The antidote to armpit stains simply will be the identical stuff that you just scan chips’ ingredient lists for: sodium. Yep, actually. The model new Brella SweatControl Patch places the alkali metallic to a completely new and much-anticipated use: controlling hyperhidrosis, which is outlined as extreme sweating and impacts roughly 15.3 million Individuals (although some consultants imagine the situation is underreported and that quantity could also be even larger).
Just like the identify suggests, the Brella is a patch. You put on one for 3 minutes on every underarm and this easy remedy may curb sweating for the following three to 4 months. It’s administered in a health care provider’s workplace, obtainable by prescription solely, and it simply acquired FDA approval as we speak. Brella is predicted to start rolling out at dermatologists’ and plastic surgeons’ workplaces later this summer time.
Meet the consultants:
- Robert Anolik, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist in New York Metropolis.
- Mona Gohara, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist in Hamden, Connecticut.
- Niquette Hunt is CEO of Candesant Biomedical.
How does the Brella SweatControl Patch work?
The patch is an thrilling new improvement on the earth of hyperhidrosis remedy, for positive, but it surely’s “based mostly on a really outdated scientific precept,” says Niquette Hunt, CEO of Candesant Biomedical, the corporate behind the patch.
That precept is a simple scientific response: Sodium reacts with water to supply warmth. Now right here’s the modern half: Sweat is about 98 % water. So once you put on the patch — which incorporates sodium — and water from overactive sweat glands comes into contact with it… you guessed it! You get warmth. “The interplay of water and sodium generates a focused quantity of warmth and also you get microthermal harm into the sweat gland that inactivates it for a time frame,” says Hunt, explaining that it’s not all that dissimilar to the best way skin-tightening and hair-zapping units work. “Many vitality units deposit microthermal vitality into the pores and skin to have an effect on a change.” Besides, as a substitute of being plugged in, the patch is powered by your individual physique.
“The mechanism is kind of intelligent,” says Robert Anolik, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in New York Metropolis. “It’s a totally novel technique of sweat discount in comparison with different modalities.” Two of the most well-liked, he says, embody Botox injections and miraDry (a thermal-energy gadget). However the patch “avoids needles in people who find themselves needle phobic [and] miraDry is a extra concerned process that may lead to (anticipated and tolerable) swelling and tenderness. The patch may theoretically keep away from these downsides,” says Dr. Anolik. “It’s thrilling to have this novel software.”