SNI Blog

Tremor is a normal physiologic reaction to anxiety or stress, but it is not normal to have a tremor when performing typical daily activities.

People who develop a tremor while eating, drinking, writing or doing other common activities may have a movement disorder called Essential Tremor. This is actually the most common movement disorder, and can affect up to 4% of people over age 40. People who have this disorder can take medications to help minimize the tremor, but they don't often reduce the tremor by more than about half. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an excellent treatment option for people with severe tremor, and can nearly eliminate the tremor in many patients. Many patients aren't sure when their tremor is severe enough to warrant surgery, and much of our conversation in the office is to help answer this question.

There is no one answer that is right for everyone, but for me it has to do with how well someone is actually doing in their daily life:

Every year in the fall, our Swedish DBS Team has a table in the exhibit area at the Hope Conference for Parkinson's Disease. It is a wonderful opportunity to meet people in the PD community, and spend time chatting with our other neuroscience colleagues from centers in the area.

I am always surprised by the numbers of people who come by and say, “I am not ready, my disease is not bad enough, I am too young, or I haven't had PD long enough”...

Your brain is your body’s control center and keeping it healthy helps keep your whole body healthy. Often times, however, our physical ailments take center stage. But did you know that mental health and physical health are connected? This is why it is important for us—from birth to old age—to keep our brains happy and healthy. Whether we do this by working on our daily crossword or carving out time each day to focus on activities that keep us positive, activities that improve brain health improve our overall health, too.

When it comes to maintaining brain health, there are four specific areas on which to focus:

It is well documented that exercise is beneficial for the body and mind because it promotes strength, endurance, flexibility, range of motion, mood, and a general sense of health and well-being. All these “perks” improve function in our daily lives. Add music to the aerobics routine and the soul is uplifted. After all, music can calm or energize the spirit and often allows us to move more freely.

The MS Center at Swedish offers free aerobics classes to the MS community for the joy of movement and music. In contrast to the typical dance-like moves that might come to mind when you think of aerobics, the exercises in Aerobics for MS are designed to increase strength and mobility for functional movements part of everyday life. Most of all, they’re meant to be fun! Classes take place in a supportive and relaxed environment, and all abilities are invited.

For more information about MS aerobics classes...

I met with several patients this week to discuss their personal journey to making the decision to pursue DBS surgery. Not surprisingly, they were well educated about their disease and treatment options.

Each patient reminded me that there is a lot of information and misinformation about surgery for movement disorders.

The most important advice I can give any patient or family is...

Choosing to undergo elective deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery is a big deal.

I have walked through the process with hundreds of patients over the past 10 years and see many struggle with the choice to undergo brain surgery, as they seek to improve their quality of life. Many people have adapted to compensate for the movement disorder with creativity and determination.

In spite of this, after the best medical options have been exhausted, DBS is increasingly offered as a viable treatment option.

Keys to making the best decision for you are:

Nearly everyone notices vision problems, especially as you get older. In the great majority of cases, this is simply due to changes in the focusing capacity of the lens, and the solution is wearing glasses. However, it isn’t safe to assume that this is always the case. It’s important to have your eyes examined by a trained professional to determine whether something more serious is affecting the eye or the vision nerve. 

In the video below you’ll learn about something I commonly see in my practice – vision loss from a tumor of the pituitary gland that is putting pressure on the vision nerves. This type of vision loss typically reduces the peripheral vision to either side. This can be diagnosed by a test at the eye doctor called Visual Fields. As in this case, a relatively simple operation can reverse the vision problem before it becomes permanent. The key is early diagnosis. If you notice that your peripheral vision is affected, ask your eye doctor to check visual fields.