Archive for Weekly Spotlight
HyperhidrosisAndMe Weekly….er, Flashlight
Posted by: · on September 15, 2010 | CommentsIf you subscribe to this blog, you may have seen my HyperhidrosisAndMe Weekly Spotlight. I like to use this to highlight different pages from this site, giving special attention to treatment options, certain topics, as well as some favorite products of mine. This week, I must confess that my intention was to update hyperhidrosis clothing options for Fall, for both men and women.
Honestly? I struck out. I spent all day Monday searching high and low for great no-sweat-marks clothes for this season, only to come up with only a couple of possibilities that need further research (golly, a brick-and-mortar Shopping Trip, perhaps?).
It is baffling to me why more clothes are not available for this problem! It is frustrating because I have found in my research that the technology exists. There is an eco-friendly fabric treatment– which can be used on any fabric– that claims to absorb moisture next to the skin and minimize sweat marks from appearing on the outer side of the garment. It was developed by a German company called Schoeller and the treatment is called 3XDry. I have mentioned it before on this site, having found a few clothing manufacturers that use it.
These companies make clothes for outdoor active wear, and are mostly made for fly fishermen! So, if you are a fly fisherman with hyperhidrosis, you are in luck, my friend. There are a few decent looking shirts for men that could be considered to be dressy-casual– Woolrich has a couple, and Simms had a few earlier this year, but their website displays very little 3XDry right now. Sierra Trading Post frequently sells 3XDry products for both men and women, but they too have very little to offer at the moment.
Of course, we have the Good Ol’ Standbys:
- Sweaters (ironically named, no?),
- Blazers to hide sweat marks, although they may make you hotter (no, not sexy hotter– well, maybe; hell, I don’t know you)
- Sweat absorbing foundation wear (see my pages on Undergarments!!)
- Colorful patterns to mask the marks
- Nylon mesh fabric (like Sweet Pea by Stacy Frati), if you can find it this time of year; I could not.
- And, our Old Friend…. Black!! (so, so sick of black)
There was also a new company I found online that touted dress shirts for men that would not show sweat. Fresh Max claims that theirs are the only dress shirts in existence to disguise sweating. I plan on contacting them for more information– if their claims hold up, that would be great news!
So I guess this week you got a flashlight when I wanted to give you a Spotlight. I will keep looking for solutions!
HyperhidrosisAndMe Weekly Spotlight: Insurance Coverage for Hyperhidrosis
Posted by: · on September 7, 2010 | Comments
The spotlight this week is on health insurance coverage for hyperhidrosis. I know, YAWN. Please keep reading, though– I have a few points to make that could help with your treatment!
If you have….by any chance… read my report on ETS (on your right, over there → 
), you may know that you really MUST be proactive in dealing with your coverage.
§
Herewith, a few facts and tips:
- In case you haven’t noticed (sarcasm alert), hyperhidrosis does not seem to get much attention in society at large, and also is the red-headed stepchild in the medical community as well. This tends to result in health insurance policies either giving extremely narrow coverage parameters, or ignoring the disorder altogether.
- You really need to know what your policy does or does not cover. Absolutely do not, DO NOT, call your insurance company and ask if something is covered. Read the damn thing yourself. This was a mistake that I made that very nearly cost my family $20,000. It didn’t cost me in cash in the end, but the distress it caused was very real and completely unnecessary. Hypothetically: You call your insurance company and ask, “Am I covered for Botox treatments for hyperhidrosis?” The person on the other end (who gets paid whether or not the answer you get is accurate or not) may respond, “Well, is it medically necessary?” To which you reply, “Yes, absolutely, I think so!” That person then replies, “Well, then you’re covered!” Then, you merrily go on your way and get the treatment. Weeks or months later, a letter comes in the mail from your beloved insurance company informing you that you did not take the proper steps to prove medical necessity and therefore coverage for the treatment is rescinded. And you are left with the bill. Really. That happened to me, but the treatment was not Botox. It was about 20× more expensive.
- Oftentimes, the aforementioned “proper steps to prove medical necessity” for anything invasive and/or expensive require you to do any number of things, such as taking oral medication, using a prescription topical treatment, iontophoresis, etc. Skip any of these steps at your own expense.
- Many policies I have reviewed will only pay for treatment of hyperhidrosis if hyperhidrosis is directly causing skin infections or diseases. This means that you are only eligible for relief from sweating if the sweating is causing you bodily harm. Because we are apparently not suffering enough. (sorry, insurance makes me snarky)
- If your insurance company balks at covering your treatments, a letter of medical necessity from your doctor may change their stance.
- If your insurance company refuses to cover your treatments or if you feel you are being treated unfairly, do not hesitate to contact the insurance commission for your state. This is one of the things that I did, and I think it really helped my case.
- Keep a written record of all communication between you and the insurance company: dates, names, brief outlines of conversations. Also print out any emails and keep any letters. Again, that probably factored in my little victory.
- If it is worth the expense, don’t be afraid to get a lawyer involved. Once again, I did!
- For more information and to download letters of medical necessity and other helpful forms, go to http://www.SweatHelp.org, which is the website for the International Hyperhidrosis Society. See “Insurance Tools”– they have it all covered (pun intended
)!
Please keep in mind that it costs insurance companies NOTHING to rescind payment or promise of payment for a procedure/treatment you have already received! My lawyer told me that the vast majority of people who are denied coverage just accept the decision. Don’t be one of them.
You have a medical disorder: Your Sympathetic Nervous System does not work properly. You do need medical intervention to correct it. You pay for medical insurance; therefore, you have the right to coverage for the medical interventions your hyperhidrosis requires. It is wrong that you should have to fight for that. But you may have to– and I hope you will.
If we don’t fight for what we are entitled to, how will anything change? Do you want to fight insurance companies for the next 20 years? I don’t.
HyperhidrosisAndMe Weekly Spotlight: Your Emotional Health
Posted by: · on August 30, 2010 | CommentsSince I seem to be on a bit of a kick regarding mental/emotional health, I thought it would be logical to focus the ol’ Spotlight on the fields of psychiatry and psychology.
I am one of those people who believe that a little– or a lot– of therapy never hurt anybody. We all have issues. Whether it was a difficult childhood, being bullied in school, substance abuse in the home, or if you secretly suffered from unexplained sweating episodes and were, say, convinced you were a freak (I don’t know where I got that one from)… everyone can benefit from talking it out with someone who knows how to guide you through processing your feelings so that you can move on.
If you have hyperhidrosis– and if you are reading this, let us assume that you do– you may regard this disorder as just a nuisance to be managed and really have a healthy perspective on it. If so, that is commendable and somewhat amazing, in my opinion. I am on a journey to that state of mind! It has been a very long one. If you have read the post from earlier this week about my emotional scars from having hyperhidrosis throughout childhood and beyond, you already know how hard I have had to work to be able to bare my soul to you, my familiar strangers who walk along the same (formerly) lonely road.
If your sense of self was damaged like mine, I can tell you that it helps immeasurably to have someone look at you and tell you all the positive things you are not able to tell yourself. If you are anything like me, you have had so many negative thoughts about yourself swimming around inside your head that there is no sense of perspective, and it is difficult to imagine how everyone else may regard you.
The key to undergoing truly successful therapy is finding a psychologist or licensed clinical social worker who knows what hyperhidrosis is and truly understands the harm it causes the psyche. Unfortunately, this may be like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack– there seems to be precious little awareness about hyperhidrosis in this field. Hopefully, with time, awareness, and a little less shyness on our part (!!!), this will change. In the meantime, just find someone who comes with excellent references and if they are good at what they do, you can help them understand how this has affected your life. Please do not let a therapist tell you the sweating is psychosomatic, and can be entirely controlled or cured from therapy, meditation, or hypnosis. It simply is not true. This happened to me– and the therapist was someone I highly respected and liked. In fact, I still respect this person tremendously and know he is a gifted therapist. He simply was misinformed about what hyperhidrosis is and what causes it, and that is a circumstance that is sadly all too common.
Meditation, therapy and hypnosis may turn out to be excellent tools in helping you to deal with your hyperhidrosis. They may help you to become less anxious, more confident, and happier in general. These tools will not turn off your overactive sweat glands; I just want to make that clear!
So, find thyself a therapist. While you’re at it, make sure your insurance will cover it! I believe it is time to harp away on that subject…. so perhaps next week, we will talk health insurance and your rights! I can sense you are tingling in anticipation…
To bide your time until then, be sure to check out my page called Strategies, if you have not done so already, to see what other tricks and tools I recommend.
HyperhidrosisAndMe Weekly Spotlight: Sweat Management for Women
Posted by: · on August 23, 2010 | CommentsThis week’s spotlight will be shining brightly on how women with hyperhidrosis can dress with more FREEDOM by wearing the right foundation wear.
As I explain in great detail on my page on the subject, called, creatively, “Women’s Undergarments”, there are dozens of undergarments on the market that will enable you to wear almost any style, fabric and neckline with confidence.
Offered in several fabrics in various colors, most of the options involve one or both of these elements: dress shields and camisoles. For example, wearing a camisole can give you that extra layer to absorb any trunk sweating that occurs– and many post-ETS patients deal with Compensatory Sweating here– while at the same time allowing you to place a disposable dress shield upon the camisole in the area of your worst sweating. This shield is called a Body Guard and is sold by Kleinert’s, the leading purveyors of clothing for sweat management.
Camisoles for hyperhidrosis come in a terrific variety of necklines, sleeve lengths and body lengths, and they usually come with dress shields discreetly sewn in. The dress shields are offered with varying barrier levels of sweat protection.
If your main problem is underarm sweating and you feel that a camisole is overkill, you can find a plethora of discreet ways you can wear dress shields. My favorite is offered, again, by Kleinert’s and it is a washable dress shield that snaps firmly onto your bra strap. That way, the dress shield is snug up against your underarm and not weighting down your top and shifting around as you go about your day. This product is called “Ready Shield”– there is a great demonstration video for you to see if you click on the link.
If you check out my “Women’s Undergarments” page, you can see a description of all of these products and many more, and can be directed to a place to purchase them.
If you are sick and tired of wearing black or having to wear a blazer or cardigan over every top you put on, please check out your options.
…You know how your Hyperhidrosis controls so much of your life? Take control of this part of your life. You can wear what you want. It just requires a little thought and one extra step! So take it.
HyperhidrosisAndMe Weekly Spotlight: Antiperspirants
Posted by: · on August 4, 2010 | CommentsThis week I will be focusing The Spotlight on my page that introduces antiperspirants formulated for Hyperhidrosis, called, creatively, Topical Treatments (Anti-perspirants and Medicated Wipes). Having never really given much thought to types of antiperspirants before starting this site, I was staggered by the options that exist.
It quickly became clear to me that all antiperspirants can be categorized into 4 different levels:
- Regular antiperspirants– The various brands and forms of antiperspirants that people who need a normal amount of protection use.
- “Clinical-Strength” antiperspirants– These products are marketed for Hyperhidrosis and contain a higher concentration of the active ingredient aluminum zirconium trichlorohydrex. These antiperspirants are most effective when applied at night, before bed, to completely dry skin. Drugstore.com has a complete selection of these antiperspirants. Click here to see for yourself.
- “Prescription-Strength” antiperspirants– Containing a different, more potent active ingredient called aluminum chloride hexahydrate, these products are definitely stronger. However, they can also cause uncomfortable side effects such as burning and itching. There are many brands on the market, and each brand attempts to prevent these side effects with slightly different approaches. If one does not work for you or has uncomfortable side effects, it is worth it to keep looking. Several of these products offer specific formulations for palmar and plantar sweating! Please click on the page link for more complete information.
- Prescription Antiperspirants such as Drysol and Hydrosal constitute the final and strongest level of antiperspirant one can buy. With up to 8% higher concentration of aluminum chloride hexahydrate, the chances of itching and burning are more significant. A Doctor’s prescription (in the United States, at least) is required.
So there you have a very abbreviated explanation of All Thing Antiperspirant. Please refer to each category’s page for more complete information, including specific side effects reported, more information on ingredients, and brands I have used and/or researched.
Also worth considering are Med e Tate Wipes (to be used as a boost while out and about rather than one’s primary antiperspirant), as well as my personal favorite, Kiehl’s Superbly Efficient Anti-Perspirant & Deodorant Cream, which is terribly versatile (goes Anywhere ).
Remember, no matter what your Treatment of Choice ends up being (if antiperspirants aren’t enough and you use Iontophoresis, meds, or even Botox), you will still need a good antiperspirant. Make sure you find one you really like, because knowing you are protected from odor and even hopefully from wetness can really help boost your confidence. Let’s face it, we need all of that we can get!
HyperhidrosisAndMe Weekly Spotlight: Hyperhidrosis-Friendly Footwear
Posted by: · on July 19, 2010 | CommentsThis week’s spotlight features picks from my Footwear page that I have found to be especially “friendly” to those of us who must be very careful about the choices we make– especially now, in the dog days of summer.
My very favorite “find” for Hyperhidrosis is the absorbent flip-flop. As this type of sandal became wildly popular a few years ago, I felt really sorry for myself that I could not participate. They looked so comfortable. EVERYONE was wearing them. Remember the Northwestern Ladies LaCrosse Team, who went to the White House and were photographed shod in flip-flops en masse? I remember looking at that photo and realizing how truly different I was from pretty much everyone else. These young girls, looking cool and confident in their sundresses and flip-flops, posing with the President… wow, I would have been hiding in the bathroom wearing all black, shoes and socks. Oh, boo-hoo. If you’re reading this with a knowing smirk, you know what I mean. I know, OK, I’m over it!
A teeny, tiny taste of redemption came my way when I discovered that Adidas makes flip flops (and slides too) with an absorbent footbed called FitFOAM. I’ll tell you, it was so great to be able to actually wear flip-flops and not have one bit of worry that anyone would know! You can find them at Amazon
Another shoe brand worth mentioning is Geox, available at Amazon in Women’s ). I also have a pair of flats, which I wear without socks (because I am brainless and partially in denial). When– not if– I have an episode while wearing them, they do tend to get swampy, of course (eeew) but they will, amazingly, dry out in a short amount of time, and often while I am still wearing them (unless the sweat appears again). Just a hunch, but I would stick with flats or athletic wear… I can’t see how a high wedge could really breathe, and I don’t know if the sandals are absorbent enough to be worn with a bare (sweat-prone) foot. As for the rest, they are a bit pricey, but it may be worth splurging on a pair or two.
I also discuss Summer Soles
So, there’s a snapshot of my picks for footwear! Used in conjunction with Summer Soles
HyperhidrosisAndMe Weekly Spotlight: Men’s Undershirts
Posted by: · on July 12, 2010 | CommentsI have tried to make this website as comprehensive as possible. You can find clothing and products that can help you manage your sweating episodes, strategies for coping, and personal stories that you can identify with. I have also tried very hard to explain what your legitimate treatment options are. While I have tried to make it as easy as possible to navigate through all this information, I think that some things may be hard to find. So, I thought that it would be helpful to spotlight one category each week!
This Week: Men’s Hyperhidrosis Undershirts
The page I created for this category addresses several aspects of this topic: for example, fabrics that are available and which ones are better suited for hyperhidrosis control.
FACT: Did you know that wicking, high performance fabrics are great for working out or casual wear but absolutely the WRONG thing to wear under your clothing? Wicking fabrics grab your sweat from the underside of the garment, transferring the moisture to the outer surface of the fabric, where it can evaporate. If you have a shirt on over that, what happens? Yep, the moisture is then absorbed by your dress shirt, creating a sweat ring even more rapidly than if you didn’t have an undershirt on at all. So, keep the performance fabric to the gym!
Another topic I explain on this page is Fabric Treatments. Two of the companies that I discuss on the Men’s Hyperhidrosis Undershirts page have sweat and/or odor control properties in the fabric.
Kleinert’s uses Fabrapel, which among other things, has anti-microbial properties, and Silverback Apparel treats one style of its undershirts with silver, which is naturally microbial, and the other type is made from bamboo, which is also naturally anti-microbial.
Sweat absorption is another very important quality for a good hyperhidrosis undershirt to have. Three companies that I discuss address this a few different ways: Kleinert’s offers undershirts treated with Fabrapel, which aside from being anti-microbial, also is sweat resistant. This means that sweat that is absorbed is contained and is less likely to appear on the outer surface of the garment– preventing sweat marks on your outer shirt.
Dress shields are offered by two companies: Kleinert’s offers them as additional protection to the Fabrapel treatment, and Advantagewear by Advadri
Silverback Apparel takes a somewhat different approach: their undershirts offer a double layer of protection under the arms and also on a large area of the back. This is a very good option for the man who suffers from Compensatory Sweating (as a result of ETS).
I will be offering a review from a new Men’s Undershirt company, called Sweat Shield Undershirts. From what I know, it is a very promising product at a really good price point! They have kindly sent me samples and I will let you know how they hold up as soon as I can.
So there’s a snapshot of my page on Men’s Undershirts for Hyperhidrosis…. be sure to check it out, as there are a few more things I explain, such as cut and necklines– who offers what.
Next week, Footwear for Hyperhidrosis!
