b e t t e r
h e a l t h
B H G ’s health and
fa m ily editor,
C h ristian M illm an,
w arily trie s out
Botox on his
arm pits.
You know how I
gauge how warm a
day it is? By how long
it takes to sweat
through my shirt. If
it's cool, I last until 10
am . If it’s hot and
muggy, I don’t make it to the car before wet spots appear.
I have what the medical types call hyperhidrosis.
Which means I sweat a lot. This puts me in the company
of millions of other Americans. Excessive sweating
happens equally to men and women, but it’s often more
embarrassing to women. You’re supposed to “glow,”
after all, not pit out your shirts like a linebacker. Men get a
little more leeway, but it’s still not fun to sweat through a
dress shirt in a professional environment such as mine.
So when I heard that Botox—the same stuff used to
smooth crow’s feet and furrowed brows—could stop
excessive sweating, I was intrigued enough to try it. That
led me to Dr. Charles Love, a dermatologist in nearby
West Des Moines, Iowa. Botox, I asked him? In my armpits?
“People think of it as a cosmetic brand and don’t
Д
ж іім ж ж
&
ріуйш
realize it has a very long history of use as a therapeutic
drug,” he tells me. Besides excessive sweating, it has also
been used on migraines and some types of back pain. For
almost all of the patients he sees, insurance pays, which is
a good thing because it costs about $1,500. But
hyperhidrosis is a legitimate medical condition, and most
insurers recognize it.
I take my shirt off and Love’s staff lacquers my
underarms with layers of iodine and cornstarch. I begin
to feel like a junior high science experiment. Then I begin
to look like one. The cornstarch holds the sweat and the
iodine reacts to it, creating a bright purple map of where
it’s coming from. They do this because each armpit is
very different in how it releases sweat and Love needs to
know that pattern—it shows him where to make the
15-17 injections each underarm requires.
It takes him about 30 seconds per side to make the
needed injections. They’re not exactly comfortable but
neither do they hurt as much as a flu shot
After his nurses wipe my armpits clean (a rather
pleasant feeling), Love tells me I can expect the shots to
start working in a week or so and last up to 7 months.
I don’t have to wait a week for results. Two days later,
I feel something very strange in my armpits—dryness. I
am among the 85 percent of people for whom this
procedure works. The singer Sophie Tucker once said,
“I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Believe me, honey, rich
is better.” Apologies to Sophie, but I’ve been wet and I’ve
been dry. Honey, dry is better.
EDITOR’S
NOTE
Lab Rats is
a new feature in
which
Better Homes
and Gardens'
staff
members try out
various health
practices, products,
and procedures on
them selves and
report the results.
Have an idea for
som ething you’d like
to see us do? E-m ail
BHGfeatures(cc
meredith.com.
2 2 4 AUGUST 20 0 9
BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS
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