What is POTS?
More people are reporting symptoms that linger for months after infection with COVID-19. Sometimes called “Long Haulers,” these people experience everything from exhaustion to headaches to shortness of breath and a racing heartbeat.
Some doctors have noticed similarities between these symptoms and a rare condition called postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).
POTS is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system. People with POTS experience a sudden drop of blood pressure when they stand up because their blood vessels don’t respond quickly enough to return blood to the heart and brain.
With POTS, the heart races and heart rate can double or triple upon standing up. Other symptoms of POTS include dizziness, headaches, shortness of breath, and brain fog. People can become sensitive to lights or sound or temperature. They can even develop digestive problems.
In many ways, POTS is similar to chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia. The cause is unknown, the symptoms are vague, and there is no definite cure.
✨ But there is a ray of light in the darkness ✨
Functional medicine offers hope for medical mysteries like POTS. One of the main reasons is that a functional approach takes a holistic look at how all of the body systems interact. In POTS, there are interactions between the nervous system, immune system, and more.
Whereas the conventional approach to treating disease gives a medication to cover up a symptom, a functional approach looks under the hood for the root cause. We begin to balance the body systems from the inside out rather than just taping on a band-aid.
We still know so little about how COVID-19 affects the body in the long run. We do, however, know a lot about the long-term effects of some other infections (like EBV and Lyme disease). It’s in these bizarre and unusual situations that functional medicine has always shined.
Practicing medicine is a continuous process of learning and connecting what we already know with new situations. We are here to support all patients—but especially those who are not getting the results they want and deserve elsewhere. Reach out to me at www.healthwithoutrisk.com of at bryanjtreacymd@gmail.com for help.
Reference
Rubin R. As Their Numbers Grow, COVID-19 “Long Haulers” Stump Experts. JAMA.
2020;324(14):1381–1383.https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2771111[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
