Botulinum Toxin for Hyperhidrosis

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Botulinum Toxin is not used only in cosmetic treatment, it can also aid medical conditions that traditional drugs or prescriptions have failed to treat successfully. Hyperhidrosis is a condition when your sweat glands are excessively over active and cause you to sweat copious amounts from various parts of your body. Only 1.0% of the population suffers from excessive sweating and although it is not a life threatening condition it can cause severe lack of confidence. The most common area for Hyperhidrosis to occur is on the palms and is happens due to anxiety or even just heat. This makes day to day life very difficult as normal greetings like a hand shake becomes a moment of huge embarrassment, some reports even show those suffering are sometimes embarrassed to hold their partner’s hand because of the perspiration. However, Hyperhidrosis can also occur in your armpits, back, groin and face and sadly it is a permanent condition that can only be controlled through a small selection of surgery, drugs or treatment.

If you were to choose Botulinum Toxin to treat your Hyperhidrosis the treatment you would have, involves injections every six to eight months in your armpit, and the Botulinum Toxin blocks the sweat pores, thus preventing excessive sweating in the region. Of course, just like any treatments there are risks with using Botulinum Toxin, such as temporary nausea and headaches and minor bruising and or swelling in the injection area.

Deodorants for Hyperhidrosis

Deodorant is widely used to prevent embarrassing smells involved with sweating that usually resonates around the time we hit puberty around our teens. The human body releases sweat as a way to cool us down, yet it is also creates the perfect conditions for bacteria to grow and it’s that bacterium that creates the odour commonly known as B.O and the deodorant covers the smell. Most deodorants now contain antiperspirants that claim to prevent sweating as well as smell. The antiperspirants contain aluminium that work to clog the pours from releasing sweat. However, this may be affective in cases of average sweating but it may cause irritation when used continuously and in large it is ineffective in people suffering from severe excessive sweating. Deodorant is not made for severe sweating and so those suffering with Hyperhidrosis, unsurprisingly, move to alternative ways to control their condition.

Oral Medication for Hyperhidrosis

As simple as it may be just to swallow medication, it can provide relief but it can also blur your vision and cause dry mouth from lack of hydration. Tranquilisers can limit how much you worry about Hyperhidrosis but it actually does very little to prevent excessive sweating.

Surgery for Hyperhidrosis

Surgery is a big choice and usually people’s last resort. To combat excessive sweating a surgeon would cut into the sweat glands in the underarms, leaving visible scarring and a permanent numbness. In the neck there are nerves which lead to the sweat glands of the armpit (axillary) and surgeons now use a fibre-optic surgical tube to cut these nerves, stopping messages from travelling to the glands and preventing them from sweating. This operation is extremely risky and can cause nerve damage in the neck which can paralyse your arm and can permanently dilute your pupils.

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