I need advice (shaking hands)

Fruit

Active member
Hi everyone!

I need advice on how to deal with my hyperhidrosis. My hands sweat a lot which is terrible.
Next week I will have to shake hands with a lot of people on my new job. I was thinking about wearing gloves. But I'm not sure if that is the best thing I could do.

I hope to read about how you would deal with this.

Thanks in advance!
 

Jonathanhh

Active member
How have you've dealt with hyperhidrosis?

Long term - as in it'll most likely not help by next week; you should give iontophoresis a try.

Short term in order to get through the shaking hands; you should try Robinul (glycopyrrolate) pills should help your sweating decrease.

Both of these work well. Only reason I called Robinul a short term solution is since the results will be noticed immediately, but has to be taken daily. Compared to the iontophoresis in which 6-10 treatments can make you dry for over 2 weeks until you have to do maintenance treatments.

You could try antiperspirants, but those hardly work if you have moderate to severe hyperhidrosis.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!
 

Fruit

Active member
Thank you @Jonathanhh

I have had hyperhidrosis all of my life. Mostly I just give people a wet hand.

5 months ago I tried glycopyrrolate. It helped very well for me for 4 weeks. But after 4 weeks it just didn't work anymore, my hands started to sweat a lot again. (I don't know if more people have this experience?)

Recently I went to the doctor who said he wants to try botox injections with my hands. But I'm really scared to do this because I play piano, I really do not want to take the risk that playing piano will become more difficult or impossible for me. (I play piano with gloves on)

I have tried accupuncture 2 years ago. I'm really happy I tried accupuncture, because I now do have sweat free days sometimes, which I didn't have before I had accupuncture. But although I tried accupunture for a really long time hyperhidrosis never really went away. On most days the sweat is still dripping of my hands.

I haven't tried iontophoresis yet. Which I'm really thinking about to try. Is iontophoresis painful? Does iontophoresis change the way you can move your fingers?
 

Jonathanhh

Active member
Oh =\ Yeah, I had the same experience with robinul. It worked for a while, then it only worked every now and then. There are some people on this forums that have been using robinul for years, so it must be different results for everyone.

I've never tried botox since it's so expensive! About $6,000 yearly if I were to try it, so I have no clue if it'd mess up playing the piano. Perhaps someone on this forums could give you their experience ^^

As far as the iontophoresis; it shouldn't be painful. If you have sensitive skin it may be a little painful, but overall you shouldn't be in severe pain. It doesn't change the way you move your fingers =p You turn on your unit and place your hands in the trays for a certain amount of time (varies on iontophoresis) then change polarity and after some treatments you should experience dry hands =p
 

hyp-hi

Well-known member
I would recommend wearing something that is good at absorbing sweat so you can use it to dry your hand a bit before a hand shake. Your hand may still be damp, but it helps a bit. Ionto is not very painful, only if you have it at a high setting and you have cuts on your hands, then it can sting a bit. It does not effect how they move so it may be worth a try!
 

Sprawling

Well-known member
Ionto can be virtually pain free if you use pulsed current. We have lots of advice on this forum. Spend some time and read some back posts.
 

ClammyBook

Member
Hi everyone!

I need advice on how to deal with my hyperhidrosis. My hands sweat a lot which is terrible.
Next week I will have to shake hands with a lot of people on my new job. I was thinking about wearing gloves. But I'm not sure if that is the best thing I could do.

I hope to read about how you would deal with this.

Thanks in advance!

I've suffered from severe palmar HH my whole life, and typically just wipe my hands off as best I can before shaking others' hands. I generally still give them a clammy handshake, but a few things that have helped:
1. Wearing a jacket or long-sleeve shirt with extra-long sleeves that I can pull partially over my palm (the ones with the thumbholes integrated into the sleeves are the best) can help in situations where I'll be shaking lots of hands.
2. You might be restricted in the kinds of clothes you can wear for this work event, but if possible, have some kind of cotton or equally absorbent material (even a small hand towel concealed in a jacket pocket) that you can use to wipe your hands dry. A lot of synthetic "business" type clothing is not optimal for drying hands off on, so take that into account.
3. All of the treatment methods here are certainly worth exploring, too, if you have time to do so before next week. Robinul (glycopyrrolate) would be the quickest fix, though it requires a prescription.
4. This is a super avoidant method, but if you're feeling extra self conscious and don't want to have to explain your HH every time you shake someone's hand, you could consider carrying with you a bottle or glass of ice-cold water. That way, you can blame your wet or clammy hands on the bottle. :)

Hope that's all helpful. Congrats on the new job, and good luck!
 

ClammyBook

Member
Thank you @Jonathanhh

I have had hyperhidrosis all of my life. Mostly I just give people a wet hand.

5 months ago I tried glycopyrrolate. It helped very well for me for 4 weeks. But after 4 weeks it just didn't work anymore, my hands started to sweat a lot again. (I don't know if more people have this experience?)

Recently I went to the doctor who said he wants to try botox injections with my hands. But I'm really scared to do this because I play piano, I really do not want to take the risk that playing piano will become more difficult or impossible for me. (I play piano with gloves on)

I have tried accupuncture 2 years ago. I'm really happy I tried accupuncture, because I now do have sweat free days sometimes, which I didn't have before I had accupuncture. But although I tried accupunture for a really long time hyperhidrosis never really went away. On most days the sweat is still dripping of my hands.

I haven't tried iontophoresis yet. Which I'm really thinking about to try. Is iontophoresis painful? Does iontophoresis change the way you can move your fingers?

Also, to address your other questions, based on my own limited experience ...

I've been on glyco for 15 years and have noticed a slight reduction in effectiveness over time, but not much. It still works pretty well overall for me. What dose were you on when you tried it? I take 4 mg/day. I notice a huge difference in effectiveness when I take it on an empty stomach (very effective!) versus after eating (hardly makes a difference at all).

I've also had Botox done on my hands in the past, which temporarily cured me 100% of my palmar HH--by far, the most effective thing I've ever tried. My fine motor skills were affected negatively for several days right after getting the injections (e.g. tying my shoes was a bit tricky), but that went away quickly and I enjoyed about five months of blissfully sweat-free time with no other side effects. I highly recommend Botox if you can afford it! I don't think it would affect your piano-playing at all, except maybe for a few days immediately after getting it.

As for ionotophoresis, I echo others' comments here. Older devices were a bit more painful to use (I tried Drionic about a decade ago and abandoned it because I found it too painful to use), but from what I've heard, newer pulsed-current devices are a huge improvement.
 

Fruit

Active member
Thank you all so much for your messages, and sharing your experiences. It means a lot to me.


@Clammybook I love your advice with the cold water bottle. I will definitely do this more often, haha:)

About the glycopyrrolate. I also took it on an empty stomach. The first week I took 1 mg/day, this worked great for one week, after one week I began sweating again so I decided to take 2 mg/day. 2 mg/day worked good again for about a week. But later I decided to take 3 mg/day, until 3 mg also didn't work anymore. After that I just stopped.

I have had my first few days on my new job now. I was wearing cotton cloting and I decided to wear gloves. I was really scared for the reactions that would come. But my new colleages were understanding about it. I didn't tell everyone why I'm wearing the gloves, but they do not seem to have a problem with it. When someone asks, then I just tell them about HH, and if I don't feel like telling them about HH I just say 'I think it looks nice', haha:)

For now I'm still thinking about what I'm going to try next with my hands. Reading your advice and experiences really helps. Thank you.
 
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