I've suffered increasing tremor over the last few months and along with that, increasing arm pain. I could find no medical references for Parkinson’s and arm pain, and the diagnostic materials on arm pain did not contain anything that fit. Be all that as it may, this matter is not hard to understand. The muscles involved in causing the tremor are being worked almost non-stop without mercy. So of course these muscles are going to be sore, tired and painful. Stress and anxiety resulting from this can add to the problem with muscle tension. In my experience, levodopa medication helps but does not provide complete relief.
In my case those muscles are the finger extensors on the top of the forearm, and the triceps located towards the back and side of the upper arm. However, according to my research, just about any arm muscle can be involved in causing tremor. Interested in hearing from others, who are so affected, what areas of their arms are sore.
According to comments made elsewhere on this site, MDs do not recognize this problem. This is a result of enforced conformity in medical thinking combined with a lack of documentation in the medical literature. Medical conformity has been made necessary due to disasters that occurred long ago, before such conformity was enforced. Unfortunately, as a result, if it's not in the medical books we are out of luck.
In past discussions of this matter I have attributed this pain to dystonia. This pain does feel very much like the pain of dystonia, but it is not dystonia because the muscles involved are not necessarily contracting while the pain is occurring. Further discussions can be found in various posts by Butterflygrandma , particularly here: healthunlocked.com/cure-par...
Thanks to all the commenters for the many excellent suggestions!
Update - What is Helping
I've tried a variety of topical products and none of them seem to do anything for me, including melatonin ointment and a couple of versions of CBD oil.
What has been a help is a massage device that works like a blood pressure cuff - alternately applies compression and then releases. I would not call it a cure for the problem, but it has reduced it from a level of "I can't stand this" to an annoyance. It does take time - two or three sessions of 40 to 60 minutes daily. It is advertised as a leg massager, but it works fine for arms: amazon.com/dp/B07CWK93RY
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Yes I do expect I'll have something to say about that sooner or later, and now we have Gymsack's comment below. Meanwhile the top priority is to adjust the dopaminergic medication to minimize the tremor.
I know exactly what you're talking about. I've experienced the same thing with my finger extensions to both fore arms with pain from tremors. I've also experienced shoulder pain due to neck, stiffness, and upper arm tension, additionally I had fasciitis way too long. I eventually realize that the stiffness in my leg was causing the fascial pain in my foot. I thought it was crazy that doctors wanted to do surgery, but they never addressed the tremors. I got a lot of relief, ultrasound color, FSM, Matrix Repatterning And swimming. it is something that I have to stay on top of . I use CBD oil at night. make a cannabis f butter before bed can help relax the muscles.
I get arm pain , an aching that extends from my finger muscles to my shoulders . It comes on very strongly when I am in need of another dose of CD/LD , but it is there in lesser amounts all the time as are the muscle pulsing and contractions in the arm and fingers . I use a homemade cannabis salve on the muscles and elbow ( no highs used as skin cream it will not go to the brain ) and sometimes A535 cream on the elbows and finger joints it makes it bearable.
Doctors, will often go by the medical books and medical college positions and the common thing they are told is that there is no pain with Parkinson's. You have to take the time to educate your doctor and if he does not change his view find a new one. Your doctor can write a pain medication prescription for you but pain medication is not covered by government health insurance here because there is no pain with Parkinson's . Bastards.
"...MDs are told there is no pain with parkinson's"
How would they know anyway? Do they listen to their patients sufficiently enough or ask them the right questions? And what percentage of MDs/neurologists ever experienced parkinson's? Basically looking from the outside, they have no clue
It was really appalling while I was in the UK. Outside their own controlled narrative, non of the Neuros wanted to listen to anything else that might help solve the many mysteries of PD.. All they wanted was to find reasons to shove more levadopa down your throat.. sorry for ranting here
B I N G O! Hubby's last visit was waste of time. 😁 Some physical examining, rest of discussion was to "shove" higher doses of meds. I asked him if he could prescribe something to halt the progression. He looked at me with an angry look. . .
I started "carrying" my right arm as one of the first symptoms along with cogwheel rigidity (in my elbow) ...funny thing is i got my arm swing back (after 30 years !!) when I fell and extended my hand to catch my fall...something snapped when it happened-it was as if a point of great tension took the hit-and now after 2 years of healing I can extend and swing my arm freely-and it is not completely flaccid though . It feels miraculous ...as if I gave myself a sort of chiropractic adjustment-painful as it was. I felt what seemed to be a pinched nerve under my scapula release . I developed bruising on my bicep . Recently I fell and injured my other arm...this one feels really painful especially when it becomes a bit dyskinetic or dystonic -I hope it will heal-my right shoulder is painful in the joint as it has had to work overtime to pick myself up when I fall. When my left shoulder took a hit I felt a big downward slide in my ability to move....getting up from frequent falling and laying in bed is suddenly much more difficult . I am hoping that new patterns of movement will evolve from this latest injury. A mysterious man who was hitting golf balls on a beach told me once that sometimes one has to be broken in order to get better. Kind Regards- MD
The pain that I have off and on only in my affected arm isn't too bad (yet), but it feels exactly like a strained/overworked muscle. I feel it in my tricep and along the top of my forearm in a straight line back from my index finger. I often find myself stretching and massaging those muscles, although it doesn't help much.
I would say that pain is my worst symptom. I try to exercise as much as my fatigue levels allow,but pain results in every muscle I decide needs exercise. Damned if I do,damned if I don't......😑
I'm suffering with a very painful shoulder. Hospital diagnosed as strained AC joint, but I think my Parkinson's is involved as the pain worsens when my L-Dopa starts to wear off.
Did some googling and there is research; try searching for "Parkinson's shoulder dysfunction"...it might have some bearing on your issue?
I'd try/and have been doing for years, isometric resistant weight training, free weights too .. curls, upper forearms, shoulders, chest, upper and lower back ... etc. etc ..
Hi, my husband had this for quite a while in his for arm and elbow area and, on the suggestion of a neuro physio, used a TENS machine (amazon.co.uk/axion-STIM-PRO....
She helped us with the set up and working out the most effective settings. Although it was a bit of a phaff it really helped and after a while didnt need it. Have since used it occasionally when the pain comes back. It works by sending electronic impulses to counter the tremor. Sorry that's about as technical as I can get!
Hi I have right hand tremor and when it is really cold as an example my tremor is much worse. Then the muscles in my upper arm ache like mad and even in the lower arm. Calming the tremor calms the pain.
I have tremors in my left arm and get spasms occasionally in my trapezius and forearm. I used topical cannabis (no THC) and I also get Botox injections in my neck and trapezius about every 3 months which helps. I get immediate relief when I use a microwaved moist heat pack on the affected area. I think mine is also precipitated by the LD/CD wearing off as it seems to only occur randomly when it's time to take my medication. Hope this helps.
I have severe tremors on my left side. They caused extreme pain in my right shoulder due to the constant shaking. I just finished physical therapy on my right shoulder on Tuesday. Here is what I've done to fix it:
Physical Therapy
Cold Pack then Heat Pack every morning for 20 minutes each - again during the day if needed. The cold really helps a lot. The heat feels good too.
Tens Unit during the day when it became bothersome again - bought a small one on Amazon.
Changed my C/L dosing and my mucuna intake so that my tremor is controlled much better. I started dosing based on how I am feeling in regards to the tremor. Sometimes I take my meds closer together, other times they are further apart. I stopped taking my medication at specific times as I found "listening" to my body works better.
Continued strength training - I plan on continuing this forever because it really helps.
I am now mostly pain free at least for the time being. It took me 3 months to get to this point. I am not using ice, heat or the Tens Unit regularly right now. I found CBD cream did nothing for me but did not try THC so I'm interested to see how it goes for you if you try it.
I have had frozen shoulder for months now, and then had a mishap when a bus opened it's doors and squished me. I find that it feels somewhat better when I take extra mucuna. So I have been taking a lot more of it. I'm so glad you wrote about it here because I don't think it's just from the tremor. I think the tremors get it irritated enough that any little wrong move can push it over the edge. I am going to investigate some of these methods like repatterning. They make a ton of sense to me! The description reminds me of the Bowen person I went to who also spoke about tensegrity. Thank you!
Can you get anybody to prescribe you some muscle relaxants? Someone who understands it need not be more complicated? There are more than one type and commonly at least one or two of them are used for muscle relaxation for spasms and tension, and contraction pain.
What about magnesium?
Can you get some CBD that can be put into a cream?
How about Art's melatonin cream? And if you get somewhere with that, you're making it yourself and you could always grind in an extra 15 or 20% or more then his formula. I use Neutrogena "Oil Free Moisture" that's the base, it should be commonly available anywhere makeup or hand cream are sold.
What about lidocaine in a cream, that is commonly available. OTC. Aspercreme sells a roll on.
What about combining two or more of these in a cream like that base for making art's?
How about diclofenac cream? Is it topical cream it is over the counter. Brand names are Salonpas by Hisamitu, and I think Aspercreme markets one that is about the same.
Would clonazapam help with that? I read about stiff man’s syndrome (I looked it up when I saw Celina Dion had it) and clonazapam was a treatment they suggested.
I don't know, but I think rather Xanax might have more of an effect. The reasons personal experience, many many years ago I was on xanax, alprazolam is the generic, and I noticed it specifically would cool my body down quite a great deal, so I suspect it was relaxing skeletal muscles which produced heat and the sensation of heat in my skin nerves. So I think those muscles, and that would probably include striated muscle that we're talking about when we have those spasmodic extensor flexor conflicts, and also those are the muscles involved in contractures like park bear in experencing, I suspect Xanax might be the first one to try. Again these things are appropriate when managed, much of the risk is less when carefully managed, so people don't have to be as afraid of it, unless they're going to be doing a lot of driving all the time. And of course you don't want to mix with alcohol. But my guess is alprazolam more than clonazepam. And since clonazepam has a longer half-life, that Xanax shorter Half-Life is easier to manage more quickly, meaning you basically get it out of your system faster then you do with clonazepam. In many respects of course Xanax and Klonopin are quite similar so certainly if it worked for Celine Dion, I wouldn't quarrel with success! Of course someone of her stature is going to find her prescribers much more malleable.
Hubby has been on clonazapam at a low dose for a few years now as the crisis nurse gave it to him after a severe bout of (drug induced as it turns out) anxiety and panic.
As you say it isn’t a thing to be scared of. At low enough dose it doesn’t have side effects for him. I’m not sure if Xanax is prescribed here. It’s not one they have suggested for him. The thing I like about clonazapam is the long half life so once it’s up to equilibrium it stays level and if you miss one or are late taking it there isn’t much of a difference. It seems one of the few things he can tolerate that makes a difference.
I prepared some melatonin cream according to Art's directions and applied it religiously daily for 3 weeks. No effect.
I am concerned about the diclofenac creme because it is alleged to be cardio toxic. it is apparent when I have tried it that something is getting absorbed. It helps some.
I've tried Aspercreme and the like and they help a little bit. I've got some Salonpas in stock. Hadn't thought of it. I've slapped a couple of patches on and we will see if it does anything. It does not contain Diclofenac. Active ingredients are Menthol and a form of aspirin. So it is similar to Aspercreme.
Right now rather than go for muscle relaxer I am focused on getting my dopaminergic medication dialed in well - it does seem to alleviate tremor when the levels are right. This is the underlying cause of the problem and I would much rather fix the problem at the source rather than layer on another medication.
CBD is legal in my locality and will be trying a cream at some point.
Okay just on the diclofenac you might want to check, that heart risks were as an oral, i.e., "systemic." It may be quite different as a topical, and in fact I suspect it may be the case or it never would have been allowed to have been made an over the counter after being found to be dangerous as a systemic prescription med, because originally it was a prescription med and an internal. But I might check it out unless really you were done with the road of pain relievers.
Muscle relaxants on the other hand is the area I'm thinking of really and those are prescribed and often used by surgeons, there are several tiers of effectiveness and quite a few more than a slave people know exist. Often used in surgery and surgery prep and emergency, anesthesiologists make extensive use of them but people like you and I don't tend to know of the availability of the full spectrum, and this is why it occurred to me. There are actually quite a number of them and they have different uses for different structures, and have different levels of effectiveness and strength, which I think is encouraging if you can get a Doctor who understands something like "total care". So I might think it's at least worth talking to a specialist, someone who does anesthesiology or knows about surgical applications, perhaps an orthopod, someone familiar with "pain management" in general as it has really become its own field in the last few years, and such practitioners are a little bit more liberal and a little less reflectively fearful about its role in daily use for people with chronic pain, could then hand it over to your usual prescriber for consultation/management.
I'm not really talking out of my ass, if you can believe this I was raised in families with physicians, so I tended to see them putting on their pants like everybody else being on a first name basis as juvenile, and my training in psychology & psychiatry (not as medicine, but as the study of mental diseases which research provided psychiatrists with some of their base information) was "interdisciplinary" at the time, and that sort of familiarity I think taught me that you can talk to doctors as people, maybe as your cousin or your cousin's relative for example, and suggest things that might not necessarily occur to them because they're so doggone busy and busy in very serious things, one after the other bam bam bam, such as talking to each other collaboratively. It has served its purpose many times in my lifetime and I think it's worth thinking about that way and suggesting it. Sometimes they really do appreciate just having an adult conversation that is collaborative in nature with a patient and maybe open to considering possibilities. I found it so pretty much everywhere I've gone. Anyway I have learned to try.
When you read the instructions for the Diclofenac gel, my impression is that it is very well absorbed topically because they discuss limiting the area of application. It is a good topical pain reliever, but I am afraid of using it continuously or over a larger area or areas.
If the pain is caused by overuse of muscles taurine may help. It is used by athletes and is found in some sports drinks. I take 500mg nightly and I do not get the leg cramps that I used to get. Also do not get the stiffness/ rigidity when standing up after sitting for a while.
Here in Canada the use is legal and it is also legal to grow two plants up to four per household . Cannabis dissolves in oil not water . Most people use coconut oil because it is readily available , inexpensive and good skin cream on its own . The cannabis can be roasted first making a change in the product that is similar to the roasting of green tea to black or the roasting of coffee. Usually people will roast only some of their cannabis because both raw and roasted have different properties with beneficial results. The roasting temperature must not go above 200 degrees F. Roasting is only necessary when using as a topical cream because when smoking the roasting occurs after ignition. I have used cream made from cannabis every day for two years and have never experienced a side effect or any kind of high or mental change after the topical use.
Coconut oil becomes a liquid at approximately 72 degrees F. so it is difficult to apply but you get used to it and some people add bees wax to the mix to keep it a semi solid but others use a bit of the cream on the end of a spoon in their tea to help them sleep and therefore do not use the bees wax. All the difference between THC and DBD is of concern only if you are smoking it or ingesting it , but not if you are using it topically as a cream. There are several other cannabinoids that also are in cannabis that are helpful for pain as well as those two . The ground cannabis is steeped in oil for several hours again not above 200 degrees F.
Doctors have started suggesting to people that as well as using it as a skin cream that they try it as as a additive to tea in the evening but I have yet to try it because if I sleep through the night without my 1 AM and 4 AM doses of CD/LD then I will awake to cramps and a bad day and this happens if I take any muscle relaxants which do make me dopy all day.
Purchased skin cream containing cannabis is very expensive and growing your own cannabis is very easy , just look it all up on google, assuming that you live in a free country where access to information is not controlled by government. This is not new . It has been used for thousands of years with many strains being developed.
Thanks for sharing. I have been myself experiencing extreme pain in side muscles and triceps of upper arm, specially when moving the hand backwards or lifting it sideways. Went thru physiotherapy sessions, but no relief. Orthopedic is now suspecting muscle tear and suggesting a surgery post confirmation by MRI.
Although I don't experience tremors but I have extreme muscle stiffness in Off period and right arm does get over worked in the act of lifting from bed, shifting position etc. I'll try CBD oil. In case anything else works for you, please share.
I am left side tremor dominant, and for the last 6 to 8 weeks I’ve had what I thought was “tennis elbow”. I think it was caused by the tight arm muscles and tremor on my left arm, but also from an uptick in my daily exercise intensity. So I cut back the intensity a bit (I even stopped boxing with my left arm altogether!) but still have the tennis elbow pain that radiates from my elbow into my forearm and sometimes from my elbow up to my tricep. I went to physical therapy for several weeks and it did nothing. I bought an arm compression sleeve, and it does nothing and sometimes it makes it feel worse! I purchased a Theraband tennis elbow exercise bar and will start doing the recommended exercises. And I bought a red light torch/wand to use directly on the painful areas, which I am just starting to use. I’m sorry to hear other people are having “overuse” injuries like me, but it confirms my suspicion that Parkinson’s is the underlying cause of my tennis elbow pain. I’ve played sports my whole life, and only had a slight case of tennis elbow in my teenage years for a brief time.
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