Michal Tal studies the immune system. She works at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. “When we talk about risk factors for [getting] Lyme, we generally talk about camping, golfing, maybe gardening,” she says. All those outdoor pastimes may expose someone to tick bites.
But people seldom worry about getting Lyme during sweaty outdoor hobbies such as trail running. “It’s never even been a question of whether … you were sweating, and if you had any protection in your sweat,” Tal says. Her team’s new work suggests that, in fact, sweat may help guard against Lyme disease.
