RAPID CITY, S.D. – Late summer in South Dakota, beautiful, but certainly hot and dry. What does that mean for most of us? Sweat. It is just part of life, and the body’s way of regulating temperature and removing toxins. Keeping us cool and preventing over-heating through evaporation.
Four-million sweat glands located throughout the entire human body, found in the deeper layers of skin known as the dermis are responsible for this natural reaction. Of those four-million glands, there are two different types, the eccrine and the apocrine glands. Eccrine glands are located throughout the body and produce a light, odorless liquid. Apocrine glands are concentrated in hair follicles and produce an odor.
A solution created by mother nature to keep us cool, for some, is an uncomfortable and sometimes embarrassing condition. An estimated two to three percent of Americans have Hyperhidrosis, also known as excessive sweating. Although not considered to be a life-threatening condition, it can be difficult to find a treatment that works. Options include prescription antiperspirants, creams, nerve-blocking medications, and even antidepressants.
One solution offers a more localized approach, Botox. “We sweat all over our body,” said Nic Yost, CNB, Fnp-BC, owner and operator of BeautyMed, “with Botox we are not suppressing the entire body. Just the areas that are a problem, so you don’t sweat excessively.”
This ability to target the problem areas, allows the body to continue to produce the sweat you need to keep cool and flush toxins through the process of blocking the nerve signals responsible. Yost explains that Botox is a nerve toxin that will temporarily paralyze muscles. This reduces the body’s trigger response when hot or stressed. “You still sweat in other areas, I only inject the area where the problem occurs,” says Yost.
Yost explains that treatment options are a little different for everyone. “I like to have my patients come in for a consult before just scheduling an injections appointment for Hyperhidrosis. This way we can assess the severity of the condition and come up with a plan that will work best for them as an individual,” said Yost.
Typically, Botox injections for this condition last six-months to one-year, said Yost. She went on to explain that each time you do the treatment the longer it lasts.