Resting hand tremors: what helps?

Hello Anonymott500222. I don't think 65 is old! What is this doctor talking about? Jumping muscles can be caused by nerves that are compressed by something. I had jumping muscles in my legs and that was caused by compression of my spinal cord. I am a spine surgery patient and had a collapsed disc in my neck. Nerves also exit the spinal cord between the vertebrae to go to the body which is another place they can be compressed if there is arthritis there. Many of the spaces where nerves travel in the body are pretty small too, and they can sometimes be squished by muscles, bones or joints that press on them.

The specialist who could diagnose nerve issues would be a neurologist. There has to be a reason for the symptoms. Have you been seen by a neurologist? Would you consider an appointment to get more specific information about your health?

I agree with the neurologist recommendation. My husband's right hand jerks and now, at times, his whole body will jerk. He has Lewy Body Dementia with mild Parkinsons. His brother's hands jerk constantly. It started with a simple tremor and progressed to the point where feeding him peas or soup was dangerous. He was eventually diagnosed with essential tremors. Medication is helping him now. My right arm would jerk and even go numb. I was a teacher and could only grade a few papers before my hand would no longer work. I had been in a car wreck and my C5 and C6 disks in my spine were touching the spinal cord. I had a surgery called cervical discectomy and it solved the problem. All of these conditions were diagnosed by neurologists. My husband was diagnosed by the best at Mayo Clinic. Good luck and don't put this off. When the neurologist saw my MRI he did not want me to even go home. He said a simple fender bender could have left me paralyzed......Good luck amd God bless.

Yes seeing a neurologist now. He said it's just old age and muscles weakening. Will see him again in 30 days. At that time get a better answer or bye bye, find someone new.

Wow, Jennifer -- I have neck disc issues as well (mine are at C5-C6). Was it your neck spine that caused jumping muscles in your leg? If so, that is fascinating because the nerves which travel down to the legs are located farther down on the back spine. I had no idea that this was possible. Thank you! (......or did I misunderstand your symptoms?)

@martinaston You are understanding correctly. I only had spinal cord compression in my neck. The signals from the brain have to come through the neck first before they get to the nerves to the legs, so a compression (lowering) of the signal further upstream does effect things below it and you don't know exactly what will be affected. A lot of surgeons missed understanding this (but not at Mayo), and they thought I had a separate problem with my legs, but they didn't do imaging in my lumbar spine to confirm or eliminate a diagnosis. It probably seemed like a complexity they didn't want to tackle.

Here is the medical literature I found which explains this phenomenon that is called "funicular pain".
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3111492/

Are you considering getting another opinion at Mayo Clinic? I wish I had come much sooner instead of wasting 2 years chasing surgeons (5 of them) that didn't want to help me. Can I answer any questions about my experience as a Mayo Clinic neurosurgery patient ?

Anonymo, I'd like to add my welcome to also let you know about this related discussion:
- Hand tremors https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/hand-tremors/

In particular, I think you'll appreciate this input from @thankful https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/233371/

All the best with your search for answers.