LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - There’s now a treatment that could stop excessive armpit sweating, a medical condition that affects millions of people.
Uncontrollable sweating can be embarrassing. It ruins clothing and self-esteem, but now there's a new microwave technology that could fix this problem permanently.
“I'm 42 years old and I've tried everything," said Chasity Brighton. "I've dealt with this almost my whole life."
We all sweat. It's a part of life, but for some it can be excessive and embarrassing, especially when it's your armpits that are causing a problem.
“It stains my clothes. I can see it. It’s uncomfortable and it smells. I'm constantly reapplying deodorant,” said Brighton. “I can be freezing cold. My hands are cold, my feet are cold, but my underarms will be sweating.”
It's become a noticeable problem that controls her everyday life. From what she wears, to her social life, the sweating doesn’t stop.
“A lot of times I wear sleeveless tops because of the problem,” said Brighton. “I sing in a band so I'm up on stage and I have to be really careful about what I wear because if I'm nervous it's worse.”
She didn't know how to fix this problem until now. Doctor Jack Long with The Vein Center in Little Rock said people often look for temporary solutions such as Botox or prescription strength deodorant. But Long's said there's a permanent solution called miraDry.
Brighton is undergoing the miraDry procedure by Dr. Long, which he is calling a "permanent solution for sweat and odor glands."
“What miraDry does is it administers a microwave energy to heat up the skin and the tissues underneath the skin. It focuses the energy on the area where the sweat and odor glands reside,” said Dr. Long.
The microwave energy raises the temperatures on the glands to get rid of them while cooling the skin to prevent burns. Dr. Long said uncontrollable sweating is a medical condition called hyperhidrosis, a commonly seen problem.
“There's millions of people that have this problem," Long explained. "It's actually a much higher percentage than you would think, it's not something most people talk about so much so it's not something you hear about."
The miraDry procedure takes about an hour and two treatments are recommended. There is a 50 to 60 percent sweat reduction on the first treatment and 80 to 90 percent reduction on the second treatment.
Dr. Long said it will lead to you no longer staining your clothes or even needing deodorant.
The worst part of the procedure, from what we’ve been told, is getting injected with local anesthetic to numb the armpits. Dr. Long said you can expect immediate and lasting results with miraDry and it's FDA regulated.