{"id":374813,"date":"2026-07-16T00:20:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T00:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/374813\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T00:20:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T00:20:21","slug":"living-with-essential-tremor-one-patients-journey-to-regaining-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/374813\/","title":{"rendered":"Living With Essential Tremor: One Patient’s Journey to Regaining Independence"},"content":{"rendered":"

For millions of Americans living with essential tremor,<\/a> everyday tasks like writing, eating, or drinking can become increasingly difficult as uncontrollable shaking progresses over time.<\/p>\n

On We Are Austin, Ruth Essler and her physician, movement disorder specialist Dr. Philip Tipton, shared Ruth’s experience with the condition and discussed treatment options that may help patients regain control of their daily lives.<\/p>\n

When Tremors Begin to Take Over<\/p>\n

For Ruth, the symptoms started gradually.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat started as very minor shaking of the hands progressively got worse,\u201d she said. \u201cI was later diagnosed with essential tremor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initially, medication helped manage her symptoms, but over time its effectiveness declined.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, I needed to speak to Dr. Tipton about other options,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Exploring New Treatment Options<\/p>\n

Dr. Tipton explained that essential tremor is a progressive movement disorder that most commonly causes shaking in the hands during everyday activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can lead to significant interference with day-to-day activities like eating, writing and drinking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While medications can help many patients, they don’t work equally well for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike roughly half of patients, Ruth wasn’t able to get the mileage she was looking for with these therapies,\u201d Dr. Tipton said.<\/p>\n

That’s when they began discussing deep brain stimulation (DBS).<\/p>\n

How Deep Brain Stimulation Works<\/p>\n

Unlike medications, DBS uses implanted electrodes to deliver carefully controlled electrical signals to targeted areas of the brain involved in movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we provide that electrical signal, we’re able to improve those movement symptoms,\u201d Dr. Tipton explained. \u201cIn Ruth’s case, that was improved tremor.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Life-Changing Result<\/p>\n

For Ruth, the results were immediate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment I came out of surgery, I had an immediate benefit,\u201d she said. \u201cNo more shaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says the procedure restored her ability to perform everyday activities independently.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the things I couldn’t do before, I was able to do,\u201d Ruth said. \u201cI became a fully functional and independent person again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn More<\/p>\n

Dr. Tipton encourages anyone living with essential tremor to speak with a healthcare provider about available treatment options.<\/p>\n

Additional information about deep brain stimulation, including important safety information, can be found at DBSandMe.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For millions of Americans living with essential tremor, everyday tasks like writing, eating, or drinking can become increasingly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-374813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}