Syndopa reduces tremors?

[zawy]

In what percent of PD cases does Syndopa (carbidopa and levodopa) reduce resting tremors? It's not having an effect on mine. I seem to react badly to it in other mental ways that I can't describe except to say maybe increased confusion or headache.

[Hidden]

i can not find a %

but if it does not you may have Essential tremor which is not Parkinson's related

does your tremor go away when you pick up some thing

check with your Doctor

[zawy in reply to Hidden]

My tremor is extremely consistent. It's not like essential tremor that I think comes and goes at times and is smaller amplitude and higher frequency. It's the typical stuff, large slightly slower vibration rate in fingers and wrist than you see in essential tremor. Mine's mainly in a thumb, more than it was a year ago when it began, getting to the forefinger, starting to show in the other thumb and forefinger. Right, no tremor or balance problem at all when I'm "on the move" using the muscles or holding something firm. I have to put it in a relaxed position to see it, and it's always there without fail, maybe less if I've had a lot of alcohol or sugar.

[rhyspeace12 in reply to zawy]

I've heard that doctors test for essential tremor by giving a patient alcohol and if it gets better they know it is different from a Parkinson's tremor. Though my husband finds that alcohol helps with his Parkinson's tremors too. So does medical marijuana.

[zawy in reply to rhyspeace12]

Thanks for the lead on alcohol and essential tremor, which I just looked up to confirm. PD and other things can cause essential tremor. My tremor is the last thing that bothers me. I also have the small, fast essential-type tremors, but they come and go. I had not notice the alcohol helps with them, just the PD tremors. Confusion, slow response, dizziness, lack of sleep, lost smell, and pains in the head, are the main symptoms.

[rhyspeace12 in reply to zawy]

My husband lost his sense of smell several years before he was diagnosed. I also noticed during that time, that his tongue would twitch in his mouth.He has had restless leg syndrome ever since he was in his 30's, 40 years ago. We didn't consider Parkinson's because he was told he had essential tremor when things really got bad..

He is actually doing well now. He doen't tremor much. He had a terrible time sleeping until he changed the timing on one of his drugs . He was on Pramiperxole in the morning and Carbidopa/levadopa at night. He switched them to just the opposite and started sleeping.

He is 76 and his hands don't shake a lot anymore. If he wants to be able to write in the morning for an important reason, he drinks a glass of wine.

The medical marijuana makes his moods better, also.

He does get confused, but not to a bad degree. (i do too)

He gets dizzy. He works out on his standing bicycle.

His mother lived to be almost 101 so I hope those genes help him. We don't know anyone else in the family with Parkinson's.

His neurologist said that he doesn't expect him to ever be in a wheel chair or have bad dementia.

[zawy in reply to rhyspeace12]

Thanks. That's really good summary of an interesting case history. It's interesting because it contains elements that fairly typical and you hit upon all the relevant points. What kind of work did he do? School teacher, farmer, desk job, or clergy has the highest probabilities. I'm starting to realize glucose (dextrose) works as well as alcohol, again pointing to a diabetic connection.

[rhyspeace12 in reply to zawy]

He was an architect/ home builder and later had an investment fund.

He has no diabetes in his family.

His father had milder restless legs, and we wonder if he had lived longer, if he might have developed Parkinson's.

[stevie3 in reply to zawy]

That's useful to know because I can't drink alcohol. Will try dextrose

[Madzy]

I do all sorts of exercises to reduce my tremors.

[swva]

It reduced my tremors some, but it helped my other symptoms more. Arm swing, gait, studder, overall well-being improved.

[johntPM]

I'm on Stalevo. If I'm not in a stressful situation, this has a good impact on my tremor, reducing it by, perhaps 90%. But if I'm stressed, it has little impact. Regarding frequency, the Parkinson's frequency is usually between 4 and 6Hz.

One trick that I have to reduce the tremor is to force my hand to move at right angles to the tremor. This seems to stop the tremor for a few seconds, just enough for me to do a bit of soldering, for instance.

I used to have a big problem using my laptop where my tremor would cause me to click when I didn't want to because my finger would unintentionally hit the pressure pad. You can turn this feature off in Windows, forcing you to click explicitly.

John