The point of this post is to tell people that acupuncture has helped with my hyperhidrosis. I'm not even halfway into my ongoing treatment and the results are amazing. The problem is in my armpits.
For those of you that want to know more, first I will talk of my acupuncture experience and then my long history of being afflicted with hyperhidrosis.
I'm of Chinese descent and only now that I'm in my thirties I've begun to research and appreciate traditional Chinese medicine. The way they see the body as a whole consisting of interrelated parts, seems much more sophisticated than isolating symptoms and using drugs to mask said symptoms. I called around to local acupuncturists and asked if they had experience with treatment of hyperhidrosis. Most of them said yes. My criteria was also price and insurance coverage. When I arrived the doctor asked me questions that I didn't fully understand, but she was very very thorough. Something that I never experience with western doctors. She helped me realize that my condition started as soon as I hit puberty. Now, I am a scaredy cat when it comes to needles but I found solice in the fact that they don't suck anything out and luckily I also came to find that you can't feel most of them and the ones that you do feel feel more like a numbing sensation. The pins themselves are very thin and they penetrate that deeply. The less relaxed I was the more I felt uncomfortable with them in there, but I'd say most of it is psychological. In total there were ten needles on the back, at different points, for 30min. And then four needles in the front, in the feet and arms, for another 30min. The sessions are $60, and I'm scheduled to do 6-10. So far I've done two. The results were immediate. I went from pit stains the size of grapefruits to none at all, after the first session. The doctor explained to me that she was hitting the pressure points that respond to stress and anxiety.
So the feelings from the needles were nothing compared to the feeling of 40 Botox needles injected into each pit – A method I tried back in 1999-2000, during my highschool days. At that time my sweating was so bad that on a hot day i would wear a long sleeved shirt (to catch the sweat) with a baggy hoody overtop. The shirt would have pit stains that went all the way down to cuffs. It was like two taps were dripping all day long. I developed other tricks in time, such as white Terri cloth tank tops, and mesh shirts. I actually took up sewing and made my own clothing that was sweat friendly. I felt gross all the time though, and it really impeded on my self esteem. The Botox method would only last for a couple months, and shortly thereafter were no longer covered by my insurance.
Then I discovered drysol and used it every other night before bedtime. The results were pretty good, but my armpits were itchy all day. I really don't trust products that mess with the pores. If I wasn't using drysol I was using products high in aluminum, which are gross in nature, and don't even work that great if you have a severe problem.
I've also tried the crystal deoderants which do have alum in them. I find they really help with smell, but are minor for sweat itself. I don't trust their “all natural” greenwashing to be honest. Just because it's naturally occurring doesn't mean you should put it on a sensitive part of your body.
I've been a physically active person my whole life, no health problems to speak of other than hay fever and besides iontophoresis I feel I've tried most treatments out there. In conclusion, I am shocked by the results of acupuncture and I hope people who may write it off as hokey would give it a try. It's a completely different perspective than our western ways, so it can be difficult to understand or trust. There's a lot of information out there online though, so we educate ourselves.
