19 Unmistakable Red Flags Your Body Might Be Battling Essential Tremor

9. Aggravated By Extreme Temperatures

An individual with essential tremor may experience an aggravation of their symptoms when their body is exposed to extreme temperatures. Nerve impulse conduction and the functionality of the muscle fibers are altered in healthy individuals when they are exposed to extremely hot or extremely cold temperatures. Therefore, an individual who has essential tremor is likely to experience more difficulty with their symptoms when they are in extremely hot or cold temperatures. Cold temperatures naturally cause a decrease in overall blood flow to the muscle tissues and induce shivering movements for heat generation in the body. These compensatory mechanisms cause increased difficulty for an affected individual because they are compounded by the abnormalities that occur because of essential tremor. Hot temperatures have not been concluded to make essential tremor worse or better in any large population of patients because not enough information is available regarding the impact of hot temperatures.

10. How Tremors Begin

The symptoms of essential tremor may begin at any age, but it is most common in those over forty years old. Most individuals who have essential tremor will experience a rhythmic motion of both of their hands that becomes more prominent in certain physiologic situations. Some essential tremor patients do not experience the progression or worsening of symptoms over time, when others may experience a rapid progression of symptoms as they age. It is thought many individuals affected by essential tremor experience the slow movement of symptoms from their hands to their arms, and from their arms to their trunk. Essential tremor may move from an individual's arms to their chest, neck, or head. Some patients may experience symptoms of essential tremor more prominently on one side of their body than the other side initially. It is much less common for an individual to experience the movement of their symptoms down their trunk and into their legs, but it does happen in a small number of cases.