We love to shake hands. It’s a gesture of friendship and acceptance. But we wouldn’t want to clasp a shaking hand that’s not shaken.
Common causes why hands shake
Hands shake for various reasons, and not all of them have anything to do with you looking for friends and vice versa.
1. Involuntary movements caused by nerves. Those affected with central nervous system disorder often find themselves walking or standing with shaking hands. This involuntary movement is commonly called tremor. Depending on how grave the case is, when your hand shakes some parts of the body, especially those that are directly connected with your hand, shake as well.
The catch about tremor that’s not related to nervous system disorder, is that it’s genetic. If your family has a history of involuntary hand tremors, it will show up whether you like it or not.
The elderly can’t control many parts of the body from moving—but it could be because of Parkinson’s disease. People with liver failure can’t stop their hands from shaking.
2. Too much caffeine. When you have had your fill of caffeine for the day, don’t dare push it. Your body might not take it positively. Strong coffee blend such as those using Arabica beans are known to cause tremors and making your heartbeat shoot up. But dealing with this gets very tricky because the effect doesn’t set in while the fun lasts. Caffeine stimulates your central nervous system and may cause it to go haywire. Caffeine can cause withdrawal symptoms.
3. Medicine related. Some people can’t get enough of medicine. For common flu they get so paranoid they take nasal decongestants. You should know that these are stimulants and they can make you tremor especially at a point where the effects are coming down.
4. Food preservatives and artificial flavoring. Mothers, beware: Food preservatives abound in your morning crackers, canned food, and taste enhancers. It’s about time you thought hard about what you feed your children: artificial sweetener and food coloring don’t only fool your kids into thinking they’re eating the real thing– they may cause cancer, too. Soda and crystal juices are so full of these.
5. Anxiety. We all shake when we are terribly depressed. The manner of shaking may vary from person to person, but apparently the hand gets shaken when we reach our threshold.
6. Hunger. This is self explanatory: when we are hungry, our blood sugar drops because we have nothing in our system to convert into sugar. When we are hungry our hands shake accompanied by head aches, and in a worst-case scenario, gnashing teeth. Aside from that, our knees may grow weak and shake. You can’t remedy this by eating sweets right away—the drop in blood sugar doesn’t equal to a drop in sweet intake. What drops is glucose– sugar from carbohydrates.
7. Metacarpal spasms. This is brought about by involuntary movements in your hand’s joints and cartilages. Because they are stretched by too much use, say weightlifting, typing on the computer, or writing longhand, this results in involuntary hand shaking. William T. Vollmann, the National Book Award winner, is suffering from this.
Not all forms of hand shaking appear distracting to the eyes. But if you’re in a fit you can’t do the things you’re supposed to. The least you can do is watch what you put in your mouth. Lastly, love your hands.
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