Expert: Walter Hintz - 7/21/2006

Question
Are sweat glands specialized depending on where they are found
on the body?  I am sure it sounds crazy, but I have noticed that
sweat from my face, neck, and arms is very salty, and sweat from
my torso isn't salty at all.  I live in New Orleans so I am acclimated
to the hot, humid climate here, and it makes sense that I wouldn't
secrete as much salt.  But I was surprised to realize that the salt
levels varied with location...  It made me wonder if there were
different types of sweat glands or if I was just weird (aside from the
fact that I noticed such a thing).

Answer
Hi Curious.  Yes this is weird.
 All sweat glands have basically the same structure. I would expect the salt content to vary with different conditions ( for example if your salt intake increases) but not necessarily from different parts of the body. A possible explanation is that the expose body parts are subject to faster evaporation than on the torso. This would concentrate the salt. If you want to continue licking yourself you will have to design a better experiment to test this.  Let me know if you want to try some more.