Sweating is just a nasty annoyance to many modern-day people. Sure, it keeps you from overheating during exercise or if you are exposed to extremely hot weather. But most often, perspiration is seen as a negative body secretion to be stopped whenever possible with chemical-laden antiperspirants. On the positive side, many traditional cultures have used induced sweating - such as sitting in sweat lodges - to benefit health. It's been mostly assumed that the physical benefits from sweating are the result of toxins released in sweat.

But now comes information on how the incredible human body uses the sweating process to help protect health in another way. Sweat contains amazing disease fighting chemicals. An international team of scientists has discovered how a natural antibiotic called dermcidin, produced by our skin during perspiration can destroy tuberculosis germs and other dangerous pathogens.

Although about 1,700 types of these natural antibiotics are known to exist, they are rarely discussed -- and this is the first time researchers have come up with a detailed understanding of how they work. The researchers from the University of Edinburgh and from Goettingen, Tuebingen and Strasbourg, uncovered the atomic structure of dermcidin, allowing them to pinpoint for the first time what makes this natural compound so efficient in destroying disease-causing germs.

Their new study, just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that sweat spreads highly efficient antibiotics onto skin to protect our bodies from dangerous disease-causing "bugs." So if you scratch or cut yourself or get a mosquito bite, antibiotic agents secreted in sweat glands, including dermcidin, immediately and efficiently kill invading germs if perspiration reaches them.

What's more, the scientists say these natural substances, known as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), are more effective in the long-term than traditional antibiotics.

Continue reading at:  http://www.naturalnews.com/039257_perspiration_antibiotics_germs.html