Hyperhidrosis Forum

[qwerty]

Any more updates on this topic?

Where can you buy these pure zinc electrodes?

[administrator]

Hi Ric,

Dr. Zierer recommended Medec Systems to me last year, and this is what I found on the company's website (a link to one of their detox machines with zinc electrodes):

http://www.medec.tv/html/detox_2400.html

I might try ordering the zinc electrodes at some point and using them myself, but it would require my removing the red and black "connectors" on the existing HIDREX machine's electrodes and drilling through the zinc electrodes to make space for those "connectors".


Here is more from Dr. Zierer's second e-mail to me where I had several questions for him from his first response:

[qwerty]

Can you actually buy just the zinc electrode by themselves from that website? I couldn't find the link for them?

[administrator]

Hi qwerty, I am not sure, since the site is in German. Even if you do buy them, you will have to modify the connections to be able to use them with other iontophoresis machines.

Markus has started selling silicone electrodes now, even though he thinks the concern about stainless steel electrodes is too much hype.

The maintenance requirements of steel electrodes are minimal. With silicone electrodes, somewhat frequent cleaning and replacement are necessary.

For now, I am sticking with the stainless steel electrodes.

[administrator]

To update this thread, although I did not get any urine tests for chromium nor any tray water tests that Dr. Zierer recommended (cost = around 200 EURO in Germany), I did have a chest x-ray a few months ago when I was getting unusual persistent coughing and chest pain for the first time in my life. I thought it might be due to iontophoresis and the electrode material, but the x-rays came back with no issue whatsoever and the coughing and pain went away. Most likely it was some kind of winter related thing.

If someone does get chromium urine tests or the tray water tests Dr. Zierer suggested while undergoing iontophoresis therapy with steel electrodes and everything comes back normal, we could put this thread to rest! So please post your results here if you get such tests. I might do so in the future, but no guarantees.

My feet are not sweating at the moment due to Botox injections, but once the injections' effect wears off, I intend to get back to using my Idromed or HIDREX (with steel electrodes).

[dtm1]

Hi all,

Newbie here. I'm really interested in finding out about toxicity. After my electrode plates corroded (and I like to use separate plates for hands and feet since I suffer on and off from athletes foot and cannot dissinfect the metal without corroding it) I've been using foil trays from the supermarket. It's far cheaper since I'm a student and my dermatologist didn't see any problem with it but I'm really worried now that I've got heavy metal toxicity. I've got burning and aching pains on the skin all over my body (it feels just like sunburn) but no rash or visual changes. Doctor has given me antihistamines (two diff kinds) but they've not helped. Also get this shortness of breath with cough and chest pain every so often (persisted for over a year now-and x-rays show nothing...similar story to last post).

I'm wondering if anyone else has suffered this burning skin feeling? It's really getting me down and I stopped the treatment for over 2 months to see if any change. It seemed less bothersome but still always there. So have started treatment again 3 days ago as the sweating is unbearable but burning has now become really bad. Anyone reckon it's related?? Advice/ideas would really be appreciated. Thanks:)

Tara

[pphh]

I switched from aluminum to stainless steel 6 months ago because I was slightly concerned about aluminum toxicity and I thought I was better safe than sorry. Further reading has shown that stainless steel also has potentially toxic elements, such as chromium molecules and even nickel and molybdenum.

As far as I know there are no studies relating specifically to this topic but there are plenty of studies that are relevant. Some describe ionto as harmless and others raise questions but don't give hard evidence.

Because the mechanism of ionto is still unknown it is impossible to say whether metal ions are the reason or just harmless ions found in tap water.
I know in a galvanic battery the salt bridge (effectively our hands) doesn't transport the metal ions but I don't know if this is relevant to us.

[administrator]

I had this company's electrodes section bookmarked. Probably because someone e-mailed the link to me. Not sure if their electrodes are only for drug delivery iontophoresis machines:

http://www.empi.com/empi_products/detail.aspx?id=966