What You Can Do About Palm Sweating

Whether your hands are always clammy or they are dripping wet for no apparent reason, palm sweating is most certainly an uncomfortable condition. This condition, also known as palmar hyperhidrosis, can be embarrassing in social situations when you are required to shake hands or otherwise touch another person. It can also be embarrassing when you touch an object and leave behind a soaking wet hand print. This issue can cause issues with both personal and professional relationships, and make make it difficult to function in an office environment.

Luckily, there are a few steps you can take to improve your palm sweating condition. Some people with palmar hyperhidrosis have had excellent results from using a lotion called Drysol. You put it on at night before you go to bed, and it keeps your hands dry throughout the next day. Drinking sage tea, and eating foods like asparagus, beef, turkey, onions, and broccoli have also proved helpful.

Another option is to soak your hands in black tea or Epson salt, with either combined with water, for about thirty minutes each day. Over time, these treatments work to reduce the occurrence of sweaty palms.

There are some medical options as well that work for palm sweating. An iontophorsis device gives your palms a small electric shock that has provided long term relief for many people. In addition, there are also prescription medications and even a radical surgery that may help.

There is no doubt that excessively sweaty palms can be truly embarrassing, and this issue can have long term ramifications on almost every aspect of your life. You can try to treat your condition at home, and be sure to give the homeopathic treatments ample time to work. If the problem consists, you may want to talk to your doctor.

Alex Brunswick is a writer and researcher on Palm Sweating.

Don't Let Excessive Sweat Keep You Down

Excessive sweat can be an annoying problem to live with, and oftentimes an embarrassing problem, too. Sweat is a natural bodily function, and something we all do from time to time. Sweating is the body's way of expelling waste and regulating its temperature. Sweating during normal situations is, for lack of a better word, normal. But some people suffer from excessive sweating, which is when you sweat at times that are not altogether normal times to sweat, such as when you are sitting in an air conditioned room reading a book. If this is the kind of excessive sweating that you are dealing with, there are some at-home treatments you can try.

You don't need to break a sweat trying to find a treatment for excessive sweat. You can start by taking one or even two showers a day to help to keep your body clean and odor free. This is not a treatment necessarily, but it will help to keep embarrassing signs of sweating to a minimum, like odor and oily skin. After your shower, apply a antiperspirant-deodorant combo product, or you can even use plain baking soda or corn starch.

These products work to keep your armpits from perspiring, but most of them are only about thirty percent effective. And for this reason, you may want to wear an undershirt to decrease the possibility of underarm stains from becoming visible to other people.

Shaving your armpits regularly can help in two ways. First, it can reduce the amount of heat that is trapped in the area, and it can also help any perspiration that does occur there to dry faster. Shaving hair on your back, chest, and legs may also prove to be helpful.

These are all very easy ways to keep the unpleasant effects of excessive sweat to a minimum.

Alex Brunswick is a writer and researcher on Excessive Sweat.

Hyperhidrosis Antiperspirant

When you are dealing with your excessive sweating issue, this is essentially nature's way of telling you something. Excessive sweating, also known as hyperhidrosis, can be caused any number of factors such as by an unhealthy lifestyle, a medical condition, a hormonal imbalance, or too much stress. When you use a hyperhidrosis antiperspirant, the antiperspirant works to prevent the sweating from happening, which does not deal with the issue at hand. For instance, if you are using an antiperspirant to treat a hormonal imbalance, you may mask the perspiration but you will still have a hormonal imbalance to deal with.

A hyperhidrosis antiperspirant at best blocks about thirty percent of the sweat glands under your arms, so they aren't entirely effective to start with and you are still going to sweat when you use one. Further, most antiperspirants contain an aluminum compound that many scientists believe can lead to other serious issues such as asthma, eye irritation, breast cancer, kidney issues, and even seizures, and more. So not only are these antiperspirants largely ineffective, but they also mask the underlying problem while also potentially causing more serious health issues than what you started with. Clearly, a hyperhidrosis antiperspirant is not the right solution.

There are natural alternatives to using hyperhidrosis antiperspirant that are more effective at dealing with the underlying problem. For instance, one natural option is to improve your lifestyle by drinking 64 ounces of water each day, getting regular exercise, and eating a diet that consists of fewer processed foods. Other natural options including taking Chinese herbal formulas, drinking Sage tea or tomato juice, learning how to meditate or otherwise relax, and many more. These homeopathic remedies will make you healthier from the inside out, which gives you a safer and more effective solution that yields long term results.

Alex Brunswick is a writer and researcher on Hyperhidrosis Antiperspirant.

Facebook Questions, Part 1

The Cosmetics Cop Team held a contest asking our Facebook and Twitter fans to suggest what they’d like me to blog about. You can read my response to the winning question here. Actually, all of the questions were really great and challenging so I am blogging brief answers to those requests. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the contest! I loved it!

Brian N.
I’d like to see a blog about where the industry is going to go in the next 10 years and what’s new and exciting on the horizons in terms of research etc.

I’d like to know where it’s going, too. Right now it seems that consumers will buy anything that says “all natural” or “anti-wrinkle” (and people over 50 have more money to spend than any other group). In terms of what will really benefit skin that is yet to be seen.

Brandi L.
Adult acne and struggling with “teenage” like super oily skin in my late 20s. Always hoped I’d be done by now.

There is no difference in treating adult acne than teenage acne, and you would still approach your skin-care regimen in the same way. Follow this link to my article on Acne Treatment. Good luck, and let us know how you are doing on your routine!

Sabrina W.
I’d love to see you write more about your products and which are best for Rosacea. You have some information on your website and beautypedia, but not extensive information. So far I’m pleased with my new products.

Here is an article on our website about rosacea that I think will really help you: Rosacea Skin Care Solutions.

Caroline B.
Deceptive product advertising and why we continue to fall for the BS. What specific communications techniques do they use for particular target markets, and how can the consumer be more aware of these deceptive practices?

It’s all deceptive. Period. Why? Because women want to be beautiful and the claims, celebrity endorsements, and advertisements are too seductive to ignore no matter how repetitive and redundant they are. Keep in mind that even the cosmetic companies don’t believe what they advertise or they wouldn’t keep launching new products, making the same claims as the ones they currently sell or sell in other lines they own.

Jenna K.
I would like to see information regarding Oil Cleansing Method. website: http://www.theoilcleansingmethod.com/ On a similar note, I find baby oil removes all traces of my Colorstay foundation, but I am not sure if it is damaging to my acne-prone skin.

There is nothing wrong with using mineral oil to remove makeup. Mineral oil is one of the most benign, gentle ingredients in the world of skin care. There is no research showing cosmetic or pharmaceutical grade mineral oil is a problem for skin.

The website you mention is a bit weird. Again there is nothing wrong with removing makeup with oil, plant oil, or mineral oil, but the reasoning in this article is just odd. For example, one of the points is that oil removes oil and therefore you need to use oil to clean out your pores which contain oil. Think about it, if you have oil on your counter top would you ever try to clean it up with more oil? It would just get worse. It also mentions the need for steam. That is really bad information. Steam can cause fragile surface capillaries to surge with blood and then burst causing redness and spider veins on the face. Plus heat stimulates oil production in the pore.

8 Comments until nowBeckyJuly 20th, 2010 (#):

I would love to find a mascara that doesn’t flake! Can you help?

BryanJuly 20th, 2010 (#):

@Becky: We test hundreds of mascaras and it is the rare one that flakes. You may have had the misfortunte of buying older stock. As the mascara “ages”, the formula can begin to dry out. This also happens with daily use, so it’s one more reason to replace your mascara every few months. Two inexpensive favorites that we have found do not flake are Cover Girl Lash Blast (all versions) and Sonia Kashuk Lashify.

Jenna KJuly 21st, 2010 (#):

Thanks for reviewing the website http://www.theoilcleansingmethod.com. I really appreciate your take on it. I know it didn’t work for me as I broke out in cystic acne on my chin. Thanks!

Caroline B.July 21st, 2010 (#):

Re Deceptive advertising practices: “It’s all deceptive. Period.” Even from Paula’s Choice? (hmmm…)

BryanJuly 22nd, 2010 (#):

@Caroline: Paulas’ Choice is the exception. Why? Because we do not make false promises and every claim we do make is supported by published research, the sources are right there on the Web site. Quite simply, Paula’s Choice products work as claimed. If any customer is unsatisfied with any product, for any reason, we offer a generous return policy and a Customer Service team that is more than happy to help you find alternative products.

KathleenJuly 23rd, 2010 (#):

Actually, I had requested if Paula could do a review on E.L.F.’s Spf 45 Uva/Uvb Loose Face Powder a while back and haven’t heard anything.

Desiree StordahlJuly 23rd, 2010 (#):

@Kathleen- Thank you for your suggestion. Paula and her Cosmetics Cop Team get thousands of questions and product review requests a month. Although we try to answer as many as possible, with the hundreds of thousands of product out there it just isn’t possible to get to them all. You can find a ton of information on http://www.cosmeticscop.com and http://www.beautypedia.com.

We hope this helps!

OlesyaJuly 25th, 2010 (#):

I’ve never practiced Oil Cleansing Method as described on this site, but I’ve been using all kinds of plant oils to remove make-up for several years now and it works great. I usually follow with rinsing my face with water (not tap water though) or Bioderma micellar solution, and put some macadamia/jojoba/wheat germ oil afterwards if needed.