Nature of my tremors

Disclaimer: I am NOT a medical professional.  I am not offering advice on the treatment of your Essential Tremors.  This blog is my own personal story about how I cope and don’t cope with my Essential Tremors.  I do NOT recommend that you undertake ANY experiments with drugs to treat your Essential Tremors.  Seek medical advice from a qualified physician and follow their advice.

My tremors are “late onset” as I was about 40 when I first became aware of my Essential Tremors. Full disclosure: I knew my hands were shaky but I always ignored my tremors. At this time, I was in full time employment with Siemens and working as part of a large team on a Point of Sale project in Düsseldorf. I was installing a network card in a new AT class tower PC and had to remove and reinstall several blanking plates.

One of the local Siemens employees commented on my shaky hands as it took me several attempts to insert a tiny screw to secure the blanking plate.  I jokingly laughed it off and said; “It must be my DT’s!” (delirium tremens).  I was abusing alcohol at the time so there was some truth in my statement.

I eventually quit drinking alcohol but the Essential Tremors stayed with me.  They were never caused by my alcohol abuse.  After living with ETs for more than 30 years, it is only recently that I have sought medical advice.  At one visit for a checkup on my hypertension (high blood pressure), I casually demonstrated my hand tremors and asked my doctor what it was.  “Essential Tremors” came the reply.  I had never heard of it.

I did a little Google research after that.  The first article I remember reading an article on the treatment of Essential Tremors was from the Mayo Clinic.  It recommended Propranolol  (Inderal), a common beta blocker that is used to treat high blood pressure.  I had taken Propranolol for many years but recently my doctor switched my medicine lineup to Atenolol, another beta blocker.

Somewhere along the way, I decided to experiment.  I had a three month supply of Propranolol left over from my old prescription.  “I’ll try 40mg.”  Half the normal dosage I had been prescribed.

It worked!  I’m one of somewhat lucky people that can tolerate Propranolol and my Essential Tremors respond to it.  My tremors are suppressed for 4 to 5 hours after taking it.

As I said, I’m lucky.  Propranolol works for me. Maybe it will work for you.  It is effective for about 50%-60% of people with Essential Tremors.  If it works for you, it can give you relief of up to 50% of your tremor amplitude.  It does not affect the frequency of your tremor, how many times a second you shake.  ...and then there can be some side effects. 

Propranolol is the only drug currently approved by the FDA for the treatment of Essential Tremors.  

Opinion: All other drugs that you may be prescribed for the treatment of Essential Tremors will either be: 

• less effective, or

• have worse side effects, or

• both

I’ll try to comment on the sad state of affairs of research/diagnosis/treatment Essential Tremors in my next post.