Joon Faii Ong London Explains Causes of Hand Tremors and Care Tips

Are you finding it difficult to hold a coffee cup steady in your hand? Do your hands tend to tremble and interfere with daily activities like combing hair or writing a note? If you noticeably have these types of symptoms, these are called hand tremors. These are common at an older age, and to diagnose if there are any underlying conditions, you have to consult a neurologist. Usually, these hand trembling symptoms are not life-threatening, but if you find them troublesome and limiting, then you may consult a doctor and start treatment.

Hand tremors occurring during rest may sometimes be due to Parkinson’s disease, and if they tend to occur during activity, it may be an essential tremor symptom. Joon Faii Ong London says that resting handshaking may mostly feel like pill-rolling between the thumb and index fingers. When you try to do some activity, the trembling disappears.

Postural tremor is another condition that tends to occur while your hands are in an outstretched position. With this posture, you may not be able to keep your hands steady. Intention tremors, on the other hand, may occur when you are trying to reach out for a target, like putting the key into the keylock to unlock. There are task-specific tremors that may occur during activity while writing or doing makeup etc.

Types of tremors

Every individual is found to have a certain small amount of tremor, which is called physiologic tremor. This is quite natural and oftentimes unnoticeable. Some other types of unnatural tremors are as below:

• Enhanced physiologic tremor – This may be caused due to excessive caffeine use, thyroid disease, during stress-out spells, fatigue, etc.

• Drug-induced tremor – Some specific medications may cause side-effect of tremors. Antidepressants like Wellbutrin and anti-arrhythmic mediations like amiodarone may cause tremors.

• Parkinsonian tremor – This is one of the common cases and, as described above, starts to show the pill-rolling type of tremor.

• Essential tremor – This is a neurological condition that causes involuntary shaking of hands, arms, legs, head, tongue, chin, voice box, etc.

• Cerebellar tremor – Such tremors may happen due to any damage to the cerebellum and may also be caused by multiple sclerosis or stroke.

• Post-stroke tremors – After a severe stroke, patients may start to experience several types of tremors. With damage to the cerebellum, there can be intentional tremors. With damage in the basal ganglia, there can be resting tremors.

• Withdrawal tremors – People who are into alcohol or drug withdrawal may start to experience some postural tremors as a part of the withdrawal symptoms.

Diagnosis and treatment of tremors are particularly important, which require a close physical examination and careful analysis of the symptoms. The patient’s medical history and family history also needed to be considered for a proper diagnosis. The other underlying medical conditions also needed to be considered for a proper diagnosis, along with tremors. As pointed out by Joon Faii Ong London, for tremors, some treatments are medications like beta-blocker propranolol and antiseizure drug primidone, etc. Doctors may also prescribe lifestyle changes and the usage of specific care equipment to cope with tremors.

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