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Ask HN: Any programmers here suffering or suffered from hyperhidrosis?

7 points by biggio ↗ HN
I am a programmer suffering from palmoplantar hyperhidrosis. My hands and feet are always sweating and sticky. It makes using keyboard and mouse (or touching anything) very difficult.

I have tried every possible solution I could find and the doctor suggested except the botox injection and endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007291.htm

Anyone here gone through hyperhidrosis?

4 comments

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moocow01
Yes. I have a very strong case of it on my hands. You should buy an iontophoresis machine (I use an Idromed) and do the treatment religiously. It usually takes about 15-20 hrs of treatment (split up over a week or so) for the effect and then maybe an hour a week to maintain. (It also makes for a great excuse to catch up on your Netflix queue).

After iontophoresis I actually can't sweat from my hands (unless I get lazy about maintaining my treatments). This basically feels like a miracle if you have this condition. Iontophoresis is also very safe and very well proven for hyperhidrosis where I have concerns about the long term effects of some of the other treatments. You can also do the same treatment for your feet (I have it on my feet as well but it doesn't impact my day to day enough to do treatment.)

(Also Id caution against ETS. Go onto a hyperhidrosis forum and there are a very large number of people who had ETS that strongly advise against having the surgery)

tucaz
I had a mild case a few years ago that even gave me blisters [1] from time to time. I went to the doctor and since I couldn't find anything to fix it I almost did the sympathectomy, but gave up after knowing that sweating was going to be transferred somewhere else.

At the same time I started to exercise and lose weight and it suddenly went away. I don't know if they are correlated, but that's the only thing I can remember changing in my routine. I went from 90kg (198lbs) to 80kg (176lbs) which has always been my weigth. I'm 1,80m (5.9ft) tall.

1 - https://edc2.healthtap.com/ht-staging/user_answer/avatars/40...

pathy
Botox is very efficient and generally lasts about 3-6 months. In my experience there are no complications and it really does work.

I have not tried it on my hands but according to my sister it is quite uncomfortable, they give local anesthesia for the hands but not for say armpits. Lots of needle pricks is not that fun and I believe you can get some bruises that go away quickly.

The treatment is very quick, about 10-15 minutes. In Sweden it costs about €150 for the injections and €150 for the actual Botox (the Botox cost counts towards insurance scheme to cap medicine costs) if done privately.