Success with Beta Blocker and Tremors?

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monisha35ymonnic35

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Anyone here have any luck with their tremors by trying a beta blocker? I had a 6 month follow up appointment with my neurologist yesterday ( I've had this 18 months?) and she asked me if I wanted to try a beta blocker for the internal tremors that I feel. ( My main symptoms are pain, tremors in my left shoulder/arm/ hand and internal tremors all over, twitching, mild cramping feelings in calves/hands/feet, trembly legs at times, I can feel my pulse all over, ) I passed the neuro exam and she said she saw no sign of weakness or muscle loss or anything like that. Said she is not worried about anything major and she said she still thinks I need to deal with anxiety even though I told her I had done so already. ( Naturopathically ) I hate the "anxiety" card! I did tell her that I still had a big fear of parkinson's disease and she did one little test and said Nope! I see no signs of that so see....... I checked you and you are fine and don't worry. It's kind of frustrating when they don't take you seriously over your concerns. She did draw blood and a complete metabolic work up( vitamin d. calcium levels all that stuff???) so I am curious to know how all that turns out. In the mean time I know I should be happy with the outcome of the visit but still have that nagging in the back of my mind that won't let me completely relax. She is not the one that gave me the BFS diagnosis and she said she won't do so until she actually sees the twitches! And she said she's looking for like popcorn popping under the skin kind of twitching. I don't have them like that. I wonder if i should get a different neurologist??
 
I understand your frustrations as I have the same ones. Mario's point is well taken in that if the neuro thinks your fine even if they think it is anxiety you should feel good about that and try to live your life knowing you are fine. If the symptoms interfere with your life's quality, I think you are reasonable to want to try something to help with that as I do. How do you describe your twitches? I get the popcorn type but other types as well.
 
You don't have Parkinson.I know peoples with Parkinson.It doesn't work like this.They shake at rest. They put they arm on the table or laying down ... then it shake by itself sometime.They don't have tremor all around.Parkinson start in one arm or leg, not all around, no internal tremor.Very rare under 40. Seen mostly above 60.You're panicking for nothing. Trust your neuro, they know at least this illness.Relax, get this out of your mind.I shake left side only, hand and leg, not at rest but under small tension, since that BFS.Cheers.
 
I took beta-blockers for my overactive thyroid. My heart was up to 140 beats per minute so the beta blockers slowed it down. It didn't help the twitches but I did have tremors from the thyroid and it helped those.
 
Mario Mangler - Well I hope you are right and that it's not that it's just too early for them to say it's anything sinister. I have a general distrust for doctors since they all seem to say something different. I've seen 3 different doctors...my regular GP, who has no idea what I have, and someone she referred me to when she did not think I needed a neuro and he is the one that gave me the bfs diagnosis and then the neuro so it's kind of like how and who do I trust.Jro - My symptoms themselves don't necessarily interfere with my life other than me just being worried about the symptoms. I can ignore the twitching pretty much unless I get them in my fingers or hands. Those scare me and one time I had it in my inner ear which drove me nuts for about a week and then it went away. I'm not sure really how to describe my twitching other than little thumps. I just never happen to be twitching when I see the neuro but they go on all day in random places. My thighs and calves seem to be real hot spots but I do also feel them in my arms, my eyelids, on the bottom of my feet, everywhere. They all feel the same. Only a few times have I had large twitches that cause my whole arm or leg to move. Like I said......I can go months with out worrying about the twitching and I have pretty much gotten over the ALS fear since I've been at this for 18 months. I wish I could just tell my self it's BFS and get on with it. I guess since the neuro won't say it's bfs then I'm not sure. It was a different doctor that told me it was bfs. My neuro does not seem to know much about it and said tremors are not from bfs and tremors are my most troubling symptom. To me tremors point to parkinson's.Pinprick - I notice my tremor at rest. That's when I feel most shaky is when I am still. For now I will try to put that out of my mind! Pray I can do so.
 
Hello Monica,AM pleased to hear your neuro visit well - that the neuro thought nothing was wrong. But sorry to read about your frustrations.Its uncanny just how similar many of your symptoms are to mine. You mention that you feel your pulse all over, as do I. Weird. I noticed it after my twitching started, which I would describe nearly exactly the same as yours. Has your blood pressure risen, as mine has? DO you notice your tremors at night while in bed, as I do? All this wierdness just doesn't seem normal, and I suppose it isnt but that your neuro doesn't find anything wrong with you is reassuring to me.Sincerely - JoggingCub
 
If your symptoms do not interfere with your life consider yourself VERY lucky. My symptoms do make me uncomfortable if I don't take something like Klonopin to relax the nerves a bit. Since your symptoms do not interfere with your life then I think the best solution is to keep so busy and focused on everything you love that you have no time or inclination to even think about the symptoms. Eventually not thinking about them will become habit and time will fly by. And then when lots of time passes and everything is still good the symptoms won't even worry you when you do think about me. This is just my best advice from someone dealing with this for two years. Trying to get neuros to agree or make sense of their disagreement or find an answer on your own is a lost cause in my opinion and not worth the investment of analyzing it. It is easier said than done as I wasted a lot of time on tests, seeing many neuros, and doing my own googling. All I can say is I am pretty good at all those things and got nowhere with it. What I did learn is there are people like us that twitch. In most all cases if the twitching and tremors are all there are and they don't progress in a year or so to the point of real problems then it is almost certainly benign. In these cases it is difficult to pinpoint a cause. It could be viral, autoimmune, genetic, diet, etc. All the neuros I've seen agree that lots of things effect the nerves that are poorly understood but not fatal.
 
Monica,I feel like you. Some days I can get a handle on this stuff and I'm fine. Then I get a flare up and I am totally freaked out. I am in no way afraid that it is ALS but of the unknown. That is my biggest obstacle in this. I pray everyday that someone can tell me what is causing this and then I could relax and feel better. Living with twitches all the time is not easy. Nobody understands unless they have been there. All I can say is that so many of us on this board deal with stuff and everyone is just fine.
 
Running bear - I do notice my shaking at night in bed. Sometimes I feel like I shake my whole bed but my husband says he can't feel it so.....??? I think feeling my pulse beating was one of my very first symptoms. Then the twiching started up after that. My blood pressure has not risen and in fact I tend to have lower than normal readings. The other day it was 110/70 which I was very happy with because it's usually lower than that. All these weird sensations sure are annoying but at we can deal with them surely!Jro - you sound just like me. haha with the googling and seeing doctors and you are so right. There is no sense in wasting time with all of it. And I know this but sometimes I guess I let my anxiety run and control me. On my good days I can put it out of my head and I do find that staying busy helps. I tend to be VERY analytical so I analyze and over analyze everything! I had a therapist tell me I was OCD ( which I may be slightly) so maybe that is part of it too. I'm the kind of person that wants to know why and wants concrete answers. I think and think and think about it. But your advice is so correct. Thanks.Barbie - Living with these twitches and odd symptoms is hard! I will find i am having a good week or a good 2 weeks and then out of no where I feel a strange twitch or I feel my sholder buzzing, tremoring and I'm back to being worried and devestated. I just want to go back to feeling normal! I feel like when I have a good handle on my anxiety then I do better. But that requires a lot work in that it's a constant talking my self out of automatic negative thoughts. I hate the unknown too...... I want answers but for now I guess I just have to trust God that everything is just fine. This board actully supplies great comfort to me because my family is so tired of hearing me obsess over this that I keep it mostly to myself now. So like I said this board it the only place I feel like I can talk about it and people understand. Thanks for your reply.
 
Triple post, Barbie! If your fingers twitch like mine, double or triple clicking on that mouse is fairly common :D) .But getting back to that original question, my neurologist (a neuro-muscular neurologist) suggested a beta blocker as a possible med. But because my heart rate is on the low side (around 60) (hopefully because I work out a lot and not some other reason!), he didn't want to put me on it because beta blockers do slow your heart rate as a side effect. Right now I am on a "regimen" of baclofen (reduces intensity), klonopin (reduces frequency) and diltiazem (helps reduce cramping). I don't think the baclofen is doing much but the other two seem to help.
 
Dread Pirate Roberts - Do you mean your heart rate or your blood pressure or is that the same thing? I tend to have lower than normal blood pressure so I wonder whey she would suggest a beta blocker? Hmm. I'm glad you get relief of your symptoms. I can't seem to figure out what causes flare ups with twitching because some times they are non existent and other times they are non stop. I exercise daily as well. In the beginning my family used to tell me I over exercised and that was why I twitched. Did you ever think your exercise was the cause of your twitching?
 
It came back negative. Thanks for asking. (and remembering!). There was a bit of a screw up on the first test. I still don't know what happened, but I got no result back. However, my neuro also ran some other tests at the same time we did the re-test for the VKG. He ran tests for Celiac's (came back negative) and also a C-reactive protein test and a sedimentation rate test. The sed rate was 4 (normal is anything below 19), but the CRP test came up at 5.1, with anything over 3 not normal. The test is for inflammation and if it comes back above 10 there is a concern for heart issues. It is normally run for patients with heart problems (which I don't have -at least I don't think so!). Though he asked for the test, he didn't know what to make of the result (and he is the head of neurology at OSU!). So he ran it again and it came back lower, but at 4.4 still above normal. Sorry for the long narrative, but I thought you might be interested in other tests neuros are running. He didn't think it was anything to worry about (but of course I did :) ). Just more pieces to the puzzle, I guess, and to me it means that this BFS does have something to do with immune system issue.
 
To monica: I think that beta blockers slow your heart rate (or can), calming you. I think that my exercising makes the cramping effects worse but I don't think it has too much to do with twitching frequency overall. Having said that, though, I know that if I use my hands for an extended period of time (say playing 18 holes of golf, or working at the computer all day), my fingers will tremble much more than usual for an hour or so then they get better.
 

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