Currently, there is no cure available for hyperhidrosis. Several treatment options are available for the treatment of excessive sweating.
All options are worth testing, depending on the location of your sweat problems. Treatments like iontophoresis can help decrease the sweat level and alleviate the symptoms.
- Prescription antiperspirants
- B. toxin injections
- Oral medications
- miraDry
- Axillary evacuation
- Sympathectomy (ETS)
Regular antiperspirants are often not enough to battle excessive sweating. Antiperspirants that contain aluminum chloride are the first line of “defense” when it comes to extreme sweating.
They are often available on prescription from your general practitioner or can be bought prescription free at a pharmacy.
Antiperspirants can help to decrease sweating to a certain point. When it comes to severe sweating, there are other efficient treatment options available. Some antiperspirants can cause skin irritation.
It is important to keep the skin dry when applying the antiperspirant to avoid a chemical reaction that causes skin irritation.
This treatment can be efficient but requires to be repeated a couple of times a year. The B. toxin substance is injected into the skin of the body parts affected with abnormal sweating.
Primarily it serves as a treatment for the armpits and palms area. It is also possible to use this treatment for feet, head, back, groin, buttocks, and chest but that might require other anesthesia and larger doses of the toxin.
One of the disadvantages of this treatment is that it is hard to find clinics that offer this treatment. Besides, it can become expensive since repetition is required after a few months.
Two types of B. toxin substances can be used for treatment - type A and type B. Some people can be immune to type A. There is an alternative treatment with type B. Type B causes less impact on your muscles, such as temporarily reduced grip function compared to type A. However, type B often has a shorter effect.
Many people find this type of treatment painful. In some countries, this treatment is covered by health insurance providers. Unfortunately, a negative trend of removing the therapy from the list of covered treatments is ongoing.
Your general practitioner can prescribe you a pill that helps control excessive sweating. Sadly, these pills often have multiple side effects. If you are affected by other conditions, it might be unsafe to use the medicine.
It is prominent to consult with your doctor at a sweat clinic to learn if the medication is the right treatment for you. Some side effects of pills that are used to treat abnormal sweating are dry mouth, lowered blood pressure, fatigue, slow heart rate, bowel problems, etc.
Sometimes, a combination of the pills and b. toxin injections or other treatments serve as a solution for people affected by the general type of extreme sweating.
miraDry is a method for treating excessive sweating in the armpit area. It is based on microwaves that “boil” the sweat glands. That can lead to about 70-85% permanent reduction of sweating after a couple of treatments.
This treatment has been tested/approved only on the armpits so far.
When it comes to armpit sweat, surgery may be an alternative solution. Axillary evacuation is a treatment where sweat glands are removed. On the other side, side effects of this surgery can be permanent scarring and swelling.
Before you consider this surgery, we suggest that you gather information from experts. We highly advise that you consult an experienced surgeon with knowledge and experience in the procedure.
Endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy (ETS) is a surgical option for a permanent treatment of sweating. It is performed to reduce sweating of the armpits and palms. The procedure consists of cutting the nerves that convey the sweat signals to these areas.
The procedure is associated with severe compensatory sweating in other body areas after the procedure and other unpleasant side effects.
This procedure was discovered in Sweden. It was also banned in Sweden in 2003 because of the complaints from patients who experienced severe side effects and serious risks to the procedure.
Iontophoresis
Iontophoresiss is a method that successfully treats hyperhidrosis. It is a painless method that doesn’t require medications, needles, and drugs.
You can use it to treat your palms, armpits, and feet successfully. You can perform the treatment at home and see great results when you do it regularly.
During the iontophoresis treatment, the device delivers mild electrical currents to your skin and changes the way the nerve signals are conducted to your sweat glands. An iontophoresis treatment session lasts for 20-40 minutes.
Science facts behind iontophoresis treatments:
- 92.9% of patients see improvements in sweat reduction after two weeks of treatment. [1]
- The life quality improved for 78.6% of patients after they started to perform the treatment. [1]
- The effect of iontophoresis usually appears after 6-15 treatments. [2]
- Iontophoresis is an effective and safe treatment for palmoplantar (hands and feet hyperhidrosis) and axillary (hyperhidrosis in armpit area), with minimal side effects. [3]
- Iontophoresis has been used for the treatment of palmar and/or plantar hyperhidrosis since 1952. [4]
You can also use iontophoresis as the treatment of the face. It's not yet proven as efficient on the face as it is in the other areas. The effect on the face is individual.
More than 90% of our satisfied customers who use our iontophoresis machine say that the treatment produces excellent results and helps ease their everyday life.
Join the patient association for hyperhidrosis
If you are affected by extreme sweating or have a close person that is affected by it, you can join the Hyperhidrosis patient association in your country/region. More members strengthen the possibility of pushing the issue to become more public.
If you feel comfortable speaking about your problems with other people, you can normalize the condition, and make other people with abnormal sweating open up. If a person close to you is affected by extreme sweating, it’s important to learn how to communicate with them regarding their condition.
The most important thing is to let them know that they aren’t guilty of their condition. Being stressed or overweight and other conditions aren’t very often the reason for extreme sweating.
To discover more about how to deal with these conditions visit the International Hyperhidrosis Society website.
Together we can make a difference and make sure that everyone who is affected by excessive sweating gets the right information, diagnosis, and treatment.
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