Essential Tremor: Tips for Eating and Drinking

Over the  twenty-four years I’ve lived with essential tremor, I’ve found ways to deal with the annoying eating and drinking problems caused by tremors. I’d like to share them with you.

Tall drinking glasses are like me:  top-heavy.  They are easy to tip over.  Using wide, bottom-weighted drinking glasses has saved me from spilling drinks more times than I can count.  You can ask a waiter for a low ball glass like the one on the left below at a restaurant.

Two drinking glasses

 

Heavy knives, forks and spoons are easier to handle.  Their weight means they don’t respond as much to hand tremors.  There is no need to reinvent the wheel.  I found what I needed advertised to help arthritis sufferers.  The utensils in the picture below, Oxo Good Grips, with broad slightly weighted handles, have helped counteract my tremor and made eating easier.  I found them online under “aids for arthritis.”   I wonder if a wrist weight would help as well.

Three spoons, one knife

Please add your tips on this or other issues.  Help with handwriting for a person with hand tremors is something I’d like to read.  Post it on this blog.

Thank you.

Joyce Letzler
ET Support Group Member and Volunteer

Neurodegenerative or Not?

There is currently a lot of discussion within the ET research community as to whether Essential Tremor is neurodegenerative. If it is, there is further debate as to what percentage are neurodegenerative of those who have been diagnosed with ET.

When I was first diagnosed with Essential Tremor, I was told I had Benign Essential Tremor. If ET is neurodegenerative, it certainly is not benign. At a time when a lot of attention (rightly so) is being given to the neurodegenerative aspects of such conditions as Alzheimer’s, Dementia, and Parkinson’s, I feel that special attention should be given to this possibly life-altering  aspect of Essential Tremor.

Peter Muller
Executive Director