The antidote to armpit stains just may be the same stuff that you scan chips’ ingredient lists for: sodium. Yep, really. The brand new Brella SweatControl Patch puts the alkali metal to a totally new and much-anticipated use: controlling hyperhidrosis, which is defined as excessive sweating and affects approximately 15.3 million Americans (though some experts believe the condition is underreported and that number may be even higher).
Like the name suggests, the Brella is a patch. You wear one for three minutes on each underarm and this simple treatment could curb sweating for the next three to four months. It’s administered in a doctor’s office, available by prescription only, and it just got FDA approval today. Brella is expected to begin rolling out at dermatologists’ and plastic surgeons’ offices later this summer.
- Robert Anolik, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist in New York City.
- 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 exciting new development in the world of hyperhidrosis treatment, for sure, but it’s “based on a very old scientific principle,” says Niquette Hunt, CEO of Candesant Biomedical, the company behind the patch.
That principle is a straightforward scientific reaction: Sodium reacts with water to produce heat. Now here’s the innovative part: Sweat is about 98 percent water. So when you wear the patch — which contains sodium — and water from overactive sweat glands comes into contact with it… you guessed it! You get heat. “The interaction of water and sodium generates a targeted amount of heat and you get microthermal injury into the sweat gland that inactivates it for a period of time,” says Hunt, explaining that it’s not all that dissimilar to the way skin-tightening and hair-zapping devices work. “Many energy devices deposit microthermal energy into the skin to affect a change.” Except, instead of being plugged in, the patch is powered by your own body.
“The mechanism is quite clever,” says Robert Anolik, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in New York City. “It’s a completely novel method of sweat reduction compared to other modalities.” Two of the most popular, he says, include Botox injections and miraDry (a thermal-energy device). But the patch “avoids needles in people who are needle phobic [and] miraDry is a more involved procedure that can lead to (expected and tolerable) swelling and tenderness. The patch could theoretically avoid those downsides,” says Dr. Anolik. “It is exciting to have this novel tool.”
Who is the Brella SweatControl Patch best for?
In clinical trials, 80 percent of people had no side effects (which included slight redness or slight swelling that resolved within two weeks or less), says Hunt. It could also be a gentler option than “topical medications such as Drysol that can be irritating [and] oral medications such as Robinul that [can] constipate you and make you feel too dried out all over,” Mona Gohara, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in Hamden, Connecticut, previously told Allure. The patch could be a real game-changer for hyperhidrosis patients. The condition “can affect every aspect of someone’s life,” said Dr. Gohara. “Patients [with hyperhidrosis] won’t go out in public, they won’t participate in class or raise their hand, they don’t want to buy new clothes because of the yellow stains under their armpits. They won’t wear light-colored or sleeveless clothes, they don’t want to be intimate.”
And if you experience excessive sweating on other commonly affected areas, like the palms and feet, the good news is that Brella may be able to be used off-label. “I do think there is real potential to use this method on non-armpit areas that are more challenging [to treat] with Botox, which could weaken muscles around injections sites of, let’s say, hands, and are also more challenging [to treat] with miraDry, which is not developed for application to non-armpit areas to date,” says Dr. Anolik. Overall, he adds, “I’m fairly impressed. I wonder if longer-term exposure beyond three minutes could be tolerated and if it could lead to greater effect.”
All of this innovation didn’t come easy: The Brella SweatControl Patch has been in development and testing for seven years. “There were certainly some technical challenges dealing with sodium metal that we overcame — it is very malleable, it’s almost the consistency of clay,” says Hunt. It was “challenging to process it in such a way that gave a uniform sheet that could be delivered [via the patch].”
Of three clinical trials that have been conducted on the patch, Dr. Anolik explains that so far, one study has been published in a peer-reviewed journal: “It was impressive because it was a well-designed study and the results clearly show benefits: The control group didn’t improve while the patch-treated patients did. The requirement of just up to three minutes of application is also impressive, making it a very straightforward and simple treatment,” he says. “That all said, this is still a small study and the endpoint is only six weeks. More is needed to better understand it, but it is exciting to have this novel tool.” (Subsequent clinical tests were performed on larger groups of 110 participants for longer time periods, though Dr. Anolik explains these have not been published in peer-reviewed journals.)
Where to get a Brella SweatControl Patch
While Candesant Biomedical wouldn’t comment on pricing just yet, Hunt did say she expects doctors will charge about the same for one session with the patch as they would for a high-end, in-office facial or chemical peel. In terms of prep, your doctor will clean and dry your underarm right before putting on the Brella SweatControl Patch — and you can expect them to ask you to hold off on shaving for a few days before they administer it. “You want to make sure that your skin doesn’t have any cuts or abrasions or things like that,” says Hunt. When the Brella SweatControl Patch does go live late this summer, you’ll be able to find a doctor who’s offering it on MyBrella.com’s Find a Provider physician-locator tool. You can also be notified when it’s available at a doctor’s office near you and get updates on the rollout at Candesant.com.
Read more about hyperhidrosis, and sweat in general:
Now watch a video about a sweat-proof beauty routine:
