Essential Tremor
Meat May Make It Worse
Have your hands started to shake?
You try to pick up a glass of water and it sloshes all over the place.
You try to offer your guest a glass of wine, but you’re afraid to pick it up.
Essential tremor is a neurological disorder which causes your hands to shake.
It’s the most common movement disorder in the world with no known cause or treatment.
However, new research has found one possible cause - neurotoxins in the brain that can produce a tremor.
A large group of chemicals known as heterocyclic amines (HCAs) are known as products of cooking meat that include both cancerogenic (cancer forming) and mutagenic (ability to change DNA) agents.
The most potent of these chemicals is harmane.
In experiments, volunteers who were exposed to high doses of harmane developed tremors. When the chemical was taken away, the tremors disappeared.
In six important studies, people with essential tremor were found to have higher levels of harmane in their blood stream compared to those without the tremor.
How can you get exposed to harmane?
Primarily through cooked meat.
Tests conducted on cooked meat showed high harmane levels in fried filet of pork, flame-broiled beef, flame-broiled chicken and even in grilled salmon.
Harmane is suspected of being resorbed through the mouth (oral mucosa) which causes it to bypass the stomach and even the detoxifying enzymes of the liver before making it up into the brain.
Men who eat the most meat have been shown to have 21 times the odds of having essential tremor.
What Is Essential Tremor?
Tremor is usually caused by a problem in the parts of the brain that control movements. Most types have no known genetic cause, although there are some forms that appear to be inherited and run in families.
In identical twin studies, essential tremor was found to be 50% genetic. For people who do have familial essential tremor, their symptoms often appear at younger ages than in those with the non-inherited form of essential tremor.
Essential tremor is not life-threatening, but can cause significant distress. The symptoms may come and go, but often get worse with age.
In adults who are over forty, it affects one out of twenty-five people. In adults over ninety, it can affect one in every five people.
Besides the potentially debilitating hand tremor, it can cause difficulty walking and can even cause various levels of cognitive impairment.
What Can You Do?
Some suggested lifestyle modifications include:
· Avoid meat
· Avoid alcohol
· Avoid caffeine
· Don’t smoke
· Try to avoid stressful situations
· Use relaxation techniques like yoga, deep-breathing or biofeedback
· Do daily, gentle exercise such as walking or swimming.
If you are still miserable after trying all of the lifestyle modifications, your neurologist can prescribe medication. Those usually prescribed are propanol and primidone. Unfortunately, they do have a long list of side-effects.
If you have essential tremor, I would love for you to send me a ‘reply’ or add a comment, as to any treatments that you have found helpful.
