How I Stopped Having Tremors

[DavidGardner]

When I quit drinking two and a half years ago, I started having shakes, mainly in my left (dominant) hand. Initially, I concluded they were withdrawal symptoms. Then I put it off to a continuing GABA deficiency. Over a year passed and I started cutting back my caffeine consumption for unrelated reasons. As my caffeine intake decreased, the tremors actually worsened and became much more drastic and debilitating. Sometimes I would lose control of my entire arm and feel altogether uncoordinated. Somewhere at this stage I began coming across studies correlating essential tremor with meat consumption. Here is one such study: Dietary Epidemiology of Essential Tremor: Meat Consumption and Meat Cooking Practices. As an experiment, I began cutting out meat, which given my love of dairy and trying to save money, was not hard to do. The less meat I consumed, the less frequent and severe the tremors were. Whenever I would relapse and eat meat for two or three days consecutively, the tremors would worsen again. I have noticed this pattern consistently. Now it has been over a year since going mostly vegetarian and I very rarely eat meat. Only socially, and even then if I can find a way around it I do. Now the tremors are very few and far between.

During this time, I should note I went on lamotrigine and then quetiapine also, and gradually increased my caffeine intake to a pretty substantial amount again. The reason I think meat is the main factor in my recovery is because of how consistently and severely the tremors would start again whenever I ate meat two or more days consecutively.

I'm just passing this on, because this is a very common issue, especially with older people, and no one really mentions meat as a factor, even doctors. I think people would rather blame stress or caffeine because they are easier scapegoats. Americans love their meat for the most part and I think few are willing to live without it. Nonetheless, I think this important to consider.

Just my bit, I hope this is helpful to someone out there.

 

[GutFeeling]

Amoxicillin worked for me like magic.

 

[ecstatichamster]

Lamotrigine is such a powerful drug. It might cast doubts on the tremors...they may be related to the drug?

 

[DavidGardner]

I only take 50 mg, which is about the lowest dose that is prescribed. Most people with bipolar take 100 - 400 mg. I won't rule out that it could be helping, but I don't think it negates my experiences with consuming meat. As I stated twice already in my opening, I have had very severe tremors consistently when consuming meat again for multiple consecutive days after periods of abstinence. If that is just some kind of reverse placebo effect, it is a f***ing powerful one to debilitate all motor skills in my dominant hand.

 

[DavidGardner]

Amoxicillin worked for me like magic.

That's very interesting. I took Cephalexin once during a period of bad anxiety, and it seemed to help with that. Probiotic supplements sometime trigger anxiety for me, so I never take them anymore.

 

[ecstatichamster]

I only take 50 mg, which is about the lowest dose that is prescribed. Most people with bipolar take 100 - 400 mg. I won't rule out that it could be helping, but I don't think it negates my experiences with consuming meat. As I stated twice already in my opening, I have had very severe tremors consistently when consuming meat again for multiple consecutive days after periods of abstinence. If that is just some kind of reverse placebo effect, it is a f***ing powerful one to debilitate all motor skills in my dominant hand.

no I can see the validity of your observation. But lamotrigine does have a lot of involvement in tremors potentially...just sayin'. I doubt you are observing a reverse placebo effect, and you had this before the lamotrigine, so that makes sense.

I wonder if this was supermarket industrial meat, or did you have the same effect with grass fed?

 

[dfspcc20]

@DavidGardner @André Luiz What kind of tremors did you have? Resting or action tremors? Essential, intention, postural, isometric, etc.?

 

[DavidGardner]

@DavidGardner @André Luiz What kind of tremors did you have? Resting or action tremors? Essential, intention, postural, isometric, etc.?

Both resting and action. Can't say for certain whether it was essential tremor or not because a neurologist would not give me a diagnosis. At the time of my visit to him, I was having no symptoms, so he wrote it off as "physiologic tremor" caused by stress or caffeine. Not convinced because I have had tremors without any perceivable sense of stress. I never noticed caffeine to trigger symptoms except maybe in truly massive amounts (like 800+ mg) in a very short time frame, and usually under those circumstances the tremors would be very transient. Some of the most persistent tremors I had, ironically, were during the period of very minimal caffeine intake-- like a cup or two of tea or cocoa a day or none at all.

I don't think I can classify it as a particular type-- intention, postural, isometric-- because when they would happen they would go on regardless of the type of activity or being at rest. They did seem worst when trying to perform tasks that required fine motor skills, such as pruning plants. The only way to stop them would be to clench the affected hand in a fist and grasp the wrist firmly with the unaffected hand. They would last for a few minutes to up two hours and then pass. I still don't know exactly what they were or what the cause was, and I'm not intelligent enough or educated enough to draw any conclusions. Just relating my experience.

There was a brief outbreak about a week ago I think, so I can't say for sure they're completely over, just less frequent than ever since they started.

 

[GutFeeling]

@DavidGardner @André Luiz What kind of tremors did you have? Resting or action tremors? Essential, intention, postural, isometric, etc.?

It sounded like anxiety tremors.
I could not maintain my body posture sometimes. As if my legs were losing their balance.
It happened at times when I was alone and more often when I was with company and during sports. I did not feel anxious or even having problems with socializing.
After amoxicillin I feel calmer, feeling similar to the effect of cyproheptadine. Probably I was over serotonin.

 

[dfspcc20]

@DavidGardner @André Luiz thanks! I have isometric tremors. Haven't been able to figure them out yet. They're only noticeable during certain exercises.

 

[Waynish]

How was B1 & B3 for your alcohol cravings?

 

[DavidGardner]

How was B1 & B3 for your alcohol cravings?

I didn't take thiamine at the time, but niacinamide helped I think. Picamilon was even better, but I don't know how easy that is to get anymore. It's a combination of niacin and GABA that allows GABA to cross the blood-brain barrier.

 

[southcesar]

Hi, I've had essential tremor since I was a kid (hand tremor) and recently I've noticed that my feet tremble from time to time. And, obviously, in moments of anxiety, the tremors get worse. I've already watched a video that Dr Peat recommended vitamin B12 and magnesium for tremors. However I supplement magnesium and eat a lot of meat and dairy products and feel no difference in relation to the tremors. In addition I supplement taurine, MB and aspirin. Are there any other recommendations for this condition? I plan to try cyproheptadine eventually, but I don't really know what else to do.

 

[Waynish]

Hi, I've had essential tremor since I was a kid (hand tremor) and recently I've noticed that my feet tremble from time to time. And, obviously, in moments of anxiety, the tremors get worse. I've already watched a video that Dr Peat recommended vitamin B12 and magnesium for tremors. However I supplement magnesium and eat a lot of meat and dairy products and feel no difference in relation to the tremors. In addition I supplement taurine, MB and aspirin. Are there any other recommendations for this condition? I plan to try cyproheptadine eventually, but I don't really know what else to do.

Have you been diagnosed by an experience Chinese doctor?