I know this is a bit of a strange request. I have alcoholic responsive dystonia and luckily it responds at a very low tolerance. Beer and malt beverage works great to abort episodes!


I do not want this to taste good though. I tend to go through tasty beverages quickly. So I call upon you to give me your least favorite beer. The more bitter the better.

Being English, real beer - Bitter - was always my favourite before I quit 25 years ago as I had a problem. The bitterness of a beer depends on the hops in the mash.

I would suggest you search for 'hoppy beers' and pick one available in your area, or go to the extreme and try the very bitter India Pale Ales.

Dave.

Fascinating.
I have a very fine tremor which responds to alcohol.
I never knew mine responded to alcohol until the MDs told me. I don't drink much alcohol. I did test their hypothesis and they are correct, the tremor lets up with alcohol intake. However, I am not drawn to alcohol and am truly lucky, as I don't need alcohol interacting with my meds.

I just asked my husband about bitter beer/ales. He agrees with Dave on the IPAs being most bitter. However, around here, the IPAs are also very popular.

I think some stouts are bitter. Yet, I must admit to ignorance.

Just curious, and I hope you don't mind my asking -- does anything else also give you relief? I have myoclonus, myotonias, tremors and ... like to learn whatever I can when the opportunity presents. (I find sodium channel blockers the most helpful to me -- I am trying a somewhat new med, Aptiom, in the same drug class.)

Cheers!
DejaVu

I enjoy bitter beer to an extent. There was a beer that tasted like earwax and I think that was an IPA. I did not enjoy that. I guess I'll give IPA's a shot.



Thanks for the answers!

My dystonia has only surfaced as of recently. I'm on week three so far, will be a month in 5 days. My tremors tend to be body wide, every limb. My left side seems to get it worse. Especially the neck and arms.
So far my doctor has not put me on any medications. He is running blood tests on things it "could" be. Hoping to get an official diagnosis soon. The doctor when I was sent to the ER (They thought I had a stroke... again.) is the one who turned me onto dystonia and discharged me with that diagnosis.

As for things that work,

I tried alcohol mid episode and it gets rid of the tremors almost entirely. Almost like it aborts the entire thing. It's fantastic! It's also why I don't want to abuse it.

I was put on prednisone for a week by the ER doctor and I didn't think it helped at first but it did help loads. My tremors were much shorter and didn't last long at all. It did have a strange side effect of a constant spasm though. My arm would stay extended as long as I wasn't using it. I wasn't impeded though, I could use it whenever I wanted. Just it's default position was extended. That went away and the tremor came back after I was taken off of the steroids.


I've tried benadryl but I'm not sure if it helps or not. It doesn't seem to.