Month: March 2015

Upcoming Essential Tremor Conference

In a little more than a month, NIH will host the Essential Tremor Conference – bringing together experts on ET from across the country as well as some from other parts of the world. In speaking individually with members of HopeNET’s medical advisory board, they are optimistic. The staff from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke has done a good job of organizing the conference. They have made an effort to include some researchers that are outside the usual ET research community. They have also made an effort to include younger people. In my conversations with the staff, I get the sense that they want this conference to be a success that ultimately benefits all of us with ET.

HopeNET is playing a role in several different ways in the conference. I will be there attending the sessions. I look forward to sharing with you what I learn. If you have any ideas that you’d like to share with me prior to the conference, please let me know.

Peter Muller

NIH Studies into Motor Movement Disorders

On February 12, 2015, Dr. Dietrich Haubenberger, Director of the Clinical Trials Unit with NIH/NINDS, gave a captivating presentation and discussion on Essential Tremor research and its relationship with other motor movement disorders.

While there continues to be research to find a common factor that can be used in the treatment of ET, it has become increasingly evident that ET may be migrating back to an overall descriptive for multiple sub-categories of specific movement disorders that are being discovered and defined in greater detail.

ET vs Dystonia

As the result of more recent research, it is believed that some previous ET diagnosis may actually be Dystonia. Among the key indicators are, if only one side is affected by tremor and has cramp-like features, it would likely will be Dystonia. Areas that can be influenced are a person’s walking gait and head-eye movement coordination.
A number of musicians, athletes in repetitive motion sports, and writers are known to have Dystonia.

The Cerebellum

The Cerebellum, also known as our ‘Little Brain’, is a clearing house center for muscle movement. While it does not initiate movement, it does mitigate the movement and acts as a gentle braking mechanism to allow coordinated motor movement. Otherwise, our muscle movement would be sporadic and uncontrolled. This coordination between initiated neural pulses and the Cerebellum allows constant adjustments and learning adaptation for fine motor movement.

Time went by quickly during Dr. Haubenberger’s presentation and we all look forward to further presentations and discussions with him in the future as his research continues.

Bruce Edwards
Falls Church Support Group