We have all felt our hands shake at some time, and this is normal. The muscle fibres in your hands and arms are constantly contracting and relaxing. But sometimes a miscommunication between muscle groups will cause the timing of these contractions to be out of sync.
Common causes of shaky hands are:
- Lack of sleep: Exhaustion triggers neurological reflexes as the brain is unable to gauge true stimuli.
- Too much caffeine: Excessively stimulates the body’s muscles causing them to involuntarily move out of sequence.
- Low blood sugar: Nerves and muscles deprived of necessary fuel, become deregulated (or freak out).
- Anxiety: Stress or even anger causes the nerves to resonate at heightened levels in anticipation of danger.
- Medications: Such as Asthma medications, antidepressants, lithium and even antihistamines can impact neurological responses in the nerves for some people.
- Less common causes of shaky hands include: Underlying thyroid disease, Parkinson’s disease.
Hand Tremors With Age
Apart from the typical causes of shaking hands, some people are more likely than others to develop shakiness as they get older.
Essential tremor (a neurological disorder which causes involuntary shaking) is the most common type of this tremor. It is estimated; about one in five people over the age of 65 years are affected. Currently, there is no known cause, but research suggests a strong genetic link.
Living with essential tremor is difficult, and many people feel self-conscience with the growing loss of controlled movement and manual dexterity.
Exercise To Steady Hands
Exercise is the best way to gain improved physical function and quality of life. Research conducted by Kavanagh, Wedderburn-Bissop and Keogh (2016) examined the effects of resistance training (RT) on essential tremor.
They found arm and hand strengthening exercises over 6 weeks, resulted in a reduction of tremor amplitude, improved hand and arm strength and improved hand dexterity. What this meant to the participants was, they were better able to control their spoon while eating.
WOW!! This research is telling us; participates who engaged in resistance exercise twice a week, by the end of 6 weeks could feed themselves better. In other words, they improved their quality of life.
The alternative was to continue with no exercise, and have their muscle tone continue to decline and live with worsening hand tremors.
I totally understand, for many of us, the odd hand tremors come down to a lifestyle choice and will never progress to this neurological disorder.
What If?
Here is my point; there is NO SCIENCE to suggest that living a sedentary life will support health and well being. In fact, a sedentary lifestyle is precisely at the root of many chronic lifestyle diseases.
It is scary to see so many people choose to find comfort in living a painful and debilitating sedentary life rather than engage in exercise. Remember, as little as 9 minutes daily, of a structured exercise program will make all the difference to your physical and mental well-being.
Exercise is hard; living with worsening chronic illness due to a sedentary lifestyle is hard. It’s time to choose your hard….
Choose to start exercising today with your FREE beginner 9 minute, Cardio, Core and Strength workout. The link is below for you.
Live well with Health and WELLth!
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