Here’s When Its Time To Botox For Hyperhidrosis

When underarm glowing moisture becomes bothersome and beyond physiologic needs for cooling we say that it is excessive and apply the term hyperhidrosis. Hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating) occurs in women and men, it’s common. The excessive sweating we treat with Botox occurs from the eccrine sweat glands which are concentrated in the hands, feet, and underarms.

Hyperhidrosis may be an idiopathic condition with no specific cause, it could be due to a medical condition or medication. Hyperhidrosis is not typically a serious medical condition (you do have to stay extra hydrated,) but it can be significantly bothersome to you, and lead to excessive clothing or shoe damage!

Sweating is our way of dealing with heat loss and it should be appropriate to the your situation. For instance, if you pop into a steam room excessive sweating is normal. But if you are just at work you shouldn’t have dripping seat of the feet, the face, your underarms, your hands, your scalp or ‘down there,’ or on your keypads. Sweating also controls other glandular functions and skin functions.

Sweating excessively can cause unhealthy skin breakdown. You can get excessive rashes, irritations, local maceration, extra skin tags, peeling skin, local viral warts, and other conditions that are really just due to the moisture.

The top three causes of excessive generalized sweating are, excessive weight, excessive stress, or hormone imbalance.

You meet the diagnosis of hyperhidrosis f the bothersome sweating has persisted at least weekly, for over 6 months, seems to be on both sides of your body, and is a problem, then you may have Primary Hyperhidrosis. If you are in your 40s, you probably will not get this condition, most people have an onset before age 25. One sign of abnormal sweating is sweating that occurs at night. Sweating that is emotional almost always doesn’t occur during sleep as the higher brain centers calm their firing at nigh.

Hot foods, hot sex, hot yoga should all cause appropriate sweating. When you eat hot or very spicy foods the sweating is usually facial lips, nose, or forehead, not really the underarms.

Odd color to your sweat means a medical problem. Sweating should be water colored, there are a number of odd medical conditions that can cause you to sweat yellow, blue, green or even black! Colored sweat goes by the interesting medical name of Chromohidrosis. Snap a picture, email it in to us, and we will discuss!

Excess sweat glands can be the problem. Do you have 2 million or do you have 24 million sweat glands? Either way, we can actually produce up to 10 liters of sweat a day. Impressive. Don’t forget to rehydrate after hot yoga at Hatha Yoga and Fitness!!

Good bacteria actually make us smell better! It’s necessary to have bacteria around to product the odors we think of as associated with our sweat. We do sweat salt with our water, but actually the ducts in the sweat glands reabsorbs most of the salt, so we don’t lose enough to be dangerous, on a typical day. There are three cell types, the clear, the mucoid and the myoepithelial ones.

It is time to treat if you have visible excessive sweating for greater than 6 months.

Being dehydrated will decrease your sweating but that is not a pleasant or healthy way to do it. Not moving much and of course being cool with air conditioning or in a pool will decrease the amount you perspire. There are medical grade antiperspirants that will help with this also.

Great news: a new medication is available and cosmetic therapies can help as well! Glycopyrrolates by prescription can be taken orally to reduce sweating in all the types of sweat glands, but they do have side effects you should discuss with your provider. The new medication is Qbrexza, it’s a topical medication, that is available by prescription. After you figure out the cause, the next step is to manage the sweating as best you can with the over the counter available medications. Some physicians will then suggest you try the oral medications before going to Botox.

Botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A), the medical brand Botox is FDA approved for hyperhidrosis and has been used the most. We have used other neurotoxins, and are evaluating whether any give longevity longer than what we see with Botox. Botulinum toxin injection significantly reduces the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from the nerves that control the function of the sweat glands in the treated area. For most that will mean the eccrine sweat glands in the underarms. This reduces the production of sweat by at least 50%. It will take effect a bit in 24 hours and in 1-2 weeks, and then last about 9-12 months. It has been used in clients of all ages including children. Ultherapy treatments off label can be effective for reducing sweat glands. Request a consult at WHP 217-356-3736!