Exercise makes you sweat. Heat makes you sweat. So does sweating even just from heat have any health benefits?
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Sauna bathing has been used in Finland for at least centuries and appears to have a positive impact on health, especially cardiovascular health. [Here’s an example of one study.](https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajpregu.00115.2017)
Yes. Sweat is liquid. Liquid evaporates. Evaporation requires energy (specifically, thermal energy). While the liquid does take a lot of energy from the surrounding environment, it also takes a lot of that energy from your body. That means your body loses thermal energy, cools down. Cooling down can, and usually is a good thing.
Your body produces a lot of heat, one of the most important ways for your body to control the internal temperature is sweating. Without sweating, fevers are much more likely. You could end up getting a fever even without being sick. The reason above 104⁰ F is such a dangerous fever is because you get to temps where proteins start to denature (unravel). That’s bad. Like, really bad. So sweating cools the body and stops your cells from literally disassembling themselves.
Additionally, any toxins that are water-soluble can be dissolved in sweat as it leaves your body. As they will get left behind when your sweat evaporates, there’s always the possibility that some will re-enter your body, but some won’t.
There are some minor benefits however the primary benefit of exercise is not the sweat, it’s the building of muscle, the increased heart rate, and all the usual stuff. You don’t get healthier from reg exercise *because you sweat*, you get the benefits *and you sweat*.
Sweating cools down the body, your motor. Being able to sweat makes humans unique endurance machines, think marathons, pro cycling and so on. Embrace your sweat, no other animal can compare
While there are some benefits, it’s not going to be the same as exercise (which you seem to be equating).
The benefit of exercising isn’t just sweat. It’s basically training your heart and lungs. Simply sitting in the sun and sweating won’t do that in the same way.
All sweating is “from heat”. When you exercise you sweat because your body is producing a lot more heat and sweating helps remove the heat. When you’re sick with a fever, your body is producing heat in order to drive out the infection and sweating helps to keep your temperature from becoming excessive. When you sit in a hot room you sweat because your body is trying to cool itself.
I assume that your question is more geared towards “if I sit in a hot room and raise my temperature, will the resulting sweating make me more healthy?”. The answer to that is quite simple: no. The sweating doesn’t make you any more healthy. However, the elevated body temperature might. Increasing your body temperature for a little while, in safe way, can help to improve circulation of your blood and it can help to relax your muscles and improve breathing. These are all good things. You just need to be careful not to over do it. Drink lots of fluids and electrolytes (salts, sugars) when exercising or if you will be sitting in a sauna for a long time because sweating can drain you of both water and electrolytes very quickly and then you will over heat very quick and possibly die from “heat exhaustion”.
Lastly, the idea that toxins can be removed from your body via sweat to improve your health is not scientific, it’s mostly pseudo-science from people that want to sell you something.
People go in saunas for some supposed benefits. The answer to OP’s question must tie into that.
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