Apparently.E.T responds well to alcohol,especially red wine.Some say better reponse than to Propranolol.

I am hoping John,my husband, does have Benign Tremulous Parkinsonsim but only time will tell.

I have found that propanolol has been very useful for mitigating
stress-exacerbated tremor. It has allowed me to continue university teaching without my noisy hand becoming an issue. My primary care physician recommended it after my pd diagnosis 4 years ago. She said that it was known to help essential tremor and that it might be of some benefit for me. On those days when I teach, I take one 10 mg tablet without any noticeable side effects. It's a well-known treatment for performance shakes with classical musicians -- without interfering with hand co-ordination. Jon

ECD - Alcohol always made V's tremor better, but it would be bad when he woke up in the morning. So now it is an occasional glass of wine or some beer when in company. (Also helps my lupus pain if I drink with hot water)

Propranalol apparently helps surgeons.

My palpitations caused by depression related anxiety is also well taken care of by it in between increases in the dosage of antidepressant (I have bipolar - its a chemical imbalance and is not a reflection of what is going on in my life. Mostly).

Good old Prop.

Laura and others,

Thursday I talked to the two colleagues I referred to in an earlier post replying to your question about what is going on regarding your response to propranolol. Both of them had only vague ideas of what might be happening. One of them said that the alpha 2s are the only adrenergic neurons in the CNS (brain), but could not shed any light on how propranolol might affect tremors involving CNS mediation.

It seems that the mechanism of effect of the beta blocker on tremor per se is not really understood. The sympatholytic effect of decreasing heart rate is much better understood.

Robert

Quick note - V finds Propranalol deals better with his tremor than Artane does. Considering giving Artane up.

Thanks so much for asking. I happened to see my neuro yesterday earlier than I expected and he said pretty much the same as the specialists. Largely, I think because they don't entirely know the pathophysiology behind any sort of tremor in the first place.

I still am going around 12 hours with no emergence of tremor but I will caution that it may not be wise to use long term if you already have a low baseline blood pressure. This describes me and the nurse could only get a weak manual bp reading on me. This scares me a bit.

Also, you can end up with vivid dreams as a side effect of Propranolol alone, so I am a little wary of mixing it up with Sinemet. I've already had one bad dream and a friend who used it pre PD had hallucinations.

It may worth trying if you have a tremor that is not controlled by other PD drugs but be sure to ask your doctor a lot of questions, especially why it is not used to treat PD tremor anymore? Maybe there are a few negative studies out there I have not encountered. Better to be safe...as they say.

Laura

Isis,

That is good to hear. It is always as though a burden lifts whenever I can eliminate having to take any sort of drug.

Do you know if the Propranolol was prescribed for V's tremor? Was it thought he had Essential Tremor, is it common practice to treat PD tremor with Prop. in India? I am just curious as to why it fell out of favor here in the States or maybe it never was in favor.

Thanks!

Laura