What you need to know about essential tremor

Managing stressful feelings and situations is a life skill for all of us, but it’s especially important if you struggle with essential tremor, reports Health Cleveland Clinic.

At first, essential tremor can resemble Parkinson’s disease. But you can tell the two conditions apart because essential tremor generally kicks in while your hands are in motion — eating, drinking or writing. On the other hand, there is a tendency for tremors from Parkinson’s to affect you when you’re still, says neurologist Kristin Appleby, MD.

Tremors generally affect people’s hands, but occasionally they affect their head, jaw or voice. A small number of people who struggle with ET can have balance problems.

While essential tremor can run in families, many people have no family history of tremors. Dr. Appleby says medications for other conditions, such as lithium or antidepressants, may also contribute to tremors. Hyperthyroidism can also cause tremors that mimic ET.

Dr. Appleby says neurologists will try different medications — most often propranolol, a blood pressure medication, or primidone, an anti-seizure drug.

Beyond meds, essential tremor patients also should choose tasks they plan to do thoughtfully, as well as the timing for these tasks. The National Institutes of Health recommends:

Save tougher tasks for your best time of day. If the tremors seem better or worse at certain times of the day, or on certain days, plan to do handwriting tasks like paying bills or filling out greeting cards at those times when you feel better.

Buy heavier, larger utensils. Using heavier eating utensils can sometimes “dampen out” tremors, Dr. Appleby says. You also may want to eat with utensils that have a larger handle to make control easier.

 Wear clothes that make it easy to dress. Find shoes that are easy to wear. Consider wearing slip-on shoes or using shoehorns.

The NIH also recommends that people with essential tremor avoid caffeine and get enough sleep.

If medications either don’t work or aren’t tolerated well, patients can turn to implantation of a Deep Brain Stimulator, or DBS. 

During the procedure, surgeons implant a device that delivers electrical stimulation to the part of the brain that is partly responsible for the tremors, which can calm them. It is like a pacemaker for the brain.

Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and Twitter