VerySweatyBetty.com

I’m very excited about this – you can call me Stupid Cupid, I won’t mind!

How fantastically simple is this idea – a dating site for people with health problems! I’ve been thinking of producing something like this for a while and eventually got around to Googling to see if it already exists and here we are! I’ve had a quick chat with the site owner already and hope to be catching up with him when he’s got a bit more time. This really is a ground-breaking site.

How lovely would it be to not have to worry about getting sweaty hands on a first date or fretting over the best time – and how to – tell this new person about your hyperhidrosis and worrying what they will think about it?

If only I had a pound for the times I’ve heard from members who have given up on finding someone special because of the sheer stress, I’d be out right now – shopping for some rather yummy shoes that I wouldn’t be able to walk in.

All I can say is go for it, you have a huge advantage from the outset and absolutely nothing to lose. I know if I wasn’t married then I’d be biting the bullet – life is an adventure, no matter who you are – and time is too short not to have the adventures you really deserve to have.

Oh, and please let me know in good time if I need to buy a new hat – and those shoes, too…

Good luck my lovelies!

Click here to go through to the discussion thread and the dating website

It doesn’t matter what your age or sex is, hyperhidrosis doesn’t discriminate.

Wherever your sweat is, it’s miserable, awkward, annoying, frustrating – but there’s no need for me to tell you that, we all run out of adjectives for it and it never seems to cover our suffering with any great adequacy.

I’ve found a product that I think men will love.  Maybe women, too.  I don’t see why we can’t try these out – especially in the colder seasons!

They’re moisture-wicking boxer shorts and have a high rating and good customer reviews.  If crotch/truncal and or back sweating bothers you to any degree then these just might give you some relief and restore a bit of confidence.  Even better – they’re on sale right now – giving them a trial run won’t break the bank.

Link to boxer shorts (opens in new window)

If these aren’t enough for your sweating (lets face it, no one product is enough for some of us, unfortunately) then a layering strategy might well be something that will work well for you.  It’s the only thing that works well for me.  If you need that bit extra, how about Denise’s Wrapps?  They began life for one lady’s groin hyperhidrosis and have gone from strength to strength – through word of mouth, now even sports men and women wear these, even if they don’t have hyperhidrosis.  It’s so much more comfortable to be dry – and the only way anyone will know you’re wearing one is if you tell them.

Link to Wrapps (opens in new window)

Whilst I haven’t tried the men’s moisture wicking boxers, I have tried the Wrapps and I can guarantee they’re a life saver.  As the Wrapps can be purchased in sample packs of two, it doesn’t break the bank to give them a try.  I have about 20 of them now – that’s enough for me to last a week during the hottest of summer days with normal everyday use – housework, shopping, gardening – I lead an exciting life!

Keep checking back, we’ll help you to take control of your sweating so you can get on with doing something altogether more interesting – with so much more confidence!

• ETS was banned in Sweden – it’s birthplace – in 2003 after overwhelming complaints of side effects and disabilities resulting from the surgery.
• 51% of ETS patients have reported a decreased quality of life.
• Sympathectomy can have adverse changes in how your nerves function and alters many bodily functions including lungs, eyes, heart rate, heart stroke volume as well as the autonomic nervous system.  This means your brain may be unable to make the normal automatic adjustments to your environment, emotions, everyday stimuli etc.
• ETS interrupts messages from your brain that would normally travel to many of your organs, glands and muscles.  In fact, your brain will be unable to communicate with a significant proportion of your body once the surgery has taken place.
• Studies have shown that ETS surgery physically causes psychological changes.
• A common side effect of nerves damaged (in ETS) re-sprouting is known as Frey’s syndrome.  This triggers abnormal facial sweating and excessive sweating when eating.  Even the smell of something can trigger excessive sweating as the signals to the brain are mixed up.
• You may well notice changes in sweating throughout the rest of your body – 25-75% of people experience this.
• One Compensatory Sweating (CS) study shows that as many as 30.9% of people suffer from severe sweating – and around a quarter of those patients described the side effect as ‘major and disabling’.
• Finnish Health Care Authorities have produced a 40 page review that ETS is associated with ‘significant and long term side effects’.
• Chronic pain can develop after surgery due to damage of nerves.  This pain can’t be cured as once nerves have been damaged, there’s no way of reversing it.
• Some ETS patients need to have a pacemaker fitted after surgery as their heart rate slows down considerably and dangerously.
• Reversal must be performed within a few days/weeks but it’s wise not to expect to recover to pre-ETS health as the chances are so slim they’re almost non-existent.
• One study has shown an increase in sweating by ETS patients – by comparing before and after results.
• Be prepared to stop exercising – your ability may well be diminished after having ETS.
• ETS has a far too high rate of regret attached – one study of patients shows a very low rate of satisfaction in 28% of people.

These facts and figures all stack up, the risks are significant – Russian Roulette springs to mind – at best it’s a huge gamble.  As these statistics are so damning, why is ETS actually still an option outside Sweden?  Why are some surgeons ignoring these studies and claiming ETS has a 100% rate of success?  My own thought on that final question is yes, technically speaking, ETS cures sweaty hands.  Omitting to relay the rest of the information is hardly the sign of a trustworthy professional in my book.

For the full article, please click here.

We were up bright and early that Saturday morning, drank some coffee and got myself ready, thought no point in really styling my hair as it’s going to be a mess with sweat from the anxiety that was building up over having facial and cranial Botox.

The drive to Austin was about an hour and half and even though it was early that Saturday morning in June the sun had some punch and I was hot by the time we pulled up into the parking lot of Dr Carrasco’s office.  The temperature gauge in the car reads 87 degrees.

The walk from the parking lot to the office I could feel my anxiety rise, I kept telling myself to stop being silly it is not really a long, painful procedure and to remind myself of the relief I get from having this done.

Walked into the very modern, stylish waiting room, the staff are so nice and friendly, they make you feel welcome the moment you walk in.  I sign in and the receptionist tells me to take a seat and Dr Carrasco will be with me soon.

We sit there, the air conditioner is on and it is lovely and cool I relax a while pick up a pamphlet on skin cancer and proceed to read.  My phone vibrates I check it and it is from Beverly telling me news of another Hyperhidrosis group starting and the stealing all our members!!!  I feel the panic begin and my anxiety getting worse.  I did not however read the end of the email where she proceeds to say it’s a joke to help get me more anxious to show my sweating.  Sweating at this point is essential as it helps Dr Carrasco locate my sweat glands to make the most of my Botox injections.  Ironically, if I didn’t sweat at this point, the Botox would be hit-and-miss and doubtless wouldn’t work.  I was called back into the procedure room by the assistant and could not at this time get back in touch with naughty Beverly!

Her email worked, I was sweating bad.  The assistant took my vitals and asked if there was any change in history in my health.  Dr Carrasco came in and we talked for a while and he explained about the procedure that was happening today.  I was having facial, cranial Botox done.  He left as his assistant continued to do the starch and iodine test on me, this is to show exactly where the sweat glands are and the areas of severe sweating.  Once the starch is over the iodine it turns black.  After a few minutes Dr Carrasco comes back in and takes a look at me.  Seems I sweat worse on one side than the other.

The assistant gets  me cleaned up and ready for the procedure.  The tension is bad, I can feel myself locking up but Dr Carrasco talks to me and this calms me down.  He tells me where to expect the sticks from the needle and says probably will be around 100 or more sticks on my forehead, hair line and scalp.  I take a big breath, he places his hand on my arm as asks, “Are you ready, Anne?”  I say, “As ready as I ever be!”  I close my eyes as the first needle goes into my forehead, the first few hurt and sting but they go in so fast and just below the skin so after a few you forget it and it is over within 30 minutes.

I get cleaned up after, removing the dried blood (tiny amounts where the needle went in) and the starch and iodine.  The areas which have had the Botox are sore at first and there can be some swelling and bruising.  I noticed that I had slight swelling and head aches for the first few days.  This is a normal side effect from having Botox.  Dr Carrasco told me it can take up to a week or so to start seeing it work.  I ask him how long with this last?  He replied anywhere from 4-7 months, could even be longer, people break it down differently, it all depends on your own antibodies.  Also with having facial Botox the muscle in the forehead is the largest and this will be temporary paralyzed from the Botox and will feel heavy and stiff.

We chat about future treatments and talked about doing my armpits as this is another area that really troubles me with sweating, sweat marks so bad that I leave salt lines.

We hug and shake hands and I say my thank you’s and see you soon.

Walk out of the building and my face is sore, we grab some breakfast so I can take an anti inflammatory to help with the pain and swelling.  I can feel after a hour or so the Botox already working as my forehead gets stiffer, by the end of the day my forehead is feeling so heavy and feels like my eyelids are drooping and heavy.

After a week the Botox fully kicks in and it is the best treatment of all regardless how hot it is or humid my forehead is not sweating at all.  I don’t have sweat dripping down into my eyes stinging them.  I am able to style my hair and wear makeup and not look or feel like a freak!  My hair line is also dry and areas of my cranial.  However places of my back hair line are sweating but this I wipe away with a facial towel.  To have the freedom of a sweat free forehead and head is the best feeling of all.

After the weeks go on I notice I have no movement of my eyebrows and can not raise my forehead.  Now completely frozen, my forehead becomes quite the conversation piece and friends try to make you raise your eyebrows.  It seems very strange at first but after about a month of so this eases and now it has been four months I have movement again in my eyebrows and some of my forehead.  This means my antibodies are breaking the Botox up, but if it gets me through the hottest part of the summer here in South Texas I will gladly go back again and again to be sweat free for a while and feel normalish again.

Laulas shirts

As just about everyone on www.verysweatybetty.com knows, I’ve suffered with Hyperhidrosis all my life.  That’s 43 years, in case you were wondering.

Hyperhidrosis is a non-discriminatory skin disease which affects a significant proportion of people across the world.  It is estimated to affect around 3% of the population – although if you’re like I was, thinking it was ‘just me’ – then you don’t bother to see your doctor about it.  That means the 3% figure is nothing more than a minimum guestimate.

There’s sadly no cure for Hyperhidrosis.  Not yet, anyway.  Anyone or any website who claims differently is not worth bothering with.  These sites exist for one reason only, that’s to make money from people like us, people who are desperate enough part with a lot of money for drugs, ebooks, surgical procedures, various products that claim to cure us and end our suffering.  Trust me, if there was a cure then I’d be out enjoying life instead of shying away from hot and humid weather and you wouldn’t be reading this review.  Instead, I choose to spend my time helping people come to terms with – and learn to cope with their excessive sweating.  For free.  And no, I don’t get paid.  This is a labour of love!

From time to time, verysweatybetty.com is lucky enough to trial different products.  As we would do practically anything to help our members, we take the hits for you.  There’s nothing worse than spending lots of money on something that claims to work but at the end of the day, makes little or no impact on your symptoms.  When we get to try products, we report back – honestly – and that helps you to make a more informed choice.

A product I’ve been trying for the last few weeks is a Laulas tee-shirt from www.sweat-help.com.  Gerhard, who also suffers from Hyperhidrosis, has invented and perfected the Laulas over many years and it works so well they actually don’t have a need to sell any other products.

This is the production information on their website – www.sweat-help.com:

The Laulas tee-shirt is made by a traditional Swiss Company
The fabric is 100% cotton with the Oekotex standard 100 seal (tested for harmful materials, produced in an environment friendly establishment)
100% cotton yarn of “Swiss cotton ring” (women’s shirt with 5% Lycra)

My verdict – the Laulas more than lives up to it’s high production values.  It’s the softest, lightest, silkiest feeling cotton tee-shirt I’ve ever felt.  It’s nothing like the thick, stiff cotton garments that are more commonplace – there really is no comparison between Laulas fabric and just about any other tee-shirt brand available.  On that alone, you will be thrilled with your purchase.

I have taken the next part direct from Laulas’ website (http://www.sweat-help.com/help)

Naturally sweating, let it flow, don’t prevent it!
I have been looking for possibilities to let my sweat just flow but haven’t found anything.
Until my t-shirt! 2003 – my first prototype was ready and a new life began.
Being able to wear blue shirts, reach up in the air, being able to just take off the jacket when it’s warm in the room was wonderful.
It took a while until everything was ready …

But now it’s here!

The functional shirt is for women and men

* The shirt that makes it possible to just let the axillary sweat flow and nobody can see it.
* The shirt that gives you new freedom.
* The shirt that takes away the fear of extreme sweating and reduces the visibility of sweat.
* It only takes you two minutes a day.

The result

* No changes to your body, neither from the inside nor from the outside
* No white lines on your shirts – No discolored shirts anymore
* No fear of lifting the arms.
* No pitiful and disgusted looks anymore.

Letting your sweat flow makes a lot of sense.  Bear with me, I’ll explain as best I can.  When you sweat, it’s for a reason – it’s to cool you down and prevent us from the dangers of overheating.  You will only stop sweating until your body is at the right temperature.  If you blocked every single one of your pores, then you wouldn’t sweat.  However, that would completely go against the whole reason for us having the ability to sweat in the first place.  If you blocked half of your pores, you would still sweat from the unblocked pores – but the likelihood is that you’d sweat more and for longer.  Your body would be working much harder to cool you down.  This is borne out by the vast majority of people who have had surgery for their sweating – ETS (Endoscopic Thoracic Sympathectomy), which blocks off sweating from above the nipple line, instead delivers unacceptably high levels of sweat from below the nipple line.  This is called Compensatory Sweating (CS).  Letting your sweat flow is natural and not a danger to your health.  Until we have a cure, the only thing you can really do for it is to manage it the best way you can.

The Laulas concentrates a lot of it’s energies towards helping Axillar Hyperhidrosis – in other words, sweaty armpits.  I’m from London, originally, and anybody who has ever travelled on the underground train network will have lost count of all the enormous patches of sweat appearing from their own underarms and those of their fellow passengers.  The Laulas is there to actively catch this sweat.  It also has discrete little pockets you can pad with absorbent paper (Tempo, Plenty etc) which will help even the heaviest sweater.  I’m an average underarm sweater and didn’t need to use the extra padding.

My Laulas tee-shirt arrived at just the right time.  We have recently had builders in to refit our kitchen and fit both bedrooms, that involved a lot of sweat-inducing work as we had to move everything out of these rooms so they could have access.  This also happened to be during the hottest few weeks of the (UK) summer.

I was really pleased with the hard-working efficacy of the tee-shirt.  For a garment to be so soft, you just can’t possibly understand just how mighty it’s hidden power is until you’ve tried it for yourself.  As it’s 100% cotton, it absorbs well and dries fast.  No matter how much I sweated, it caught it and helped it to evaporate.  I knew how bad I was sweating because the rest of my body was drenched – I’m an extreme sweater and sweat from my scalp to my feet.  The only area the sweat was actively contained and hidden was on my upper body.  Although the Laulas places a lot of focus on the underarm area, it still helps with other problem areas of sweating.  My back is one of the areas I sweat the most and usually my tee-shirts end up wringing wet – the Laulas even helped with that, no break-through back-sweat.

The Laulas is simple, effective and very comfortable.  No matter whether you’re male, female, young or old, there is a Laulas for everyone – I can’t recommend them highly enough.

Beverly Stacey
www.verysweatybetty.com

Useful links (open in new windows)  Laulas website and Laulas video

Here at VSB Towers, we get many emails asking for help and advice.  This week I received an email from a mother who was at her wit’s end – her child (who suffers with Hyperhidrosis) is so convinced that she smells when she sweats (mum has tried to reassure her that there’s no odour) that she is constantly washing and using deodorants.  My heart went out to the young girl and I can fully appreciate her train of thought.  Of course, I wrote back – I’ve removed all personal information and made a few little alterations so it can be reused as a blog, but the advice hasn’t altered.

To see more of this, please click here (opens in new window)