Relationship Between Sweat and Blood Lactate Levels During Exhaustive Physical Exercise

Abstract

In contrast to the generally accepted view, that sweat lactate is irrelevant to blood, we report on the suitability of sweat lactate for diagnostics. We demonstrate a significant increase in lactate concentration in sweat from the working muscle area simultaneously with the rise of blood lactate content during exhaustive physical exercise. The variation rates of lactate concentration in sweat from working and latent muscle areas correlate positively with blood lactate levels (r>0.8 and r=0.7, respectively), thus offering the prospect of a non-invasive approach for the monitoring of sportsperson training. Moreover, sweat lactate, being the faster indicator of muscle metabolism, would be even more important for sports medicine than the nowadays-used blood lactate.