You may have come across no moisture treatment/therapy (also known as NMT) if you’ve been reading up on topical steroid withdrawal; it’s the therapy which aims to make the process of steroid withdrawal faster and more efficient by drastically limiting the amount of moisture in or on the body.

Put simply, people undergoing the treatment don’t use emollients or creams on their skin, and limit how much water they drink.

You can read more about NMT in our article NMT: No Moisture Treatment Guide For Topical Steroid Withdrawal which looks in detail at the process.

If you are a patient of Dr Sato and are admitted under his care in hospital, you will be expecting the process to take 2-3 months, from steroid withdrawal to healed skin. Patients have reported seeing major changes within two weeks, after an initial period of extreme dry, sore, flaking and oozing skin.

However, how long it takes without the intensive regime that Dr Sato has established is much more variable. Some people take a few months, others can find themselves still in full TSW after over a year of NMT. Whether that is because of eternal pressures, or not being able to maintain Dr Sato’s meticulous regime at home, it’s hard to tell. 

The same applies to TSW in general: healing times vary hugely. It could be dependent on the type of steroids used, where they were applied, how potent they were and how long they were used for, but will also be affected by individual variables as well.

For more information about TSW, its symptoms, effects and strategies that can help, see our TSW Info Hub.

We've spoken to many brave people who are undergoing TSW, and they've told us that in their experience a few strategic products have helped them cope with the gruelling process of NMT. These are their personal suggestions, not official, Dr Sato-endorsed products, because true NMT involves no using moisturisers at all.

Balmonds Skin Salvation for when lips and eyes are cracked and extremely sore