A normal person loses about 500 ml of water in the form of sweat but for a hyperhidrosis sufferer it’s more than that and might lead to dehydration in some way. A person with this kind of abnormality is considered him/herself as one of kind because 1% to 2% of the total population of the world has this unusual body reaction.
Hyperhidrosis is the condition characterized by abnormally increased perspiration in excess of that required for regulation of body temperature. Hyperhidrosis can either be generalized or localized to specific parts of the body. Hands, feet, armpits, and the groin area are among the most active regions of perspiration due to the relatively high concentration of sweat glands; however, any part of the body may be affected. (Wikipedia)
Hyperhidrosis can also be classified depending on if it is a congenital or acquired trait. Primary hyperhidrosis is found to start during adolescence or even before and seems to be inherited as an autosomal dominant genetic trait. Primary hyperhidrosis must be distinguished from secondary hyperhidrosis, which can start at any point in life. The latter form may be due to a disorder of the thyroid or pituitary gland, diabetes, tumors, gout, menopause, certain drugs, or mercury poisoning. (Wikipedia)
A lot of people, especially those who doesn’t have this abnormality can’t understand the feeling of a person who suffers from this kind of abnormality. And the worst part of it is, when you see the reaction of the person who notices the excessive sweating which is atypical for them. Best example is, when shaking hands, if a person make the gesture for a handshake, the hyperhidrosis sufferer is hesitant to reach the hand of the other person why that is because 1. He doesn’t want to soak the hand of the person with sweat, 2. He might reveal his secret, 3. It’s embarrassing which has the highest fraction why sufferers avoid hand contacts, handshakes, and holding hands.
For hyperhidrosis sufferers like me, it has a big impact in my activity of daily living, the way I choose my clothes, and the way I interact with other people. It has been a problem of mine since in grade school. I thought it was just a normal reaction of the body until my parents noticed that my hands (palms) sweat too much. So I started to think that time that I'm different from the other kids and compared myself to my brothers. One of my brothers has it as well and he was my little brother. We both suffer from excessive sweating both hands and feet. Our parents took us to different dermatologist but what they have advised was to apply topical antiperspirant but none of them work and just getting worse as we age.
Now that I already have a degree and starting to have a productive life, to earn my way up in my chosen career I need to use my hands. It has been a big problem for me to do my job better and my hands are just getting worse. It seems that I'm stock on turning point in my life. This simple abnormality turned to be a major curse due to I can’t perform well which stops me from having a progress. I didn’t stop taking my chances even though it has lessen my confidence and self esteem. I visited different dermatologist and hopped to one dermatologist to another looking for better resolution. I even went to the most popular derma clinic here in the Philippines, a medical clinic that most of their clients are celebrities and one of the doctors said that either topical drugs or botox is the resolution. I also asked them about ETS (surgical procedure) but they don’t perform that kind of invasive procedure I asked them also about iontopheresis and they said they don’t do that as well.
I started to lose hope and live my life as is but one time by accident I’d passed by a small derma clinic and asked about iontopheresis, I was surprised when the receptionist said that they have the machine that execute iontopheresis. The only problem is the cost which is quite expensive and you need to perform 12 to 14 sessions before you’ll notice the effect and by that time the sweating could be 80-90% less but you still need to perform maintenance after every 5 days to once a week or depends on the sweating. It's money in the bank for the clinic in every session you do, so I thought of buying same machine that their using. Nowadays, there are different machines that perform iontopheresis, you can google it and will give you the list. The only problem is how to buy them because you can’t find any here, most of popular brand is either from US or Germany and quite expensive just so you know.
Enough with the story, for the people around the world who has hyperhidrosis; there is hope and it would change your life, boost up your confidence and regain your self esteem. If you don’t have the budget to acquire the service for iontopheresis in a derma clinic or to buy the machine itself; there is a cheaper way, my way which is inspired by one of the videos from youtube and 100% effective. I doing the manual iontopheresis for maintenance and confirmed to be effective as my palms stays 100% dry anytime of the day, warm or cold weather, anxious or not. Currently, I'm performing this procedure to my feet and right now it is 50 to 80% dry.
I’ll be discussing my own procedure next post…
