I have a few more comments on treating tremors--from the perspective of an obstetrician-gynecologist. The only thing that my being a gynecologist has to do with this discussion is that I try to practice evidence-based medicine. There are times when I use alternative treatments that do not have lots of data behind them, but I make sure to inform the patient of this and warn them that this may or may not help, and that we don't have long-term data about safety. Two big points: 1. Tremors have a very long differential diagnosis list, ranging from Parkinsons to brain tumors to anxiety to familial tremors to things I've completely forgotten since my long-ago graduation from medical school and all the new diagnoses added since then. This was mentioned on the list, but then forgotten, as tremors seem to subsequently have all been lumped together. There is not going to be any single treatment for tremors that works for all. Even if you've got it figured out and correctly diagnosed as, say, "familial tremor", you're not going to cure it, but you may find better ways to live with it. Hans, mental work and physical training are great tools, especially for helping with overall playing and living. But they are unlikely to help most tremors--except those that are anxiety-based or which get worse with anxiety. Even then, if there's an underlying disease, it will likely proceed inexorably. Some tremors respond to beta blockers, and others don't. 2. Having a treatment that's biologically plausible is a long ways from having a treatment that's effective. In the 80's, Virginia Dalton was a big proponent of natural progesterone treatment for PMS. Thousands of women extolled its virtues, and lots of gynecologist prescribed it. There's a lot of good theory about why it might work. But when double-blind, placebo-controlled studies were done, it was found to be completely ineffective. It's never used anymore. There are hundreds of other examples. Zinc may be biologically plausible, and is relatively safe and low-cost. Feel free to try it, but I'm very skeptical about its efficacy. We also don't know what kind of tremors the individuals had who appeared to benefit. I confess I don't read every listing, so I apologize if I'm duplicating ideas. Linda Harris
_______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
