Living with Hyperhidrosis can be very difficult to manage and it is particularly detrimental upon an individual’s self-confidence. If you followed our tips to minimise your sweating, but your symptoms are still proving too severe for you to cope, then you might want to consider Hyperhidrosis treatments.
Nowadays there are many different options available for treating Hyperhidrosis, which are inclusive of operative and non-operative alternatives. So please read on and find out which treatment one is the right one for you.
Non-Operative Hyperhidrosis Treatments
Drug treatments
A specialist will be able to prescribe anticholinergic medication for you to stop your excessive sweating, but these treatments can have considerable side effects; such as blurred vision or severe dry mouth, so do get well informed by your general practitioner before even considering this route.
Muscle relaxing through Botox injections are by far the safest and most common option to cure excessive sweating. They are also a great non-operative alternative to anticholinergics, as they do not carry the same side-effects associated with that particular group of pharmaceutical medicines.
Botulinum toxin is a drug known for its use in improving wrinkles. If injected in the armpit’s sweat glands, it considerably reduces sweating by temporarily blocking the chemical messenger acetylcholine, which is responsible for the activation of sweat in the glands themselves. This treatment does not effect the body’s ability to thermo regulate and clinical studies have shown that such treatment has great effectiveness in treating excessive sweating in the armpits, hands, feet and face.
The treatment only lasts around 20 minutes and usually patients only need to repeat the injections twice a year. There are no collateral effects and you can get back to your routine immediately, although physical activity should be avoided for a few hours. The effects usually become visible after a very short time – where decreased sweating and body odour should be expected within a week’s time.
Iontophoresis
This treatment is ideal to cure Palmar (hands) and Plantar (feet) Hyperhidrosis, where small electric currents are placed into the skin through water. But, Iontophoresis machines is best known for its effectiveness in managing sweaty feet especially.
The treatment lasts around 15 minutes and it needs to be repeated every couple of months. Iontophoresis can also be performed at home once the patient has learnt the procedure.
Counselling As A Hyperhidrosis Treatment
If you think your Hyperhidrosis is caused by anxiety, you might want to talk to a psychotherapist to help you deal with the stress and anguish at the centre of your condition. It is also documented that some patients also get good results from undertaking hypnotherapy, which enables the individuals the ability to talk freely about the problems they are facing.
Operative Hyperhidrosis Treatments
Thorascopic Sympathectomy
Some people who wish to resolve their struggle with sweating excessively will choose surgery, as this can mean a definitive solution. Thorascopic sympathectomy is the most well-recognised in this particular field, especially with regards to sweaty hands, which is a keyhole surgery that divides the nerves in the back of the chest wall. By separating the nerves, signals are prevented from reaching the sweat glands and production is therefore culled.
Although this procedure seems to be safe in the vast majority of cases, it can alter body functions such as heart rate; thyroid; stroke volume; vascular responses; skin temperature; pupil dilatation; goose bumps and other features of the nervous system. Moreover, it can reduce psychological reactions to emotions and the body’s physical response to exercise. This makes this procedure the very last call, in our opinion, as the risks far outweigh the benefits.
So, if you are seeking a long-term solution, that only needs to be repeated a couple of times a year and does not involve as many risks as surgery, we would personally recommend as muscle relaxing as our preferred choice of treatment.
