What is the disease of shaking head

Shaking your head is a simple action, which generally expresses meanings such as denial, rejection, and helplessness. Shaking your head is an autonomous action that is controlled by our subjective consciousness. But if you shake your head frequently and involuntarily, you should take it seriously. It is likely caused by a disease. What is the disease that causes constant shaking of the head? The most likely possibility is essential tremor. We should have some understanding of it and make a comprehensive judgment based on our own situation.

Essential tremor is an autosomal dominant genetic disease. It is the most common extrapyramidal disease and the most common tremor syndrome. About 60% of patients have a family history. This disease is rare before the age of 30, and its incidence and prevalence increase with age. After the disease occurs, the symptoms gradually worsen with age. Essential tremor is a monosymptomatic disease, in which postural tremor is the only clinical manifestation. The so-called postural tremor refers to the tremor caused when the limbs maintain a certain posture. The tremor disappears naturally when the limbs are completely relaxed. The tremors of this disease are common in the hands. Most patients have tremors in both hands after the onset of the disease, but some also have tremors in one hand. Tremors in the hands affect fine movements, writing, and dining. The second is head tremor, which manifests as slight nodding or shaking of the head. Some patients only show head shaking without hand tremor. Rarely, patients experience lower limb tremors. The tremor of this disease worsens when you concentrate, are mentally stressed, tired, or hungry. In most cases, it disappears temporarily after drinking and worsens the next day. This is also a characteristic of essential tremor. Some patients suffer from long-term mental stress, which leads to increased sympathetic nerve excitability and may be accompanied by symptoms of palpitations. The disease progresses slowly after onset, and the symptoms become more severe year by year. In severe cases, it can cause many inconveniences to the patient's daily life, work, social interaction, writing, etc. However, it is harmless to physical health and is a pathological benign tremor. Generally, there are no other positive signs of the nervous system, such as resting tremor, muscle rigidity, decreased movement, etc., except for individual cases with Parkinson's disease.

The main function of the human cerebellum is to coordinate motor functions. The cerebellar cortex is responsible for movement balance, and the nerve nuclei inside the cerebellum, especially the dentate nucleus, are responsible for fine-tuning the body's movements. Diffuse damage to the cerebellum leads to impaired balance and fine-tuning, with the appearance of ataxia and motor tremors. Modern medical research has found that injecting tremor-inducing agents into the brains of animals with pre-damaged dentate nuclei of the cerebellum can induce this disease. Based on this, it is speculated that its mechanism is that the pathogenic gene destroys the dentate nucleus nerve cells, resulting in dysfunction of the cerebellum in regulating fine motor functions of the human body. In addition to postural tremor, essential tremor does not affect balance function, which also suggests that only the nerve nuclei inside the cerebellum are diseased. Because the disease-causing gene only destroys the dentate nucleus, essential tremor is a localized disease.

Based on the above understanding, Western medicine can only adopt symptomatic treatment measures at present, using propranolol to block receptors to reduce the excitability of the sympathetic nerves; using various sedatives to inhibit the excitability of the central nervous system. Symptomatic drug treatment can temporarily relieve symptoms, but it cannot prevent the continued progression of the disease and has many side effects. Therefore, Western medicine lacks a fundamental solution for essential tremor.

Essential tremor is a hereditary disease caused by pathogenic genes and certain external factors that contribute to its occurrence and development. Before clinical symptoms appear, the disease-causing gene lies dormant. Once activated, it damages the nerve cells of the dentate nucleus of the cerebellum, resulting in the characteristic clinical manifestations of postural tremor. The disease mainly occurs in middle-aged and elderly people, and the symptoms become more severe with age, which is obviously closely related to human aging. According to TCM theory, the five internal organs of middle-aged and elderly people are all deficient, especially the liver and kidneys. Judging from their symptoms, it is the internal movement of virtual wind caused by the deficiency of liver and kidney yin essence. Treatment should nourish the kidney water and liver wood, so that the loss of Yin essence can be corrected to the greatest extent, and tremor will naturally be alleviated from the root. In fact, Chinese medicine nourishes the kidneys and liver by protecting and repairing damaged nerve cells, preventing them from further destruction and promoting the recovery of their functions, thereby achieving the purpose of improving or eliminating tremors. This is exactly the mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine in treating essential tremor.

Although essential tremor is not as complicated as Parkinson's disease, it is also caused by the destruction of nerve cells, and is equally difficult to treat. It also requires a longer treatment process to stop and reverse the pathological process. Although short-term treatment will produce certain effects, it is difficult to achieve the maximum effect without continuous treatment for more than one year. The result of essential tremor treatment is not necessarily the complete disappearance of symptoms, but if such a result can be achieved, it would of course be ideal. However, after treatment, the impact on patients is reduced to a minimum, symptoms are significantly alleviated, and long-term stability is considered an ideal result. It can be said that the treatment of tremor requires the patient's active cooperation and perseverance.