Excessive sweating in hands, also called palmer hyperhidrosis,
is an extremely annoying and embarrassing condition. From smeared ink to wet
handshakes, sweaty palms can adversely impact your personal, professional and
social life. Most people find it to be a confident-wrecking problem, which
forces them to live a socially isolated life.
But most of them only claim to be able to control profuse
sweating in hands, and even if they do their results are not lasting. There are
just a few that effectively reduce excessive sweating to normal levels and the
results also last for extended periods of time. If you really want to eliminate
excessive sweating, you need to treat the root cause of hyperhidrosis –
overactive sweat glands. There are millions of sweat glands in your body that
not only help regulate your body temperature but also detoxify your body by
excreting water soluble toxins, resulting from metabolism. But in the
hyperhidrosis patients, sweat glands in a specific area of their body become
overactive and the person sweats profusely even when the conditions are not
suitable for sweating.
In a bid to get rid of this embarrassing situation permanently,
people often opt for the surgical treatment options, which involves cutting the
nerve transmitting chemical signals to overactive sweat glands. But this
procedure has been reported to cause permanent side effects to the patients,
including unexplained increased perspiration in other parts of the body.
.jpg)
Why to take risks when there is a highly effective, non-invasive
treatment available in the form of Botox injections. Botulinum toxin type A,
commonly known as Botox, is a far less invasive option to cure palmer
hyperhidrosis. The toxin has been safely used to treat sweating problem for many
years, but many people think that it is for sweating in armpits only. Botox has
been approved by the U.S Food and Drug Association to treat sweating in
different parts of the body, including palms of hands.
To see whether you are a candidate for Botox or not, your
clinician will determine how badly your hands sweat with an iodine starch test.
Your palms will be coated with a starch powder and allowed to rest for some
time (5 to 10 minutes). The starch dissolves in your sweat and then reacts with
iodine and turns dark blue in the areas that sweat heavily. In the people not
suffering from palmer hyperhidrosis, their hands do not sweat enough to provide
favorable conditions for starch test to take place. But if the starch changes
its color, it is a clear indication that the person is suffering from
hyperhidrosis and is suitable for Botox treatment.
The toxin is then injected into the dermis deep enough to reach
sweat glands (about 1.5 mm deep). The area is divided in small patches,
approximately one and a half centimeter apart, to make sure that all the sweat
glands in the affected area are treated. Generally Botox injection does not
hurt much, but still the providers apply topical anesthesia in the form of gel
or cream to make the procedure as painless as possible. The toxin takes 7 to 10
days to be effective and lasts for four to six months, before Botox gets
naturally absorbed and excreted by the body.
