My GP diagnosed essential tremor 1 year ago. There was no examination or investigation. He just looked at bay wavering ( slightly) right hand and said "don't worry, it's only essential tremor.
The tremor is only evident when i am holding and raising something in my hand such as a cup of tea or similar. If the cup is empty then no tremor.If I hold my elbow high and wide then no tremor. If I hold my elbow in tight then no tremor. However natural moment such as drinking shows a shaky hand.
This is not getting worse but not going away. Is it possible that this is not essential tremor?
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pablojack
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Sounds just like mine. It has got very slightly worse over the past 10 years and I avoid carrying a very full cup with that hand, but apart from that and fine jobs like threading a needle - no problems. Do not use up your valuable energy in needless worry! It has not developed into anything else so relax! It really is not worth paying for a second opinion unless it gets much worse, which it is very unlikley to do.
my husband started out with tremor of motion which over time morphed into tremor at rest so I think it is important to find out exactly what is going on
It is usually the reverse situation where Parkinsons is wrongly diagnosed but it is really only Essential Tremor ( or Familiar Tremor if it is inherited .) It is treatable but not completely curable but compared to Parkinson's it is a walk in the park. Probably the best damn news you will ever receive. It may take a little time to get your medication right , Parkinson's medication will have no effect because it is not PD. You are lucky to have that doctor, he saved you from some grief.
PD tremor occurs when at rest when you are not concentrating on an action ( your arm hanging by your side ) and goes away (reduces) when you concentrate on an action, your tremor is the opposite and your GP knew that.
The treatments for essential tremor can sometimes lower blood pressure so if you are a person who usually had good or relatively low blood pressure you probably need to be aware of your blood pressure just because this lowering can cause some symptoms that are not ideal like dizziness. The neurologist first had my husband try two medications that were designed to help essential tremor and both of them made him miserable- nauseous and dizzy and it was likely due to the blood pressure going too low
I don’t want to spoil the fun, but different what many think, including doctors, various tremor types (rest, postural, kinetic and intention) may be seen in both essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease. Furthermore, with time, the two diseases may coexist within a single patient. An essential tremor appears relatively often to be a precursor to PD, as unfortunately that was also the case with me. But open that bottle anyway 🍾🥂
Well said, Esperanto. I agree. I had both diagnoses' of PD and ET and I have both the ET intention tremor (sometimes I can't use a mouse) and the PD resting tremor which is overcome with active purpose (a flow of dopamine enables me to touch type). The common factor for me is adrenal release, which doctors don't acknowledge, for some unknown reason. It is far more traumatic receiving the PD diagnosis, Pablojack, so don't worry yourself to get a second opinion. Your doctor is caring for your whole well-being to pass your tremor off lightly as ET. Depending on how much propranolol (betabloka) he prescribed, start on a lower dose and build up with care. I felt like a zombi on 40 mg at first because I have low BP.
Only when I got symptoms of bradykinesia (slowness of movement) was it time to address a dopamine deficiency (PD).
By the way, there was a time when I had to use a straw to drink anything because the action of raising a cup/glass to my mouth caused my face to get splashed. In theory, that's intention tremor (ET), but that got better -- from chelating mercury according to the Andy Cutler protocol and starting levodopa for a dopamine deficiency (PD). I'd had my last four amalgam fillings removed without proper protection from the mercury vapours going up my nose.
in the meantime implement a healthy lifestyle measures immediately ie mainly plant based whole food diet, cut out sugar, refined oils, processed food, reduce dairy and meat. And exercise regularly but don’t over do it. Get good sleep, social contact, and maintain purpose in your life.
This will reduce your risk of most health issues even if it isn’t PD.
Also go and get blood tests for folate, b12, homocysteine. You may need to take a multinutrient. Make sure you buy one with vitamins in their natural form eg methyl cobalamin /adenosyl cobalamin (not cyano cobalamin) and methyl folate (not folic acid). You might have a genetic variation that doesn’t cope with synthetic vitamins.
I have essential tremor inherited from a grandfather's family (8 of my cousins also suffer from it); Some have had it since they were young and I, for example, have had it for about 10 years, I am 63; The tremor has gotten worse but at the moment it is not very serious and with my left hand I can still drink a glass of water without shaking much. Now there are several methods to cure it without taking medication, HIFU, high-intensity ultrasound, (12,000-15,000 euros, I think), CUE 1, a device that sticks to the chest and is controlled with your cell phone, charconeurotech .com, (I'm on the waiting list, 300 dollars +-, I think it works pretty well), and there are other devices that are invasive, that you have to operate and install in the brain, which I think work very well. As another user here has said, medications can help but some of my cousins have had to go to the emergency room due to problems with dizziness and nausea; I think it is better to tremble than to be dizzy and lying on the ground; Let's see what others have to say; I do not take medication, I am going to start sublingual vitamin B1 therapy; I'll tell you if it works for me or not.
I think that any diet low in sugar and carbohydrates is good for improving our health, but the carnivore diet seems to be helping with many diseases, strange as it may seem, there are doctors and cardiologists talking about it on the internet and they seem very, very healthy.
Ahhhhhhh...... in the Spanish Social Security, (almost everything is free, you only have to pay a small percentage of the medications), my neurologist has done the circle drawing test and told me that I have essential tremor; He told me that before signing up for HIFU I have to try several medications and if they don't work he will send me there; I have refused and I have told him that it does not seem normal to me that I have to take medications that have so many side effects and he does not send me directly to HIFU and next month I have to return, we will see what he
I never felt any positive effects of Sinemet and later, Rytary. But the DAT shows imbalance between left and right sides of the substancia negra. So maybe I have PD and Essential Tremor?
Interesting insights, opinions and symptoms from a wide variety of PwP. Which just goes to show that this disease is a many headed hydra. My symptoms started with movement disorders and developed in resting tremors. I have no tremor with conscious gentle movement but this abruptly changes to violent tremors with stressed movement.
I would advise either a DAT scan or a “Dr Mischley’s dogs” sniff test to know what you are dealing with. One consolation is that PD that starts with a tremor is reckoned to progress more slowly than the movement disorder variety.
My original post was an attempt to find whether there could be an alternative diagnosis of essential tremor. I was not thinking of Parkinsons but rather some nerve issue related to my right arm. In that regard I am somewhat embarrassed to raise this on a forum where many contributers are facing serious consequences from a progressive condition.
Since I have for many years encountered nerve issues after heavy garden work with my right arm, including when working with a heavy lawnmower, I decided to investigate other potential issues. Lately I have been exercising, concentrating on my right shoulder and elbow. After a few days I can see that the tremor is less than before. Today I had acupuncture again targeting right arm tremor.
I feel that there is a reasonable chance that my tremor is related to joints and muscles in my right arm
Again I would like to apologise if this is considered irelevant to the issues which many members of the forum face. Of course I could be wrong and I might face a progressive condition myself.
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