My experience using the Hidrex PSP 1000 so far...

[ClefsDuPontif]

Hi there,

I recently purchased the Hidrex PSP 1000 and so far after 3 treatments I've had less than encouraging results, so I wanted to ask a few questions and any advice would be appreciated!!

Firstly, I'm a 23 year old male from the UK and have suffered from what I consider to be mild localised palmar/plantar hyperhidrosis all my life, although I get extremely excessive general sweating and facial blushing when taking part in intense exericise. I don't have any horror stories about sweat literally dripping off my hands/feet, but during the day my hands and feet are freezing cold with a constant sheen of moisture. The sweating of my hands increases markedly on contact with any kind of surface - this is enough to create significant apprehension towards physical contact in social situations.

I've previously tried strong antiperspirants on my hands and feet which produced unsurprisingly poor results.

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I'm on day 5 of my iontophoresis treatment plan.

My first impression of the Hidrex PSP 1000 was surprise at the lack of included information on treatment protocol, such as the suggested treatment parameters (mA/voltage) and the effects of the various pulse widths of the pulsed current feature. Most of the instructions seemed to be a poor translation from German to English.

So far I've treated my hands on Day 1, 2 and 4 as suggested by iontophoresis.info. I've used a pulse width of 70% at 35 Volts, which I believe maxed out the current limitation feature of the device because when I tried to experiment and up the voltage to 40, the machine would not increase any further than 35. When switching the display to mA instead of Volts, the treatment seems to max out at 11-12mA (with pulse width of 70).

It is not clear from the ambiguous instruction manual how the ammeter in the device measures the current - I'm guessing it must take some kind of moving average of the current in the circuit, because otherwise it would fluctuate during the pulses. So does a current of 11-12mA with a pulse width of 70 actually correspond to a higher maximum current - say around 15mA?

The above settings produced a pretty strong tingling feeling, close to the point of irritation. My hands are now sweating more than when the treatment began. I don't know if people will be able to identify with the following, but it feels similar to when I go out in the cold with my hands exposed the skin on my palms feels "chapped" and quite "rough", and when my hands return to room temperature they would begin to sweat more than usual to try and "cleanse" the chapped feeling - then my hands in general feel dirty and clammy.

I live in a mid/hard water area by the way and I've alternated the anode and cathode for each treatment so far - I know some places advocate keeping the same polarity for initial treatments, but I don't see the logic of this given that if the true mechanism of the treatment is to drive ions to block the sweat glands, then surely it would only work on the hand in which the ions are being driven into the skin, not out of the skin.

Do some people actually experience a FULL cessation of their symptoms, or is often those with extreme symptoms feeling a huge relative improvement - going from soaking wet to very slightly moist?

I'm obviously going to persevere with the treatment, I've only done 3 treatments over 4 days after all.

Is there something I am doing wrong or something that anyone would advise that I do differently e.g. current/voltage and pulse width, treatment times etc...

Cheers!

[AgentTran]

Hi ClefsDuPontif,

I also have a Hidrex PSP1000 and have achieved success with it. It takes a little determination but it does work. For me, it took about 3 weeks of continuous treatment. Of course, this varies from person-to-person so you might achieve results sooner or later. I also initially started sweating more after the first treatments compared to no treatment at all but, I heard this is normal and will lessen as you continue treatment.

The current manual that is included with it is a little ambiguous and I have contacted the owner of sweating.com before for clarification. The max current on this machine is 35 mA but 5 mA is reserved for the machine, so technically 30 mA. This is only possible at 100% pulse width (direct current) at 60V (since current and voltage are proportionally related) and it depends on the hardness of your tap water and the condition of your skin, since the PSP1000 will not go higher if your skin is damaged. For example, if your skin is in good condition and you have the machine at 60V and only have it at 70%, you technically will get "only" 42V max (60*.7), which of course will limit you from the maximum current as well. If you have access to their support forum, they explain this in their PSP1000 section in one of the posts, if I remember correctly. They also have a page that shows you how you can calculate the effectiveness of your treatment that factors in body resistance also to get what is known as an iontofactor http://iontophoresis-device.com/compari ... _units.htm

When you switch the display from mA/volts and vice versa, it only changes what is displayed on the screen NOT the actual current mA value. The 35 that you see is the voltage and the 11-12 value is the current. When you press the button, all you are doing is displaying the current mA value. You are not changing to a different mode that lowered your current from 35 to 11-12 mA. Also, the reason why I believe (but am not certain) that many places advocate keeping the polarity the same for initial treatments is because you have yet had a good enough build up of ions to merit reversing the polarity. When you switch polarity in a circuit (in this case, your body) the flow of ions will literally go in the opposite direction. If you do not have enough ions yet, you're simply putting it in one way and driving it out the other way when you switch polarities frequently. On the other hand, if you never switch polarities, you might achieve maximum build up in one direction but sweat may still be able to move through the one-way channel if you do not completely plug it by having ions moving in the opposite direction every once in awhile.

Again, I am not 100% certain about the reason why initially keeping the polarities is recommended but, I think you should stick with it for your initial treatment to rule it out as a possibility if iontophoresis doesn't work for you after a few weeks. Following the recommendations worked for me just fine. Plus, you can always switch it up later if it doesn't. Truth be told, no one is certain as to exact reason why iontophoresis works (thickening of the skin/nerve irritation/etc.). Iontophoresis does have a high success rate but, if it still doesn't work even after you tried switching polarities during the initial treatment phase and going to your maximum tolerable settings, you may simply be among the individuals where iontophoresis does not work for them. If your maximum tolerable settings are the maximum settings of the machine, you will not have success with the PSP1000 because that is the maximum allowed by law.

Despite that, there are some tips that you can try to maximize your chances of success though. According to the International Hyperhidrosis Society, adding baking soda may help make your water harder and raise the current level. I found this to be helpful but it all depends on the condition of your tap water. Also, be sure to cover up and damage skin with petroleum jelly before starting treatment. You can read more about it here http://www.sweathelp.org/en/hyperhidros ... resis.html

From someone who also has hyperhidrosis, I wish you the best of luck with iontophoresis!

[Viking]

Is the Hidrex PSP1000 model the same as the Hidrex DVP1000 model?