What is tremor?
Tremor is the medical term for trembling or shaking. A person with tremor has a body part that shakes, and the person cannot control the shaking. Most often this shaking affects the hands or the head, but other body parts can be affected, too. The tremor can be a problem on its own, or it can be caused by another health problem.
What is a cause of tremor?
There are multiple causes of tremor. The most common is a physiological tremor and everyone of us faces it during high stress condition and in fright. There are other causes as well like medication, thyroid disease, stroke, genetic and parkinsonism.
Is there a test to find out the cause of tremor?
No, there is no test. But your doctor or nurse can learn about a lot about your tremor just by asking you questions and watching you move. Your doctor or nurse might send you for a brain scan or blood tests to make sure your tremor is not caused by something serious. But it’s likely that they will be able to tell what’s wrong just by doing an exam.
How is tremor treated?
If a tremor is caused by another medical problem, treating that problem – if it can be treated – sometimes helps reduce the tremor, too. For example, people whose tremor is caused by high thyroid hormone levels often stop shaking when their hormone levels go back to normal.
Even when no other medical problems are involved, there are treatments that can help. There are a few medicines that can reduce a person’s tremor. If the medicines are not effective enough and the tremor is severe, it is even possible to have a device implanted in the brain that can help control tremor.
