Iontophoresis Tips & Tricks

I am 18 and I've had Hyperhidrosis my whole life and whether it should or not, it has definitely had an impact on my life. Elementary, Junior High, and most of Highschool were hell because of it. In my opinion, it one of the worst things to happen socially for a growing child.
But anyway that is besides the point. 3rd year of Highschool i got myself a Fischer Iontophoresis machine. At first I didn't know how to use it very well but as i got used to it, it has definitely changed my life. I have been mostly sweat free since I have had the unit, about two years ago, with the exception of the "wet periods" when I needed to start to use the machine again. However, these wet periods usually only lasted a day or two and were not full fledged sweating, just the beginning stages when I knew it was time to start the treatment again, which was fine.
However now I have noticed the "wet periods" have grown and intensified in the past few months. Instead of just a day or two they now last 4 days or more. There is no warning I will just wake up one day and the full sweating will be there. It is also taking higher current and a longer time to get dry again. I am worried that I am becoming resistant to it and that it eventually may stop working altogether. I am spending about 6 to 7 hours on just my hands on 20mah, which can be quite painful, for only about two weeks of dryness. I am starting college soon and don't think I can just stop everything when this happens and spend days on end in my dorm room using the machine. I also don't want this condition to rob from me some of the best years of my life.
I have heard that sanding down the plates can lead to improved results, and have though to myself that maybe I am doing too much current for too long. But other than that I do not know what is going wrong. Iontophoresis is pretty tricky because it can vary from use period to use period and varies from person to person. Has anyone else had a similar situation and maybe some advice fore me? Thanks

Sweat_Man said:

I am (...) Thanks

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Oh you do 6-7 hour sessions at once...? Wow...I don't see myself have the patience for that although I get that if it achieves dryness for two weeks it's nice you don't have to do the treatments every day. Interesting.

I personally find that doing a treatment every day for about 20 minutes @15mA is the best way for me to be sure my hands are about 95-100% dry. I often switch polarities too which makes it about 40 minutes (both hands in one tray, both feet in plastic storage box that functions as the other tray, I don't use the tray that came with the machine for feet because it's too small and too shallow to cover my feet with water).

Sometimes when I skip a few treatments cause I'm not feeling like it there is indeed a bit of a moistness that comes back with a delay of a few days and it takes some time to achieve dryness again afterwards. I think that's normal. I don't think you need to worry to much about a 'tolerance' against ionto, I've had about the same consistent experience for years now with ionto. OTOH since you're only 18 the HH itself may still become a bit worse that was my experience at least...it gradually worsened during my teenage years till my early 20s and now it's been on the same level for a couple of years. I know it's not what you like to hear but that may be the explanation.

Anyway with the ionto I would personally say maybe try daily shorter treatments but really it's just a matter of tinkering with a treatment schedule till you find one that works for you and the rest of your activities.

Wow. Agree with Jezza - 6-7 hours at a time seems a lot. I do 40 minutes per polarity once every 7-10 days. Basically about the length of a feature film.

Good luck and try not to stress about it - it is what it is - stressing can only hurt.

So you put both hands in one side for 20 min, then take both hands and put them in the other polarity for 20 min? I've never tried that method, I have only left one hand in each side

I have the same machine and my schedule is 15 minutes on the hands every other day, mA at about 12-13. I use the switch to change the polarity for each session.