pH and the Inhibition of Palmar Sweat

krazyj

Member
Hi all,

After doing much research on my own, I came across some interesting studies that I figured would be of benefit to the community.

According to one study, lower pH iontophoresis baths induced a better inhibition of sweat than higher pH baths.

What does this mean?
-The suggestion offered by many doctors about adding salt and baking soda to iontophoresis baths to improve conductivity is wrong. In fact, according to this study, it will decrease the effectiveness of your iontophoresis sessions (both raise pH and make the water more alkaline)!
-In fact, the ideal iontophoresis bath is that of distilled water at a pH of 4 using ONLY anodal current with a current distribution of 0.2mA/cm^2. Such a treatment was shown to reduce the relative pore number from 100% to 0% in 10 sessions (at once per day).

This study also suggests that adding silicon grease or Vasoline to the palms to treated areas will improve efficacy. Yes, this is totally paradoxical and not what you would imagine or what your doctors would tell you. But I would not suggest trying this! I attempted to do this a few times and it resulted the accumulation of painful sores each time. Something about the electrical properties of the way iontophoresis works meant that the current would focus on, what I assume to be, points of least resistance (so wherever the vasoline is the thinnest) and this intense focusing of current would produce sores.

The best way I've found to alter the pH of the water I use is to use muriatic acid which you can pickup at your local hardware store. This is used in pools to control the pH. As such, you only need a small amount! In my custom-made 1 gallon baths, I require only a few drops to drop the pH very low. I am using those pH strips you'd find in a chemistry classroom (these) to measure the pH but these aren't proving to be completely accurate. Any suggestions on this would be appreciated.

Anyways... let's be vocal about this. Anyone who attempts to incorporate these methods into their treatments, please post back with some metrics and results from your trials.

Best of luck, everyone.

The fulltext for the study is available here and the PubMed page for the study is available here.
 
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cm123

Well-known member
Thanks for sharing this, It is known that adding Baking Soda to your ionto greatly can improve the effectiveness. Also, adding "Glyco" which doesnt affect the PH, helps as well for medicinal reasons.
 

krazyj

Member
tbanner: No, the take away is that pH is very important. Distilled water + muriatic acid to balance the water to a pH of 4 is best.

cm123: Baking soda raises the pH of water which, according to this study, decreases effectiveness.
 

g35

Well-known member
then how come ppl had shown improved results from using baking soda? placebo effect?
 

tbanner523

Well-known member
I saw this article as well (downloaded it through my university account). It's interesting in that it doesn't seem to treat the whole hand. It might be helpful in any case.

It also appears that it might not be that hard to construct for those who are mechanically inclined (aka, not me).
 

darkroad100

New member
Hi all
Krazyj can you upload the fulltext for the study in another host like megaupload, filesavr doesn't let me download it.

Can you comment about how good are the new methods in your treatment. Are they working for you?

thanks
 

ultrafrost

Well-known member
-In fact, the ideal iontophoresis bath is that of distilled water at a pH of 4 using ONLY anodal current with a current distribution of 0.2mA/cm^2. Such a treatment was shown to reduce the relative pore number from 100% to 0% in 10 sessions (at once per day).

hey, krazyj, thanks for uploading this article.
I have finished reading it, but it seems odd that they use distilled water for iontophoresis therapy, it is well knows that distilled can not be used in conducting the electricity because there isn't any ion in it. why they found distilled water was more effective than saline water?
as for the acidic water, I think I need to give it a try because I could not reduce my hands sweat after I added baking soda in the water.
how about your treatment? have you tried adding acid in the water?
 

DaaaBulls

Well-known member
Something interesting was that I got to a point where I had my hands fairly dry and one night I went to the gym and road on a stationary bike. Usually my hands would start dripping with sweat but they stayed dry until I went into the steam room and then they were up and sweating again later that night. I read that after Botox your not suppose to work out or use a sauna or steam room so maybe I screwed up the treatment by doing so. I'm assuming that ionto paralyses the glands and using the steam room got them going again. Man this HH thing really is a drag. I would be out right now doing something tonight but I just can't get myself to. The Botox is working off and on.
 
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