Wow, I seemed to have missed an entire thread. I read Vals post about tremors and Zinc, and I was wondering what I have missed concerning tremors. Has there been a special thread about this topic? As some of you know, I retired because I had developed a thing called "postural tremors" which is part of what is called essential tremors and which, in my case, causes my arm and head to occasional shake. They are so mild that the only "life" thing it affects is my horn playing and then only occasionally. But it did happen enough to cause me to decide to retire. It was diagnosed after a year of Dr. visits, and the final diagnoses was done while the Dr was watching me play the horn. I had ALL of the test: MRI Cat Scan and several other nerve continuity test. Nothing out of the ordinary showed up in any of those test. The Neurologist came to what I will call an "observational diagnoses" when my head and arm did their shake thing while he was watching me play. There was and is medication for the tremors, but that medication was so mind altering that it left me in a fog, and the medication affected much more of my life style than just my horn playing. In short, as I had a long and wonderful career I just decided to retire. But I still wanted to pursue this tremor thing and see if I could find a way to overcome it. I know there are many younger players out there that just might have this same condition. As the Dr informed me when I said to him: "This must be a very rare condition", he said, "Oh no there are about 65% of the people that have some sort of essential tremors. And the cause is not fully understood". And!!! I am still pursuing a possible solution. I am working with a wonderful physical therapist who thinks?? that the problem might be in my neck.... and since I have been working with it is better. Now I will also add the Zinc thing. It surely can't hurt if I do it in moderation. However!!! And this is a big however!! When things like shakes and tremors and such happen, the FIRST thing one should do is see you Dr.!! There are so many things that can be wrong, and if there is a REAL medical condition, then that should be examined first. Just self-diagnosing could be very dangerous. I did spend almost a year pursuing it with a Dr. First my family Dr. and then with a Neurologists. But that aside, I think it is ok for Val and others to share information concerning things they have discovered about some these "maladies" we brass players suffer from as long as it is not presented as THE answer to a problem. After all we know a great deal, but at the same time, very little about embouchure destonia. I have been to several lectures concerning that big one for brass players, and even though a great deal has been learned. it is one of those "maladies" that we are not 100% sure of the cause nor the solution. And it seems to be one of those things that brass players suffer from much more today than in the past. I know that in my career I have only seen three cases and those in the last ten years. I am glad Val mentioned the Zinc thing, and I for one will try it. There is so much stuff in our food and enviorment today and so much stuff missing, that we may find solutions to some things the "natural" way.
DON'T SELF DIAGNOS though. Always see your Dr first. Milton Milton Kicklighter 4th Horn Buffalo Philharmonic Retired From: Steve Haflich <[email protected]> >To: The Horn List <[email protected]> >Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2011 12:45 AM >Subject: Re: [Hornlist] unwanted vibrato > >This is an unacceptable posting. Valerie should spend some more time >balancing her embouchure and should not attempt to post medical advice. >Her post gives specific medical advice, cites an unidentified authority, >presents unsubstantiated statistics, and provides no references by which >anyone could substantiate her statements. > >Tremors can indicate various medical and/or psychological issues. The >OP may wish to take these up with his physician, even though it may be >difficult to get a physician to consider all the evidence and >particulars of the case within a 20-minute appointment. Diagnosis may >depend whether the OP is aged 25 or aged 75, which his physician will >likely know, but about which Valerie doesn't seem to care. >_______________________________________________ >post: [email protected] >unsubscribe or set options at >https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/kicklighgter%40yahoo.com > > > _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
