanding how sweat gland density and local sweat rate vary among women with different breast sizes, as this determines how much sweat ends up in a sports bra. The most exciting finding was that women with larger breasts have fewer sweat glands, and therefore produce less sweat on their breasts. We can now use this basic knowledge to guide the design of sportswear to account for the needs of women with different breast sizes."

The contact position between the sweat-absorbing patch and the iodine paper

The women in the study were asked to jog for 45 minutes in temperatures of 32 degrees Celsius while their breast sweat production was monitored. Breast surface area was calculated using 3D scans, while sweat gland density was measured using iodine-soaked paper, which reacts with chemicals in sweat when placed on the skin.

Dr. Davide Filingeri, an international leading expert in the neurophysiology of moisture perception in human skin, said that women experience unique anatomical, physiological and hormonal changes throughout their lives. Consider the effects of the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and menopause, all of which affect women's heat tolerance, thermal sensitivity and comfort. Therefore, Hannah's research on the unique and changing "thermal needs" of the female body has the potential to inform innovations in human-centric sportswear, which will ultimately help women live more comfortably in an increasingly warming climate.

Blount added: “We are becoming more and more sedentary these days, so if there is something that can be done to help women become more active and make exercise more acceptable, that’s really exciting.”

Data chart and reference source:

University of Southampton

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