They Say This Isn’t an Early Sign of Parkinson’s, But It Is (And here’s how to treat it)

One of the scariest and most debilitating diseases we can get as we get older is Parkinson’s disease. Often the first sign of Parkinson’s is a tremor in the hands.

But there is also another condition that causes a similar tremor called Essential Tremor. According to current medical wisdom, these are two completely different conditions. And most doctors will reassure their patients that their Essential Tremor will never progress to Parkinson’s no matter how similar the tremors are.

But is that true?

Can Essential Tremor lead to Parkinson’s disease? A new study indicates that in many cases it does.

Essential Tremor is a rhythmic shaking of the hands, legs, or head. It often stops when the patient is sleeping or even just quietly resting. And it’s worse when patients try do something with intention, such as hold a cup of tea or write.

It usually starts in the 60s, but in some cases can start much earlier. As time goes on, it typically gets worse and more noticeable. The traditional medical opinion about Essential Tremor is to just put up with it because it is supposedly not serious, and should be accepted as just another one of those very annoying realities of aging. But I don’t buy that.

I think Essential Tremor should be aggressively treated. Why? Well, for one thing, it is aggravating and I have never met a patient who did not want to get rid of it. And second, according to this new study, it can lead to Parkinson’s. And that’s important for two reasons. First, Parkinson’s disease is entirely treatable using natural therapies. And second, the sooner you treat Parkinson’s, the better the outcome is.

The authors of the new study start off by saying that “there is increasing evidence suggesting an overlap” between Essential Tremor and Parkinson’s. So they reviewed all the studies published from 1966 to 2011 that looked at the relationship between Essential Tremor and Parkinson’s. The results of their findings should cause those with Essential Tremor to take notice.

According to the authors, “Follow-up studies of Essential Tremor patients, and case-control and genetic epidemiological studies indicate that Essential Tremor is associated with increased risk for Parkinson’s disease.” Furthermore, they found that pathology studies and brain scans also showed a connection between the two conditions. They noted that patients with Essential Tremor showed a “high prevalence of rest tremor, and at least seven studies described slowed movements (possibly related to cerebellar dysfunction and/or bradykinesia) in patients with Essential Tremor.” These symptoms are very characteristic of Parkinson’s. Then they go on to link the incredible similarities between the disorders:

1. There is a “high frequency” of patients with Essential Tremor that go on to develop Parkinson’s.

2. In patients who start with Essential Tremor who go on to get Parkinson’s, the more severe their Essential Tremor is the more severe their Parkinson’s is.

3. In most of the studies, the researchers found a “high frequency of a family history of Essential Tremor in Parkinson’s patients.”

4. Functional brain scans show “a significant presynaptic dopaminergic deficit in Essential Tremor patients.” This is the same biochemical defect found in Parkinson’s.

5. Many patients with Essential Tremor also have something called “Lewy bodies” found in their brains. Lewy bodies are also found in the brains of patients with Parkinson’s.

6. Many patients with Essential Tremor have their tremor at rest, when they are not trying to do something such as hold a cup. This is just like the kind of tremors that patients with Parkinsons have.

Overall, I think you have to say that this study shows that patients with Essential Tremor definitely have an increased chance of getting Parkinson’s. In many cases, it appears to be a forerunner to Parkinson’s. I have reported to you before on the incredible work of Dr. Marty Hinz. Dr. Hinz has found a way to use natural therapies to reverse Parkinson’s.

The only thing that Parkinson’s patients can expect from conventional drug therapies is to get worse. But Dr. Hinz has actually found a way to turn the disease around with high doses of l-dopa and balancing amino acids. You can learn more about Dr. Hinz’s work in the archives on my website (www.secondopinionnewsletter.com). I have seen the results of his novel treatment approach with my own eyes in my own patients. But I have learned one thing about it. The sooner you apply the treatment, the better the results are.

So it’s important that Parkinson’s patients do not wait until their condition has deteriorated beyond the point of no return before they get the treatment. In these advanced cases the results may be limited. So the earlier the patient gets treatment the better. And since this new study shows that Essential Tremor is in many cases just a very early sign of Parkinson’s, then it makes complete sense to treat patients with Essential Tremor with the same protocol that we use for Parkinson’s.

I have done this in several cases. In about half the cases, the Essential Tremor has either significantly diminished or has gone entirely away. In other cases, it has not responded at all. I believe that the cases in which the treatment responded were those that would have gone on to Parkinson’s if not treated. So now, I think we have a way to prevent many cases of Parkinson’s simply by aggressively treating Essential Tremor.