2-Year Dermadry Case Study: Angel

Since my last two Dermadry videos, I've gotten so many more questions and comments asking me how my experience with Dermadry has been thus far. Have I continued to use it and do I really think that it is a viable product for those who suffer from excessive sweating?

So I thought I would just go ahead and hop on and share another video with you guys kind of going over stuff that I've might have missed, and my experience with it. I'll touch on how often I still use it, how it's been working for me, and then also I think this time I'm going to demonstrate the armpit pads for you, because I realized that I never demonstrated that aspect of it, and some people were asking about that. So, I will show you how that all works today. But more importantly than that, I kind of wanted to do this video again, because like most of my other videos where I talk about more sensitive topics, I really want to break the taboo around the topic of excessive sweating.

It actually affects one out of 20 people. And those who do suffer from excessive sweating, sweat four to five times more than the average person. Essentially their sweat glands, they never shut off, and they're constantly “on”, meaning that they sweat in circumstances that the average person wouldn't be sweating in.

So for example, when you're nervous, your palms get really clammy. I don't know if your palms get really clammy, but my palms get really clammy. Those who do suffer from excessive sweating find that their palms get so sweaty, like so sweaty that it may hinder their social experiences, making them not want to shake people's hands, making them not want to touch somebody.

It’s kind of a mentally tiring ailment that people deal with. Yes, I know this condition is non-threatening, but it really does take a toll on your mental health when excessive sweating is something that you have to deal with constantly. It can lead to psychological, emotional, and social impacts. Like I said, it can just take a toll on the person who is suffering from the condition, especially because often they feel like they have to plan their plans around their sweating. For example, my biggest weak point, I guess I don't even want to call it a weak point, it's just where I suffer from excessive sweating the most, is my feet. And I remember when I was in high school, when I used to be very self-conscious about this issue, that I would bring like two or three pairs of socks around with me so that I can change it throughout the day. And then if I get invited to somebody's house, I often feel really, really anxious and really nervous knowing that I'm going to have to remove my shoes because one of the side-effects of having really sweaty feet and wearing runners all day is that your feet probably kind of smell pretty foul. And that was something I definitely suffered with. So, I always had so much anxiety going over to people's houses and knowing that I had to take off my shoes because I was just so scared that somebody was going to make fun of me for my sweaty feet, make fun of me for how my feet smell.

It's definitely not something I care about so much anymore, especially since I started trying different products to try to reduce the effects of my excessive sweating. So I find that it really has improved my quality of life, being able to kind of deter the side effects or get rid of the side effects. But yeah, just kind of knowing firsthand how that felt and kind of constantly, almost bashing on myself for having this condition. It's good to know that there are companies out there who are researching this condition and seeing how it can be resolved.

More than just emotionally. I did have physical side effects that sucked as well. Cause if you're wearing socks all day and your feet are stuck in your shoes and it's hot and you're sweating, often I would get little rashes, like bumpy, scaly rashes along the top of my feet, or kind of in between my toes. At its worst, like a hot summer's day, and out all day in runners, I sometimes get it on the underside of my foot and that would always be the worst because those rashes get really sensitive and sting. So walking around with that on the bottom of your foot, highly uncomfortable, don't recommend it. Like it was not pleasant and I've definitely seen those physical effects reduced by like a ton. Honestly, I barely get that anymore.

Summer's almost over here, it's August. And although I do try to take precautions, like wear open toed shoes in the summer because I know that my feet get really hot. There are days that I just can't avoid it. Like when I'm playing tennis, when I'm going to the gym, et cetera, and I need to be in runners. But even on those days, on a hot summer's day, I'm running around outside sweating, playing tennis, I find that I don't really get the rashes anymore. My feet don't really stink at home anymore. So yeah, I find that it really has improved my quality.

So going into how often I still use the product. So, I won't lie. It's not something that I was able to keep up for a long period of time, because you do have to set up the device every time, you have to make sure you wash your cloth that comes with your pads. There is just a bit of a process of setting it up and getting into the habit of using it.

I did use it pretty consistently when I first got it, but since then, I think it's been like over a year now or something, I haven't really been using it that often anymore. I maybe pull it out on the days that I have my self-care spa nights, I'll put on a mask, put on my favorite show, and just do this. But it's not something that I like routinely do week after week anymore. However, I do find that once you keep it consistently going for the first little while, like maybe the first two months, three months, the effects do kind of lessen over time. And then I find that it's been okay with me, just maintaining it every once in a while and trying it again once in a while. Obviously the more you use it, the better results you're going to get. But I think that personally, my condition probably isn't as bad as some other people have it.

Initial impression? I found that I saw results within, I would say, like the first month or two, and then from there, I really didn't need to consistently use it like week after week for it to be effective for me. So some things you notice immediately when you use the product is you'll notice that wherever your area of concern is like, if it's your hands, your feet, your armpits, that your skin will get really dry. And that is just a process of, the actual treatment. So something I do recommend is applying lotion to your affected area after you do your treatment, if dry skin is something that is uncomfortable to you, which it is for me. I have dry skin on my feet naturally just from my excessive sweating condition, but it definitely worsened the dry skin. So I just like to moisturize my feet after, and for the couple of days post-treatment just to keep my skin nice and moisturized, and so it's not feeling tight or uncomfortable or anything like that.

Do you recommend Dermadry?

I've explored a lot of different options when it comes to dealing with this issue. I personally would choose iontophoresis, the treatment, over any other treatment and or any other solution just because I find that it is actually the most effortless treatment. So some of the other solutions for excessive sweating, if you guys haven't done your own research, you can do Botox. So Botox will actually help turn off those sweat glands for those people who have this condition and whose sweat glands can't turn off on their own. So, Botox will actually help with that. However, if you've gotten any Botox done in the past, or if you've just researched it, Botox can get very, very expensive. And it's a treatment that you have to constantly keep up. So that's like several hundred dollars a year, maybe even like thousands of dollars a year, depending on where you go and how often you have to go.

So, that just wasn't a viable option for me. Some other solutions are deodorant. I've tried so many different kinds of deodorant. You guys don't even know I've tried the spray kind, the powder kind. I found that both the spray and the powder always just left your shoes really gross and icky. And for somebody who does like to buy the occasional nice pair of shoes and nice pair of sneakers, I don't really like to be gunking up my shoes with powder and deodorant. If you think about it, powder on your feet sounds like it'd be the right thing to dry out your sweat, but for somebody who excessively sweats that powder just gets wet and turns into a goopy mess. So I really didn't like that solution.

I know there was another company that reached out to me that have products that are kind of like dry products as well. So they have wipes, they have lotions, for you to apply to your affected area, which actually was pretty effective. Um, but it's just too cumbersome of a thing for me to do daily. I know the wipes you can take with you and do throughout the day, the lotions you can apply after your shower and stuff like that. But it was something that you had to maintain every single day, before you went out, during, if your feet get really sweaty. It's just something that had such a process to it that it was definitely something that I knew I wasn't going to keep up.

So, although I say the Dermadry treatment isn't something that I continue to do week after week now. It's not something that you have to do daily, and it's something that once you keep it consistent for, like I said, one or two months, then it's something that you can just maintain after that. I really like that because it just seems like the most effortless process for me as somebody who is kind of lazy when it comes to these things. So yeah, I just kind of liked that I can add it to my self-care routine once every couple of weeks or two weeks, three weeks, and I'm good to go for the next little while.I just found that it was a better machine, both money-wise, time-wise, and effort wise. It's just the most economical solution.

How long did it take to see results?

So I started seeing results, well like I said, you'll see that the skin starts to dry out almost immediately, like after the first or second time that you use it.

But I really started to see results kind of a couple months in, so maybe like two months in. I started noticing that my feet were getting a lot less sweaty, those physical side effects that I was saying, like the rashes and stuff weren't showing up as much anymore. Given I do take my own precautions when it comes to my sweating, so for example, in the summertime, I will try to wear open toed shoes as much as I can. And then in the winter time I just try to wear better shoes. So that's a huge tip that I have for those who do suffer from excessive sweating in their feet is to just buy nice shoes, like nice leather lining usually I find helps. Not like cheap sneakers, and then also just to not wear the same pairs of shoes, like two days in a row. So space out your shoes so that you're wearing it once every two or three days. I find that that helps a lot with definitely the scent, but as you know, if you're sweating within your shoes all day, it does leave that dampness to it.

So if you're putting your feet into your shoes again, before it dries out and airs out completely, then it's probably going to smell pretty bad/it's not going to be very good for your skin, which is also probably what was causing the rashes. So I would definitely say that this treatment isn't your one stop shop and that you have to kind of take these precautions as well. If you're somebody who, like me in high school, really suffered from anxiety due to your condition, I don't think that taking those precautions like wearing different shoes every day or wearing nicer or investing in a nicer pair of shoes—I don't think those precautions are ridiculous.

I mean, I also do enjoy just styling different shoes with different outfits, so it never really even was a thing or a habit that I had to build, but it's just these little things that really help. Obviously the treatment is great and it will reduce your sweating. But like I said, it definitely isn't that like “one big solution”, where you do it a couple of times and you're just good for life—it doesn't work like that. So the long and the short of it is: yeah, I think that this treatment is totally effective, but just don't expect it to be like your magical solution that will solve it for life, because it is something that you will have to maintain as well as just kind of like be mindful of in other areas as well.

I hope I answered most of your guys’ questions. I'm going to show you guys how the armpit pads work this time because they do work a little bit differently than the feet and the hands where you put your hands in the water. So here is the device box. Again, if you guys haven't seen my previous two videos and you have no idea what I'm talking about, this is the Dermadry iontophoresis machine, which is a treatment that helps with excessive sweating.

Essentially what comes in the box is your actual Dermadry machine, which is the device that actually outputs the electrical current. You get your power cord, of course. And then you got several different options.

I opted for the machine that does your hands, your feet, and your armpits. But I believe you can choose machines that are just for your hands and feet or for your armpits. They give you a booklet of instructions on how to use it, which was very important. Don't lose this because there's a lot of stuff that you have to read throughout. So there are like cautions. So for example, placing the device on a firm and stable. surface, never use more than 500 milliliters of top water into the tray, disconnect the AC adapter during the bad weather conditions, etc. There's just a lot of cautions that they give you, which I think you should read through this booklet carefully before you start, because obviously you are using a machine that produces electrical current. So you just want to be a little bit careful. It also tells you the different levels of, of treatment, which will treat different levels of severity when it comes to your hyperhidrosis.

So, level one is for mild hyperhidrosis, which is three to five times per week for about one to two weeks. Level two is moderate hyperhidrosis, which is three to five times per week for about two to three weeks. And then severe hyperhidrosis would be three to five times per week for about four to six weeks. So I did mine a little bit differently because like I said, it wasn't very easy for me to build a habit of doing this three to five times a week.

So I probably did it, I would say between one to three times a week, depending on how busy I was for about a month or two. I'm going to be honest, it was probably closer to one to two times a week, if not one time a week, but kind of prolonging the treatment process did help to get me the results that I wanted.

So once you go through phase one, which is the initial treatment, you go into phase two, which is the maintenance phase. The maintenance phase, for level one, mild, is about one treatment every two to three weeks. Level two, moderate, is about one treatment per week. And then level three is about three treatments per week.

So if after that four to six weeks, you have severe hyperhidrosis and you want to maintain the results. You want to keep it up to three treatments per week. So obviously like I said, I would say that I'm probably at a mild hyperhidrosis level. So I do it once, yeah, one one treatment every two to three weeks, and that totally works for me. So how it works is you get these little metal pads. These are called electrodes, and these are what will connect your machine to the actual like treatment area. So your machine comes with these wires and if you're using the ones for the hands and feet, you'll have seen this before, but you connect them to these giant electrodes. But for your underarms, obviously it's not ideal for you to be putting these giant electrodes there, so they provide these small electrodes for you to connect to your machine just like that. So they also give you four of these blue pockets and these will replace the towel in the hands and feet treatment for your armpit treatment. So you want to soak these pads in tap water at about room temperature, so lukewarm, not too cold and not too hot.

So soak these until they're completely wet to make sure that you are evenly applying the current to your entire affected area, and then just insert the electrode into the pocket that is wet. There are two electrodes, put them into each pocket and then you'll have your underarm treatment tools.

Keep in mind to make sure to keep the electrode as deep in the pocket as possible. You want the pocket to completely cover the electrode. You don't want it kind of out like that, because if the actual electrode touches your skin, it will probably cause a reaction, so you don't want that. We want the electrode as deep into the pocket as possible.

They've made these pockets a lot longer than the actual electrode so that there's no chance of you touching yourself with the electrode. So deep into the pockets, and then if these pockets do dry throughout the treatment, for whatever reason, you can just remove it, re-soak them with tap water, and then use them again.

So once your treatment pads are plugged into your machine and your machine is plugged into the wall, you put the treatment pads under your underarms, just like this, and you can do it on both sides together. Again, making sure that the electrodes are nice and in there, because I can totally see myself accidentally pulling them a bit during the treatment. So hiding the electrodes in the pockets and pressing the on button for three seconds to activate the device from there, you'll have the mode selection button to select that you are working on your underarms, and then you just want to adjust the current level to whatever set point so that the current level will slowly climb to that set point.

I would recommend starting on a lower level, just so you kind of get used to the feeling of how it feels. I found that if you like the longer you do your treatments, the more used to the feeling you will get and the less uncomfortable it will be, but I won't lie the first time I tried it, it wasn't painful but I was definitely a little surprised at how it feels. You can feel that there are electrical currents almost like crawling through your skin. So if you go to a high level right away, you might feel a bit of discomfort and I don't recommend it. I recommend slowly building up to a level that's comfortable for you.

Then, as you carry on with your treatments and you get more comfortable with it and your skin gets a little bit more comfortable with it, you can raise up the level, because it is true, the higher level of current you go, and the more often you do it, obviously, the more effective the results will be.

But I definitely don't recommend just forcing yourself to do a high level right away, because it's just not worth feeling that discomfort. Just start slow and work your way up to a higher current and get the results that you want.

Pockets are good for about 30 treatments each. They provide four pockets, which means you can do about 60 treatments. Then what you do afterwards, you pull these out and the pockets you can wash with dish soap and warm water, just get them nice and clean, and then just set them to dry for your next treatment.

So the process itself really isn't complicated, it’s a matter of building up the habit to do this consistently.

If you do suffer from excessive sweating, um, let me know how it's affected your life. Let's just really break the taboo around the topic and just be able to openly talk about this because it really isn't such a big deal, like it's just sweating. I promise you, your life will get so much better as you get older and it's not going to affect you so much anymore. I wish I could go back and tell my high school self that, you just have to take some precautions and there will be better days for you.