After a fun but frigid weekend in the Polar Vortex, aka Minnesnowta, I was relaxing in my seat on the plane, waiting for takeoff. Oscar nestled in Jason's lap next to me. My iPad off and no other magazine in reach, I grabbed the Delta magazine in my seat pocket. Flipping through, I came across an ad for a "sweat-management" medication and quickly learned was a "topical solution." Gee Jolene, this is interesting and all as I've read this far but, who cares, right? Well I do, for a big reason, and wanted to self-disclose or over share (you decide) with all of you. Over the past three years I've managed to lose and keep off what is now 41 pounds. Selfishly I'd like to put a notch in my belt to say I've lost 50 but I'm celebrating this current win until that happens. There were many major changes that took place both physically and mentally during that major weight loss. One being sweat management. Let me over share more about what I mean here. For as long as I could remember I've always had a perspiration problem. No joke. And it's totally okay for you to be smiling, smirking, chuckling or even heckling me by making it this far into this post. I'm doing the same (hee hee lol...) And during that time, I tried hard to cover up something that reared it's ugly head ALL THE TIME whether I wanted it to or not. At work, in job interviews, on dates, in the morning after showering, worse while being active, traveling, sleeping, studying, at a coffee shop, out to dinner with friends, you name it, it happened. In the beginning, or when I first started to be more cognizant of "my issue", I thought maybe excessive sweating was something that happened to everyone, like puberty or old age, or that it was just some awkward social thing that no one talked about but everyone understood or was experiencing. But after becoming more acutely aware over time, I realized I was in a much smaller population (referred to in the medical community as hyperhidrosis) Then...it was REALLY EMBARRASING. I tried just about everything, including all of, but not limited to, the following:
Weight loss. Significant enough weight loss. I didn't realize at the time of my weight transition all of the other innumerable positive side effects from the primary goal of losing weight but less or almost no sweating was one of them, and once I figured it out, it rose to the top of the list of benefits I experienced. Now, as a species, for good reason, we are supposed to sweat. Let's take a little detour from my above rant and better understand the biology of sweating. Check out the following excerpt on sweating from The U.S. National Library of Medicine: And here's what WebMD had to say about my "condition" which they termed axillary hyperhidrosis: http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/hyperhidrosis2
Okay, back to me, or my struggle, for just a moment. It can and will benefit you or someone you know. Struggle no longer. The above links from supposed medical communities don't share that this condition can potentially be minimized or eliminated naturally! Odd right? The only time I catch or remember myself sweating now, is when I should be, when I'm very active. And I'm a runner so of course it's completely okay, natural and socially acceptable to sweat when you're running or skiing or doing anything active for that matter. If you've read this far, you probably caught on to the fact that getting my sweating under control was just one of the benefits of weight loss. I've experienced many, many more and I'm happy to share with anyone that's interested (or curious or skeptical) and see how it might change things for you. Additional details to come, at a later date. Or you can read my one previous blog post on it. Or both. Your choice. Until then, enjoy the day, and see what perspires, I mean, transpires. Hee hee, no pun intended...
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
January 2024
Categories |