My son has been taking Inderal for several years at a low dose for hand tremors with no major problems related to his myotonia. His doctor recently doubled his dosage and since then he has a lot of muscle weakness first thing in the morning which then goes away with movement. Can someone explain to me why Inderal or other Beta blockers are contraindicated in myotonia - what is it doing exactly.

Type of Myotonia: TBD-Probably Thomsen

Country: USA

Trudy,

Propranolol (Inderal is a brand name) is used to help correct an imbalance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. With certain types of tremors there is too much dopamine vs. acetylcholine (in other cases, like Parkinson's, it is the opposite).

It would make sense at first glance that Inderal might actually help myotonia since it works a bit like a sodium channel blocker and those are often prescribed for MC. It also lowers the production of adrenaline. However it can cause hypoglycemia and hypothyroidism and those will make MC much worse.

I used to work at a cardiac rehab center where we taught biofeedback to do exactly the same thing but without side effects. You might look into that for your son. You would want a program called Heart Math or something similar which helps you learn to affect heart rate variability. It is extremely effective when taught by a skilled technician.

If your son has a lot of weakness he should be monitored for potassium levels and thyroid function. And you need to be sure he's not on any medications that could be causing interactions. Your pharmacist should know this or you can look it up on drugs.com or Wal-Mart's drug interaction site.

There are many reasons for tremors. I would be sure to look for a neurologist who is an expert on that subject. I think I mentioned before that brain injuries and even viral infections can cause them. It's important to know the exact nature of the tremor through thorough testing.

Jan

Type of Myotonia: Thomsen's

Country: USA

Thanks for the great information. I will be checking into that Heart Math, anything that replaces taking medication would be helping his myotonia and probably his anxiety also. Thanks, Trudy

Type of Myotonia: TBD-Probably Thomsen

Country: USA