My story, trying Avert

Hey All
New to these forums, so please ignore my messed up other posting!
Anyway nice to see so many fellow sufferers, well not "nice to see" but nice to see Im not the only one.

So sorry if this is a bit long but feels nice to share!
Im 25 and have been sweating since I was 16 or so. The problem is mostly my hands, literally dripping sweat almost all the time. Feet can also get bad and I sometimes get sweat attacks where it will start pouring out of my back, chest and forehead. But for the most part, the issue is my hands.
Throughout highschool and undergrad I mostly ignored this issue. I didnt let it affect me too badly, It definitely hurt me socially, and it was incredibly annoying when typing, writing, driving ect. but i survived. Alcohol seemed to make it go away, and most girls I dated were understanding, although it made for awkward first dates. I tried certain-dri but found it did nothing.

After undergrad I began law school, and suddenly HH began seriously affecting me. With the focus on public speaking, interviews, and lots and lots of handshakes, i found my confidence starting to seriously suffer and I become so distracted constantly thinking about my sweat.
This became unbearable during the interview process for summer jobs during my 2nd year. This is a super competitive process thats basically like speed dating where you have 15 min per interview with 10 min in between, and i had 20 over 2 days. This was a nightmare for a HH sufferer and despite stellar marks, I was not able to get a job.
After this, I tried drysol, which helped a little but inconsistently and not much, and tried botox twice. The first time it worked well for about 3 months, the second time it worked OK for about a month and that was about it. Overall way too expensive for very little help.

In my last year, I had another round of interviews for 1st year, post-grad positions. fortunately these interviews were less crazy, being a full hour with at least 30 min in between. This time I was much more prepared, I drenched my hands in drysol the night before, avoided caffeine, bought a kleinarts quick dry shirt, brought a handkerchief to wipe my hands, and even a small thing of talcum powder that I applied before each interview. All this effort managed to get my hands more or less under control and I was actually able to secure a job with a litigation (trial lawyer) firm.

Unfortunately my troubles with HH did not end with employment. I am now finding work as a lawyer impossible with HH. No one trusts a lawyer with sweaty hands, and the thinking and worrying about it makes me appear not confident and very distracted. Simply put HH is not compatible with a career in law.

In desperation I searched the internet and found this site, among others suggesting glyco pills. Fortunately I live in toronto so ordering avert is easy, and I have decided to give it a try.

I found reading others experiences with avert very helpful in deciding whether to try this option so I in that vein, I decided to join this forum so I can share my experience with you. I'll let you know how it goes!

Consider Iontopheresis. It has the potential to work wonders on your hands and feet.

Welcome to the forum Wetpalms. You will find a great community here with tons of helpful information. Have you thought about getting into some law related field where you don't have to shake hands with people all the time? How about working online or over the phone but still in the legal field?

I had moderate success with Glyco so it's worth a try for sure. Right now I use iontophoresis for my hands and it is the best solution I have found so far. I would recommend it as well.

Wetpalms, consider yourself lucky that you have it mostly on your hands and not
your face or forehead. You have many options. Iontopheresis, creams, medications.
You can quickly brush your hand against your pants before you shake someone's hand.
Palmar HH can be contained, many others have.

Hey guys, thanks for the responses.
My pills should arrive tomorrow so I will let you know how it goes.
Im hesitant to try ionto, im very skeptical of it as no one seems to know why it works and the machines can be expensive. But I may have to try that route.

Hyp-hi, I really hate the idea of letting this condition control my life. And I cant agree with the idea that anyone with a medical condition, albeit an embarrassing one, should allow it to hold them back. HH sucks, but its no where near the worst condition one could have, and I have seen amazing people with much larger challenges overcome them.
Litigation is something I greatly enjoy, and I am willing to accept some embarrassment and awkwardness to do it. Plus, my sweating does not seem to be related at all to anxiety, (except when I become anxious from sweating!) its more of a constant thing, so I dont think my field exacerbates the condition.

WetPalms said:

Hey guys, thanks for the responses.
My pills should arrive tomorrow so I will let you know how it goes.
Im hesitant to try ionto, im very skeptical of it as no one seems to know why it works and the machines can be expensive. But I may have to try that route.

Hyp-hi, I really hate the idea of letting this condition control my life. And I cant agree with the idea that anyone with a medical condition, albeit an embarrassing one, should allow it to hold them back. HH sucks, but its no where near the worst condition one could have, and I have seen amazing people with much larger challenges overcome them.
Litigation is something I greatly enjoy, and I am willing to accept some embarrassment and awkwardness to do it. Plus, my sweating does not seem to be related at all to anxiety, (except when I become anxious from sweating!) its more of a constant thing, so I dont think my field exacerbates the condition.

Click to expand...

If I just had palmar HH, I would not take Avert. I would just use antiperspirant creams, or iontopheresis, or Secure Wipes. The Secure
Wipes have the same active ingredient as Avert but you apply them topically. This is good because you don't have to deal with the side effects
as much. Avert pills give you a very dry mouth and throat. If you're the type of lawyer that has to talk a lot, it won't be that easy with a very dry mouth. You'll need to be drinking water every 10 minutes to moisten your mouth and throat.

I take the Avert pills because Secure Wipes aren't as easy to use on the face and forehead. But if it was just my hands that needed help, I would try the Secure Wipes. Pharmacy.ca sells them.

Hey everyone,

So as promised, here's an update for how avert has been working for me. hopefully this will help some of the people lurking on these forums in making a decision.

So I have now been taken avert for 3 days and so far this drug is incredible! I am very impressed.

If it helps you guys with determining dosage: im about 5'11, 180 lbs

Day 1:
I took a 1.5mg avert a good hour before breakfast.
I didnt notice much on this day. No side effects, but also sweating seemed about the same, maybe a bit less than usual but not noticable

Day 2:
same drill, 1.5 mg, one hour before food.
For the first few hours, went about my day, sweating seemed about the same. Then later in the afternoon I was doing work and realized, I havent been sweating. My keyboard which is normally soaked, is completely dry. I was probably dry for a few hours and didnt even realize it!
So i then decided to stress test it, weve had unseasonably warm weather here this weekend so I went for a good jog. Some sweating but seemed like a normal person amount, not bad at all. I did get dehydrated and a bit nauseous quicker than usual and had to stop to cool down and get some water. Other than that no real side effects. The meds seemed to stop working around dinner time.

Day 3
today the meds seemed to kick in much faster, by late morning I was pretty dry. i noticed my hands are not completely dry (it was again a very warm day) but definitely much better than usual. An amount i can live with.

Overall these drugs are incredible, I literally feel like a different person and cant wait to try them out at work this week. I will probably need to up my dose a little or take a second pill later in the day however, as they seem to be effective for only about 6 hours of the day.

Right on man, keep us posted with how things are going for you.

I just started taking Robinul 4mg 2hrs before breakfast and that so far has made me almost 100% dry throughout the day, but that was this weekend just running errands and being at home. When I go back to school on monday with some anxiety situations or just social interactions well see how my hands can handle that. I was previously taking 2mg the night before and 2mg in the mornings with my thought process being that 2mg at night gets it in my system but everyone was so right, no point in taking it at night at all. I'm dry when I sleep anyway. 2mg in the mornings alone wasn't enough to keep me dry, so far though 4mg has done it for me. I know Margie mentioned she has to take 6mg daily.

husky337 said:

Right on man, keep us posted with how things are going for you.

I just started taking Robinul 4mg 2hrs before breakfast and that so far has made me almost 100% dry throughout the day, but that was this weekend just running errands and being at home. When I go back to school on monday with some anxiety situations or just social interactions well see how my hands can handle that. I was previously taking 2mg the night before and 2mg in the mornings with my thought process being that 2mg at night gets it in my system but everyone was so right, no point in taking it at night at all. I'm dry when I sleep anyway. 2mg in the mornings alone wasn't enough to keep me dry, so far though 4mg has done it for me. I know Margie mentioned she has to take 6mg daily.

Click to expand...

6 mg is the max, in the worst hot weather. But 4 mg is fairly standard for me, if I'm going to be active. It's different for everyone, and can be different from one day to the next--weird ailment.

-M.

Thanks for the dosage tips guys!
I think I'm going to stick with the single 1.5mg for a week or two, ensure I'm not getting any serious side effects, and then try to take a second pill later in the day.

Have you found thats its actually necessary to take avert on an empty stomach?
Working around food is easy in the morning but not so much if you want to take a booster around lunch time.

Thanks for all the advice!

What's up man, for me the 2 hours before breakfast is critical. This surprised my dermatologist when I told her, she believed that it wouldn't make a difference when I first brought this up to her.

But it does make a difference, when I take my pills then go back to sleep for 2 hours, I almost always wake up dry and stay dry for a varying time. When I've taken my pills right around breakfast either before or after, my hands are already wet and they stay wet for awhile until I can put myself under a direct fan or air conditioner to get them dry and then sometimes they stay dry sometimes they don't. But that's just me, but the difference is huge.