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What can be done to help with hand tremors?


This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

1
Senior physical therapist

Answer transcribed from Brightway's interview with Dr. Cristen Gordon (pt.1):

 

You’ll have to see if it's related to spasticity, but hand tremors can significantly impair function if you're trying to reach, for example, for a cup of water and your hand is shaking. You could imagine that possibly you're going to spill the drink or drop the cup. There are ways to work on that, some of it is strength training, some of it is coordination training, just breaking down your actions to work on the accuracy of each part of the movement you're doing. There could also be adaptive devices you can use for hand tremors. One example is weighted utensils or weighted glasses. You can use those to help reduce hand tremors. Some patients get some relief using braces or splinting to help put their hand into the most relaxed position. This can limit tremors, but sometimes they can be so significant that you have to consider medication. We'll have to work with a neurologist or your doctor to incorporate that into the treatment as well

 

I don't know the names of specific devices, but you can just look up weighted utensils or weighted devices related to physical therapy and you will get so many lists of different companies that are making these brands. I've also seen a bowl that you can't really spill where when you're holding the bowl, even if your hand is shaking, the actual part of the bowl that is holding your food will stay level even though the part you're holding will move. They’ve put it on an axis so that it can't spill. I’ll say that if specifically, hand tremors are the issue, an occupational therapist could give you way more information than I could about some of these devices. They're extremely knowledgeable about that. If I'm seeing tremors, usually I'm working on the foot or the leg tremors. If hand tremors in your dexterity are the bigger issue, I would suggest seeing an occupational therapist.