What Makes Essential Tremor Worse?

You should never underestimate any disease or disability that might come your way. Your health is very important and needs delicate care. What we advise you to do is do regular checkups or visit your doctor whenever you feel something is wrong with your body. Sports and exercise increase the strength of your immune system which also makes you healthier. Furthermore, eating healthy and maintaining a nutritious diet goes a long way.

The reason behind this health advice introduction is that some people may come across odd illnesses. Some come with small effects that have them think it will naturally pass. However, some of these diseases, like Essential Tremor, start off with a few symptoms and then progress over time. That’s why you should look after your body and avoid the things that make you vulnerable to these illnesses.

Overview of Essential Tremor

According to the National Organization for Rare Disorders:

Essential Tremor is a nervous system disorder that causes involuntary and rhythmic shaking. It’s sometimes confused for Parkinson’s disease, seeing how most of the symptoms are alike. Essential Tremors usually cause parts of your body, mainly the hands, to shake stressfully for a few minutes with no control over them. The tremors usually start off at low intensity and frequency, which makes them almost impossible to notice. However, as time passes, they could get even worse, depending on your condition.

This syndrome most often affects your hands when you do simple tasks like writing down on a piece of paper or trying to drink from a glass of water. If you have Essential Tremor, then you’ll face these difficulties as you lift your glass to take a small sip. The uncontrollable vibrations will have you either let go of the glass or spill some of it on the ground. The tremors will also take action as you hold a pen to write or lift any kind of small object to use.

The upside of this disease is that it isn’t considered deadly or fatal to the person diagnosed with it. However, as mentioned, it does intend to get worse in time. It’s most commonly found among people between the ages of 40 or older, and gender isn’t a factor as it affects both men and women. Younger-aged people might have Essential Tremor, but it’s almost impossible to detect as it comes with low-intensity shakes and frequencies.

Symptoms of Essential Tremor:

Before we get into the factors and aspects that worsen your essential tremor, we need to let you know about the symptoms first. Note that these symptoms are not necessarily visible for all patients. Some might suffer from one or all of them at once.

• Hand Shivers:

As previously mentioned, Essential Tremor intends to affect your hands first, and then probably other parts of your body. It affects one side of your body, but not necessarily the other side in due time. You will experience heavy tremors in your hands that will have you dropping items in your hands uncontrollably. You can’t take charge of your hands when they experience these intense shakes.

• Voice Trembles:

For essential tremors, the shakes don’t just affect your hands and part of your body, it’s also possible for it to affect your voice. You’ll start experiencing shakes in your voice while you speak and sometimes find it hard to make up complete sentences. Twitching while speaking is also possible.

• Head Tremors:

It’s quite possible that the tremors affect your head as they progress. Your head will start nodding uncontrollably with no main triggers for the effect. You’ll start nodding in a horizontal effect as if you’re saying no, or might nod in a vertical effect as if you’re saying yes.

• Other Body Shakes:

This symptom is very uncommon and rarely happens to patients. Essential Tremor is known to have an effect on the hands first and then possibly spreads to other parts of the body as it progresses. However, it’s very important that you see a professional if you experience these shakes on a higher level and in different parts of your body. If this happens, know that your essential tremor is getting worse by the minute.

Does ET Get Worse and What to Avoid?

It’s not clear what might be the reason behind essential tremors getting worse and worse. However, research says that with time and as the patient ages, the tremors get worse and worse. Most of the symptoms mentioned above will be experienced by most people diagnosed with ET and at higher rates. Tremors will increase in frequency and start shaking more per second. Also, the intensity of the shakes gets stronger and increases surprisingly making it difficult to do any motor-related skills. Some treatments and medications help ease the pain and these tremors.

You may also want to be careful when moving around and doing simple tasks like grabbing items or moving them. You could always ask for help to do simple tasks if your ET gets to a high level of difficulty. Another thing you need to avoid is caffeine and certain medications that increase your tremors. Stress plays a huge part in increasing these tremors as well. You may also try resting and lying down because these shakes occur most when you start moving.

How to Treat Your ET?

There are various ways and techniques that might help you treat your Essential Tremor. Some of these techniques involve developing a healthy and soothing lifestyle. Practicing yoga, deep-breathing exercises, or biofeedback helps relax the muscles and keep you at ease. These techniques help in controlling your tremors and keep your mind stress-free. This also means that you need to avoid stressful encounters and situations to maintain this healthy balance in your life.

Other treatments include medicines that can play a part in reducing these annoying tremors. Some of these medications are:

• Primidone—Up to 350 milligrams daily
• Propranolol—Up to 320 milligrams daily
• Topiramate—Up to 400 milligrams daily
• Clonazepam—Up to 6 milligrams daily
• Gabapentin—Up to 2700 milligrams daily
• Mirtazapine—Up to 45 milligrams daily

Do not use these doses on your own. These should be prescribed by your professional doctor or health provider. You need to work closely with your doctor so that he/she can help determine the seriousness of your tremors and prescribe the right medication for them.

Finally, there are other ways you can control these tremors and that’s by using high-tech tools and gadgets that help reduce the effects of ET. There are also surgeries that may treat your condition, but they are only used in severe situations.

What Are the Causes of ET?

This neurological condition has no scientific proof of its cause or what triggers its existence in the human body. However, there are some theories that might explain the origin of this intense syndrome. The most relative and negotiated ones are exposed to toxic components that can cause genetic mutations, which lead to essential tremors. Other theories state that it might be passed on by families which have already been diagnosed with this disease. Although these theories are still yet to be proven by scientists as it’s not clear what causes ET to emerge.

Treatments for ET

Treatments, can be done by either a certain medication prescription from your certified doctor or using technology. There are numerous gadgets and treatments that are able to reduce the symptoms of Parkinson’s, especially uncontrollable shaking. One of these remarkable tools is the Steadi-Two from Steadiwear. This glove uses a smart fluid that stiffens & works together with a counter-weight that moves in the opposite direction of your tremor.