Month: March 2022

2022-03-14T11:21:00

(BPT) – Partnership in times of flux is a leading contributor for innovation, agility, scale and growth. This is the message from Leo Clancy, CEO of Ireland’s international trade development agency Enterprise Ireland, in advance of St. Patrick’s Day 2022 as he points to unprecedented commercial gains from partnerships between Irish companies operating in the United States and their U.S. counterparts. Clancy reports Ireland as the ninth source of Foreign Direct Investment to the United States economy at $240.1 billion and that employment in the United States by Irish firms exceeded 100,000 in 2021.

“A key lesson from the past few years is that we are better together,” Clancy explains. “American firms have learned that they can rely on Irish partners in challenging times and that they’ll get the ideas, the innovation and the depth of partnership required to capture growth and navigate shifting sands. Ireland is stable, strong and resilient, and our firms typically share those national characteristics.”

“Irish companies are making a significant impact internationally — employing over 1.2 million people across the world and creating solutions for global challenges. To mark St. Patrick’s Day and the positive impact that Irish businesses are delivering across the world, we have launched an international campaign “Ireland: Innovation at the Edge” highlighting the unique conditions at play in Ireland which have led Irish companies to be among the most innovative in the world. Innovation lives where the edges of industry connect — where risk meets opportunity, where research meets industry, where potential meets ambition. Ireland is where those edges meet. Our unique location and ecosystem allow the edges of industry to connect and innovation to thrive,” added Leo Clancy.

As CEO of Enterprise Ireland, Leo Clancy’s responsibility is to support Irish firms operating internationally. His organization is a globally-ranked seed investor (#1 globally by deal count, according to Pitchbook) and also provides organizational, developmental and market-level services to Irish firms in international markets, not least the United States.

Enterprise Ireland’s message of partnership and cooperation for greater mutual gains aligns with key strengths of the United States and has strong resonance within the United States’ international business community. Enterprise Ireland has supported Irish businesses in North America across a wide array of industries, but has seen considerable growth in cybersecurity, digital media and talent tech. The increased growth in these areas is considered a byproduct of global digital transformation coupled with pandemic-driven surges in remote working and in labor mobility.

Ireland’s cybersecurity ecosystem is populated by strong and diverse contributors including Tines, a security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) platform; TitanHQ, a web filtering, email security and email archiving SaaS business; Edgescan, that addresses vulnerability management with a (SaaS) offering; CWSI that specializes in secure mobile and workforce solutions; and PrivacyEngine that offers a SaaS privacy management platform and is a global market leader in data protection and privacy management.

Irish talent tech successes include: Starcircle, a specialist technology provider that supports recruitment at scale; Capella Workplace Solutions, which builds tools and hot-desking software to help U.S. businesses bring employees back to the office safely and seamlessly; Rezoomo, that enables clients to build up talent pools that support scale and growth; vsource, who applies artificial intelligence, search algorithms and skilled human insights to find and engage with candidates; and Techfynder, that empowers employers and IT contractors to find and connect with one another quickly and directly.

Irish digital media and entertainment firms have implemented a spate of successful partnerships in 2021 and 2022 including “Souvenir Part II” from Element Pictures; Cartoon Saloon’s upcoming short film “There’s a Monster in my Kitchen” and its features “My Father’s Dragon” with Netflix; ShinAwil’s production of “Miss Scarlet & the Duke” for A&E Networks; and Element Pictures’ production of Sally Rooney’s “Normal People” in partnership with BBC and Hulu.

In addition to the gains in cybersecurity, talent tech and digital media, firms from Ireland and the United States have strong momentum in innovations and deployments in medtech, telehealth, biotech and pharmaceuticals.

Sean Davis, Regional Director – Americas for Enterprise Ireland commented on the success: “Irish firms and Enterprise Ireland recognize that trust is earned and that trust is the currency of successful business relationships. This is why Irish companies are successful at establishing and sustaining long-standing, mutually-beneficial relationships with U.S. counterparts that yield innovation, employment and success on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Enterprise Ireland is the country’s trade and innovation agency and the venture capital arm of the Irish government. It is the world’s largest seed-stage VCs by deal count and is dedicated to supporting Irish start-ups achieve their global ambitions. Through a network of more than 40 international offices, Enterprise Ireland supports a portfolio of 1,300 startups, including 60 cyber companies, with over $260 million in annual revenue.

2022-03-14T12:01:00

(BPT) – Are you certain you have the right car seat for your child, and you’re using it correctly? A new survey revealed that many parents do not know car seat guidelines, or may be using seats incorrectly. State Farm surveyed U.S. parents ages 25-55 to study how parents actually use car seats to inform simple tips to follow, finding that 77% of parents did not know the age range covered by their state’s child restraint law — and nearly one-fifth of parents admitted they did not use a child safety seat in their vehicle.

Child safety restraints are essential to keeping children safer in a vehicle. Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death for children in the U.S., according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. When children are properly restrained in an appropriate child safety seat, booster seat or safety belt, their chance of being killed or seriously injured in a crash is greatly reduced. However, the survey found that nearly one-fourth of children who used a car seat while riding in a vehicle did not use them every time, and 28% of parents were not using the recommended type of safety restraint for their child.

“Today’s car seats are specially designed to keep children safer in case of a crash, but they won’t work if you’re not using the right seat, or it’s not installed correctly,” said Laurel Straub, assistant vice president of Enterprise Research at State Farm. “With the work done by State Farm and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia over 25 years ago to create Partners for Child Passenger Safety, parents could understand the importance of car seat safety and learn how to take the extra steps for greater peace of mind every time you get in your car.”

State Farm has been committed to the safety of its customers for nearly 100 years. To help keep your child safe, here are some easy-to-follow car safety tips.

1. Beware secondhand car seats

Your car seat should have an expiration date stamped on it and should be replaced if it’s expired. Car seats are largely manufactured from plastic, which degrades over time — especially due to factors like heat and cold. Degradation of plastic makes it brittle, reducing its safety effectiveness.

2. Know your child’s height and weight

Contrary to what many parents think, it is not age but height and weight that determines which kind of car seat to use. Keep your child rear-facing until they outgrow the car seat’s recommended height and weight range, because manufacturers are making seats to fit and keep children rear-facing long after their first birthday — for their safety.

In the study, reasons parents cited for not using child safety seats included the child not wanting to use it, the child being “too old” for the seat, or the seat being inconvenient. Because safety is paramount when driving in a vehicle, it’s crucial to follow recommended guidelines regardless of the child’s age and attitude, to help protect them.

Unclear what seat your child needs? Visit UCSG.SafeKids.org.

3. Don’t forget boosters

Older kids can also be at risk in a crash. Be sure to check guidelines for your child to continue using a booster seat according to their height and weight, not their age. In the survey, children aged 3 and over were significantly more likely to be using the wrong type of child restraint.

4. Make sure your car seat is installed correctly

• Front-facing seats: Make sure the top tether is connected. Check car and safety seat manuals for help with tether connections.
• Make sure it’s not too loose. In a crash, a loose seat provides less protection. Keep seats belted in when not in use or they could become a projectile.
• Use the inch test. Make sure you can’t move the car seat more than an inch in any direction. To test, tug hard on the base near the seat belt path opening.
• Secure your child correctly. All clips and buckles should be fastened and tightened so you can’t pinch extra webbing at the shoulder.
  

Installing a car seat correctly can be daunting, but you don’t have to go it alone. The Safe Kids Coalition can help you get your car seat checked by a trained technician.

5. Drive cautiously

Finally, make sure you’re always driving safely. Distracted driving is a leading cause of crashes, so put your phone away, give your children a book or movie to keep them occupied and always keep your eyes on the road.

For more information from this car seat survey and tips to keep your child safe, visit https://newsroom.statefarm.com/nearly-a-fifth-of-us-parents-skip-life-saving-child-safety-seats/.

2022-03-14T16:11:00

(BPT) – As winter weather recedes, it is important to assess your home’s exterior in advance of spring rainstorms and summer heat. Proper exterior home maintenance can preserve your property’s appearance and prevent costly damage down the line.

Home improvement experts at Modernize Home Services encourage homeowners to assess three exterior items carefully this time of year:

1. Gutters

Gutters perform a vital role in preventing water damage, basement flooding and even foundation damage. Walk around the perimeter of your property, both in dry and wet weather, to observe any areas where your gutters are overflowing, cracking, rusting, separating or discoloring. Look closely at where water is going as it exits downspouts; it should not pool next to the foundation, garage doors or walkways.

Check to see whether water is splashing over gutter sides rather than flowing smoothly through downspouts. “If gutters are clogged with leaves, pine needles or other debris, they cannot efficiently divert water away from the home,” notes Chris Counahan, president of LeafFilter Gutter Protection. “Gutter guards protect against build-up that can cause clogs, and ultimately foundational damage if left untreated, and are a deterrent to some pests.”

It can be wise to schedule gutter repairs as early as possible in the spring before service providers’ appointment wait times lengthen.

2. Roofing

Look for warning signs that roof repair or replacement is required. Missing or curling shingles, sagging sections or discoloration can all provide clues that maintenance is needed.

If you noticed icicles hanging from the roof in the winter, it can be an indicator that your roof is forming ice dams. More than a nuisance, ice dams can build due to problems with air sealing or ventilation and cause a range of problems including water leaks; mold growth; damage to insulation, drywall, paint and wallpaper; increased heating and cooling costs; as well as ceiling joist and wall stud rot.

“Cleaning an asphalt roof periodically can extend your roof’s life, if done correctly,” explains Jamie Dulin, VP of marketing at Power Home Remodeling. “It is important to have a professional handle this job, ideally performing a soft wash rather than a power wash. Power washing can damage shingles while a soft wash uses an air compressor to pump a cleaning solution onto the roof.”

Despite regular maintenance, a shingled roof approaching 20 years in age may need to be replaced.

3. Siding

While winter ice, snow or rain can degrade exterior siding over time, harsh sunlight can also cause home siding to crack or fade. Pests, such as woodpeckers and insects, can create serious siding defects as well.

Examine your siding for cracks, indentations, damaged segments, peeling paint, warping or pest damage. It may be possible to refresh some faded siding by cleaning or painting it yourself. “Spring is the best time to complete a siding project, as you don’t want your siding to suddenly expand, shrink or become brittle due to extreme heat or cold,” explains Laura Adamson, marketing director at Aspen Home Improvements in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “There’s no better way to prevent this from happening than to do the job during the spring season, where the temperature is at its sweet spot!”

Cleaning or repairing hard-to-reach sections of a home exterior may be safest to leave in the hands of professionals.

Spring home maintenance

Gutters, roofing and siding may all be slightly worse for wear after a long winter. Spring can also be a good time to check for termite evidence, chimney cracks, broken or uneven walkways, unwanted pests and landscaping issues. Catching problems now and addressing them promptly can minimize the cost of repairs and enable you to extend the life of your home’s outer protection.

Modernize is a reliable and trustworthy solution that thoughtfully connects homeowners with contractors for home improvement services. For a complete spring home maintenance checklist, visit Modernize.com.

2022-03-14T09:01:00

(BPT) – Jill loves learning. She has a natural inclination to find and share information. Her career in early childhood education is one way that she has been able to pursue this interest in her life. Another is in her enthusiasm for passing on invaluable information that could help others. Like so many people, Jill has learned some of her most important lessons through difficult experiences. That’s how she learned about asthma and pertussis, and the way these two respiratory conditions can affect each other. Now, Jill wants to help make those lessons a little easier for others.

Her first-hand education about the experience of asthma happened during the winter 20 years ago. Jill was volunteering at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002. Living in Northern Utah, she was accustomed to occasional bouts of coughing; however, she associated them with allergies triggered by changes in weather. But during the week of the Olympics, her coughing felt different. Certain that something was wrong, Jill started looking for answers. As she sought additional medical opinions, one provider listened to her symptoms and asked how long she’d lived with asthma. “I’d had no idea,” Jill says. “I always thought it was allergies, but in retrospect, I think I’d been living with asthma for some time.”

Once she had the diagnosis, Jill worked with her care team to manage her asthma — but she had learned to listen to changes in her coughing. That lesson paid off four years later.

Paying attention to the cough

In 2006, Jill’s coughing changed again. Her doctor adjusted her asthma medications and prescribed an antibiotic for a suspected sinus infection — but within days, her cough was getting worse instead of better. Each episode brought increasing pain as she struggled to inhale, and endured coughing so forceful that it left her body aching. “Any time it started, I had to stop whatever I was doing,” Jill says. “I had no voice, I could barely speak.” She went back to the doctor, and this time was given a test for pertussis.

Pertussis is a highly contagious bacterial infection that can cause serious complications, not just for children. It is also known as whooping cough, and can cause uncontrollable, severe, and prolonged coughing attacks, leading to complications and even death.¹

Jill learned her pertussis test was positive when she received a call from the county health department — part of a contact-tracing effort to contain a pertussis outbreak in a neighboring county. Fortunately, she had been proactive about seeking care and had already started the course of antibiotics even before receiving her diagnosis. She felt lucky that she had not exposed any of her colleagues or students in her education center to the infection.

Jill was able to recover from her case of pertussis at home and avoid hospitalization — but the recovery took time. “My body was just very worn down,” she says. “It wears you down mentally, physically, emotionally.” As her strength returned and she gradually returned to work, the lasting strain on her lungs kept her coughing for weeks after the infection itself had been resolved. She knows now that having a chronic lung disease like asthma can make you more likely to be infected with pertussis. Adults with asthma have a 4x greater risk of whooping cough compared with people without asthma.²

Learning about how to help protect against pertussis

Less than a year after Jill was diagnosed with pertussis, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and CDC recommended routine use of pertussis vaccines for adults.³ In her role as an education administrator, Jill was already an immunization advocate and knew how important vaccines were for keeping kids healthy and in school. “I had 703 little ones and we made sure that all of the kids had their vaccines and health screenings and everything,” she says. Over the years, she saw the difference that the introduction of new vaccines made in the kids she saw every day. “Early in my career, children would get chicken pox every year. Then a vaccine came out, and we got kids immunized, and we saw much less chicken pox in our kids.”

She is just as passionate about encouraging adults to get the recommended vaccination that could have helped protect her. Vaccination has been shown to be more than 80% efficacious at preventing severe pertussis disease. Vaccines offer the best protection against this highly contagious disease.³ There’s an adult pertussis vaccine known as “Tdap” that also helps protect against tetanus (lockjaw) and diphtheria. The CDC recommends that every adult get a Tdap vaccine to help reduce the risk of contracting and spreading pertussis — and Jill consistently recommends it to the people she talks to who are learning to live with asthma.³

She sees the need for vaccination as being more important than ever. “With hunkering down during the pandemic, many people have forgotten about some of their routine vaccinations, including Tdap,” she says. “While our current focus is on COVID, it’s critical that we help protect ourselves from respiratory infections such as pertussis.” If you have asthma then you are at risk for contracting pertussis. You can visit PertussisAwareness.com to learn important information to discuss with your doctor.

References:

1. Kilgore PE, Salim AM, Zervos MJ, Schmitt H-J. Pertussis: microbiology, disease, treatment, and prevention. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2016;29(3):449-486. doi:10.1128/CMR.00083-1
2. Buck PO, Meyers JL, Gordon L-D, Parikh R, Kurosky SK, Davis KL. Economic burden of diagnosed pertussis among individuals with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the USA: an analysis of administrative claims. Epidemiol Infect. 2017;145(10):2109-2121. doi:10.1017/S0950268817000887
3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases. Hall E., Wodi A.P., Hamborsky J., et al., eds. 14th ed. Washington, D.C. Public Health Foundation, 2021

2022-03-14T10:42:02

(BPT) – The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported receiving 5.7 million fraud reports in 2021, with consumers losing more than $5.9 billion to fraud, up from $3.3 billion the year prior. Furthermore, the coronavirus pandemic and rise in digital and online technologies have only exacerbated the rise in overall consumer fraud, as criminals sought to take advantage of the fears of the public by exploiting public health issues, spreading misinformation and creating confusion.

Both public and private sectors are working together to respond to consumer complaints and enhance protections by helping consumers become more vigilant and aware of the signs of fraud.

As part of these efforts, The U.S. Postal Inspection Service — the law enforcement agency responsible for enforcing federal statutes involving crimes against the Postal Service, its employees and customers — along with the FTC, other federal agencies, private sector companies and consumer protection organizations, make it their mission to educate and inform consumers of their rights and share fraud prevention tips.

The security of the U.S. Mail and its employees is the top priority of the Postal Inspection Service. For nearly 250 years, Postal Inspectors have worked to protect Americans from financial fraud and scams.

“Anyone can be a victim of a scam, with the right pitch,” said Gary R. Barksdale, Chief Postal Inspector. That’s why prevention is one of our most important pillars in the mission to protect consumers and bring fraudsters to justice.”

Postal Inspectors provide helpful tips for consumers to protect themselves from fraud, including issues related to:

• Veterans Scams
• Elder Fraud
• Cybercrime
• Election Mail Security
• Coronavirus-related Scams
• Identity Theft
• Mail Fraud
• Mail & Package Theft
• Suspicious and Dangerous Mail

So how do you guard yourself from potential fraud?

• Never provide personal information over the phone or Internet unless you initiated the contact and you are sure the company/individual is legitimate
• Never send money to unknown individuals
• Do not respond to spam or unsolicited emails
• Monitor credit card expiration dates and contact the issuer if you don’t receive a replacement prior to the expiration date
• Review your credit reports annually
• Read everything given or mailed to you by the person or company soliciting your money — including the “fine print.”
• Do your due diligence. Check out the company with the Better Business Bureau, your state’s Office of the Attorney General, or AARP’s Fraud Fighter Call Center at 800-646-2283, and ask for help determining if an offer is legitimate or not.
• Do an online search, to see others’ experiences with the business.
• Reduce unwanted telemarketing calls. Take advantage of call blocking services, some of which are free, or purchase a call-blocking device.

For more fraud prevention tips, visit uspis.gov/tips-prevention. If you are a victim, or have witnessed a mail-related crime, alert Postal Inspectors by calling 877-876-2455.

2022-03-14T11:13:00

(BPT) – More than half the adults in the United States wear contact lenses or glasses to correct their vision. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a whopping 45 million people choose contacts. Contact lenses, which today include more comfortable materials and advanced technologies, are a great choice and patients prize the comfort and convenience of not having to wear glasses to achieve clear vision. But what happens when wearing contacts becomes a source of discomfort?

“Wearing contacts should generally be a comfortable experience,” says John Doane, M.D., cornea and refractive surgeon at Discover Vision and member of the Refractive Surgery Council editorial advisory board. “Things like stinging, pain, swelling, dryness or feeling like there’s something in your eye are not normal and could be signs of a condition we call contact lens intolerance. It’s important to speak with an eye doctor to determine the cause and take appropriate action so you can see clearly without discomfort.”

Contact lens discomfort, like irritation, burning, dryness and grittiness, can be part of the experience with contact lens intolerance, which can start even if you’ve comfortably worn contact lenses for many years. A common misconception is that these symptoms are a normal part of wearing contacts and should be tolerated. However, If your eyes or lenses are uncomfortable or you are not seeing well, it’s important to talk to an eye doctor who can conduct an exam to determine the source of irritation when wearing contact lenses.

How to speak with your eye doctor

The Refractive Surgery Council, which helps people make informed decisions about vision correction options, recommends noting when you experience discomfort and logging how long you are wearing your lenses each day. Gathering this information, along with the following, will help you be ready when you speak with your doctor and find the right solution for you:

• What are your symptoms and how often do they occur? When did they start?
• Are there specific environments or activities that trigger symptoms?
• What are you doing to help manage your symptoms?

Options for relief

“Many people try home remedies to reduce these symptoms, such as warm compresses, eye drops or limiting contact wear to a few hours at a time. This might provide temporary relief but is not a lasting solution. These symptoms shouldn’t be ignored. In some cases, alternative approaches can allow a patient to continue to wear contacts but about 6 million people in the U.S. discontinued contact lenses last year due to intolerance,” said the Kansas City-based Dr. Doane.

In addition to answering your eye doctor’s questions, your appointment is an important time to discuss your vision correction options. Inquire if your eyes are healthy enough to continue wearing contact lenses and what steps you need to take to keep them healthy. You might also consider asking if you are a candidate for a vision correction procedure.

Today there is a spectrum of treatments available for different types of vision problems which means more people are candidates for laser vision correction procedures, including LASIK, SMILE and PRK. For those who are not good candidates for LASIK, the SMILE procedure, the most recent FDA-approved laser vision correction procedure which stands for Small Incision Lenticule Extraction, may be an option for patients with nearsightedness and astigmatism. The bottom line is, with the many ways to see clearly without relying on glasses and contacts available today, your vision correction choices warrant a conversation with your eye doctor.

Don’t accept eye discomfort

Your vision is an invaluable sense, impacting how you see and interact with the world. If you are experiencing discomfort wearing contacts, make an appointment to speak with your eye doctor today. To learn more about eye health, contact lens intolerance and more, visit AmericanRefractiveSurgeryCouncil.org/blog.

2022-03-14T11:41:00

(BPT) – These past couple of years have been challenging in lots of ways and many people, particularly older adults, have felt the weight and impact of loneliness and social isolation.

This has been especially true when staying home and sheltering in place has been recommended to increase safety. With less contact with others, it may be difficult for older adults to maintain the relationships that are so important to mental, as well as physical, well-being. In fact, loneliness has been found to lead to health risks, such as:

• Depression
• Poor sleep
• Anxiety
• Hypertension
• Cognitive decline
• Heart disease and stroke

In addition, social isolation may lead to:

• Increased risk of dementia
• Cardiovascular disease
• Inflammation
• Reduced quality of life

It becomes incredibly important to understand these effects and impacts of loneliness and social isolation. You might think the two concepts are very similar, if not identical, but they have important distinctions. Loneliness is the feeling of being alone and social isolation is the lack of social contacts. A person can feel alone, even if they have a wide social circle and, on the flip side, it’s possible for someone to not have many social connections yet not feel alone.

A state of loneliness or social isolation can have a major effect on one’s sense of wellness and overall health. But what is the impact when both are present?

Researchers from UnitedHealthcare and OptumLabs, in conjunction with AARP Services Inc., conducted and published a study in 2021 to discover how the combination affected late-life health outcomes. With a random sampling of AARP^® Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan from UnitedHealthcare members, researchers, including Dr. Timothy Barnes, Ph.D., senior outcomes researcher with OptumLabs, collected survey data measuring groups who were lonely only, socially isolated only, both lonely and socially isolated or neither.

Those who were both lonely and socially isolated were more likely to be older, with a lower quality of life and greater medical needs and costs. They also had significantly higher rates of ER and inpatient admissions.

“These two constructs have been looked at separately. Moving forward you should make the connection to look at them together,” Barnes said.

Keeping interventions in mind for both conditions could have a big impact on seniors’ overall health. For social isolation it might be things like volunteerism, physical activity and engaging in a community, while for loneliness it might make sense to focus on personal strengths such as defining one’s purpose and building social awareness skills. AARP and the Global Council on Brain Health recently published a guide, “Boosters for Joy: A Guide on Ways to Connect,” that offers a wide range of helpful resources for boosting social connections.

“The pandemic has brought issues of loneliness and social isolation to the fore and should spark a national conversation,” said Dr. Erica Schwartz, M.D., president of Insurance Solutions at UnitedHealthcare. “The need to feel connected and to be connected is even more critical as we face continued disruption and disconnectedness in our daily lives. Research is needed to help further understand the impact of loneliness and social isolation on health and to find strategies to improve resilience.”

For Barnes, it was clear that staying connected to each other is not just a nice-to-have but an urgent priority key to higher quality of life for older adults.

“With social isolation versus loneliness, there are things that you can quantify versus things that you feel,” he said. “Resilience, having a feeling of purpose in life, and optimism are also important.”

To learn more about the study from UnitedHealthcare, OptumLabs and AARP Services Inc., visit https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13607863.2021.1940096. For more information on how to help get connected if you’re feeling socially isolated, visit connect2affect.org.

2022-03-11T15:07:00

(BPT) – Everyone has had shaky hands at times. Maybe it was because you were nervous or cold. Now imagine if your hands and potentially other parts of your body were trembling whenever you ran errands, ate lunch, or attempted other typical daily tasks. Challenges like these represent the reality for people who have a neurological condition called essential tremor. It currently affects an estimated 7 million Americans, so it is more common than people realize¹.

“Essential tremor, commonly known as ‘ET,’ causes a rhythmic trembling of the hands when people are trying to perform an action such as eating, writing, dressing, or drinking,” explained Patrick McCartney, Executive Director of the International Essential Tremor Foundation, an advocacy group dedicated to providing education, awareness, support, and research for people affected by essential tremor. “It can be confused with other conditions like Parkinson’s disease, but essential tremor is actually seven times more common². This is why we are committed to raising awareness and to ‘Make ET the Talk of the Town,’ which is the theme for our efforts this year.”

March is National Essential Tremor Awareness Month but raising awareness about this life-altering condition is important year-round. Here are some facts you should know about essential tremor, especially if you are noticing signs that may be impacting you or loved ones.

Identifying the symptoms and impact

Involuntary trembling of hands when performing daily tasks is the most common sign of essential tremor, but it can impact other parts of the body as well. Essential tremor is progressive, which means it will get worse over time, decreasing a person’s ability to do common daily tasks such as tying shoelaces, eating, typing, writing, or pouring a drink. ET can have a significant impact on a person’s life, even with mild cases. If you or a loved one is experiencing uncontrolled shaking, it’s important to speak with your doctor.

Getting to a diagnosis

After meeting with your doctor, you may get referred to a neurologist or a movement disorder specialist for further evaluation. There are no medical tests to diagnose essential tremor; rather, a specialist conducts an exam to determine if you have essential tremor or if there are other causes of the trembling.

Treatment — knowing your options

Treatments for essential tremor currently include medications, and in more severe cases, surgical intervention; however, most medications were originally developed for the treatment of other conditions, like high blood pressure or epilepsy. Many people are also limited in their treatment choices because of potential interactions with other medications they are taking or have side effects, which sometimes causes people to stop taking them. In fact, research shows nearly half of all people with essential tremor stop taking their medication, further underscoring the need for new innovative treatment options for ET³.

Managing your wellness

The unpredictability of essential tremor on everyday life often leads to stress, anxiety, depression or even embarrassment in social settings, as those affected may feel they have to explain their tremor in public situations^4,5. Since essential tremor can disrupt people’s daily activities, ET impacts mental health along with physical health. It is important to seek out resources or speak to your doctor if you’re experiencing mental health distress due to the condition.

“A lot of people who may have symptoms of essential tremor go undiagnosed, so it’s extremely important to seek out resources and talk to your doctor to identify if you have ET,” says McCartney. “There are tools out there at your disposal to learn how to navigate everyday life including getting connected to other people with essential tremor, who can speak to their journey from personal experience.”

Take action and get help today

Continued medical research is needed to develop new, effective therapies for people living with essential tremor. One company investigating potential treatments is Praxis Precision Medicines, who is committed to developing treatment options for people living with complex central nervous system disorders, including ET. Praxis is currently conducting clinical trials, which are research studies that evaluate the way a study drug works in the body, including assessing its safety, effectiveness, and the way the body processes it. Talk to your doctor to understand if a clinical trial may be an option for you.

People with essential tremor experience worsening symptoms differently, and many people put off seeking diagnosis when symptoms first arise until the condition gets worse over time⁶. If you or a loved one has symptoms, contact your doctor now. If you receive an essential tremor diagnosis, you can explore therapies and join support communities that may help. To learn more visit EssentialTremor.org.

References:

1. US National Library of Medicine – How Many People in the USA Have Essential Tremor? Deriving a Population Estimate Based on Epidemiological Data – Elan D. Louis and Ruth Ottman https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4137360/

2. Louis ED, McCreary M. How Common is Essential Tremor? Update on the Worldwide Prevalence of Essential Tremor. Tremor and Other Hyperkinetic Movements. 2021;11(1):28. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/tohm.632

3. US National Library of Medicine – How are We Doing With the Treatment of Essential Tremor (ET)? Persistence of ET Patients on Medication: Data from 528 Patients in Three Settings – Elan D. Louis, MD, MS, Eileen Rios, BS,1 and Claire Henchcliffe, MD DPhil https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2889923/

4. Louis ED. The Essential Tremors: A Family of Neurodegenerative Disorders. Archives of Neurology. 2009;66(10):1202-1208. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1001%2Farchneurol.2009.217

5. Data on File, Praxis Precision Medicines, Inc.

6. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke – Tremor Fact Sheet – Prepared by: Office of Communications and Public Liaison National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke National Institutes of Health Bethesda, MD 20892 https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Fact-Sheets/Tremor-Fact-Sheet