Stanthorpe Lions Bring Awareness & Support For The Essential Tremor Condition
Did you know that Essential Tremor is five times more common than Parkinsons and can affect simple everyday tasks that we take for granted? For example, do your hands tremble when drinking from a glass, buttoning clothes, tying shoelaces, or applying toothpaste to a brush … just to name a few? Shaving, applying makeup, manicuring finger nails or even holding a cup of coffee can become difficult tasks to achieve, greatly affecting one’s everyday life.
Essential Tremor is a nervous system (neurological) disorder that causes involuntary and rhythmic shaking that can affect almost any part of your body.
A common way to deal with the frustrations of Essential Tremor is to isolate oneself, never to leave the security of home, which in turn causes partners and families of sufferers to experience further inconvenience as well.
When a patient presents with tremor, a few simple pen and paper tests can be performed. Taking a matter of seconds, handwriting and the drawing of Archimedes spirals and straight lines can be observed as clinical assessments. Watching the patient’s upper limb while they perform these pen and paper tests provide a wealth of information and can determine a characteristic pattern of abnormality, such as Essential, Dystonic, Functional and Parkinsonian Tremor.
For those who live with all forms of tremor, as an initiative of The Lions Club of Stanthorpe, the ‘Essential Tremor Awareness & Support Group’ was formed.
Please contact Paul and Elizabeth Drake via
lions.stanthorpeclub.com or facebook@Stanthorpe.Lions