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Does anyone understand the trigger of POTS/Dysautonomia re: bending from a standing position?

Wayne

Senior Member
Messages
4,300
Location
Ashland, Oregon
Hi @Gingergrrl,

I've been reading a very good book entitled the Dysautonomia Project. I would highly recommend it you've not read it yourself. I just ran across this little snippet from the book this morning, and thought I'd pass it on. Thought it might answer (underlined below) the question you posed in this thread title.

Bending over from the waist is a terrible position for us. Although we never pump our hearts dry, with the pooling of the blood we have less circulatory volume. When we bend over, we increase the pressure in the chest, and have less blood volume return to the heart.

When we stand back up the first few heart beats of our hearts don't supply as much blood flow to the brain as the brain wants, so we'll get dizzy. -- Some of the worst motions we can do is ... sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, and anything that involves working above the shoulder level. Why? Because these motions restrict blood flow back to the chest.​
 
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Gingergrrl

Senior Member
Messages
16,171
Thanks, Wayne, and I just bookmarked your thread above to look at the link later. I don't have a lot of time right now in case this seems rushed. I am not sure if you saw my other thread but my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer yesterday that's spread to her lungs and stomach. Am leaving to go to hospital in about 2-3 hrs.

But you are totally correct re: bending down and standing back up and I ordered a grabber on Amazon (which has not arrived yet) and in general, I just need to avoid this motion. I was walking around my apt last night wrapping gifts to bring to the hospital today and if I even dropped a piece of tape, I got into wheelchair and picked it up from a seated position. I cannot imagine that I will ever be able to sweep or vacuum again either. I am getting closer to having a normal life b/c of my treatments but there are many accommodations that I make b/c of the POTS and Dysautonomia and assume that some of them will be permanent which is okay.
 

jpcv

Senior Member
Messages
386
Location
SE coast, Brazil
Some questions to all of you POTS experts
I´ve been sick for two and half years and since June my disease has gotten worse
I could walk four blocks , slowly but without any effort.
Right now two blocks seem like a long walk, and I have to sit down to rest.
Recently I´ve noticed that standing up, without walking is dificult,, for example, like waiting in a line.
I feel tired, some dizziness, nausea but I don´t have tachicardia, cold extremities.
Do you think these are the first symptoms of POTS?
Did POTS start gradually or as a full blown condition for you?
 

Wayne

Senior Member
Messages
4,300
Location
Ashland, Oregon
like waiting in a line. I feel tired, some dizziness, nausea but I don´t have tachicardia, cold extremities. ...... Did POTS start gradually or as a full blown condition for you?

Sounds to me like you have a different version of Dysautonomia [same as orthostatic intolerance (OI)]. Some of the terminology can be confusing, but I'll try to explain it as I've come to understand it.

POTS and NMH are two different forms of Dysautonomia, where the Autonomic Nervous System is unable to properly maintain proper blood circulation in the body. When a person has POTS, the body tries to compensate for lack of circulation by increasing the heart rate (tachycardia) and/or increasing the blood pressure.

NMH (Neurally Mediated Hypotension) sounds more like what you're dealing with. In this case, the body doesn't respond with an elevated heart rate, but experiences a drop in blood pressure. This can happen immediately, or over a longer period of time.

One thing that can help both of these conditions is to wear compression garments that will help the body maintain proper circulation, though that assistance is usually only partial. But it does generally give a person more functionality for longer periods of time. Compression around the legs is most often mentioned, but abdominal compression has worked even better for me.

People with Dyautonomia or OI generally have abdominal pooling of blood, and for me, the abdominal compression works very well. It gives me a lot more functionality, even while sitting. That said, when I get sick (I'm now in the middle of a flu/cold), my OI symptoms can become dramatically worse (perhaps 3x worse).

What that indicates to me is that Dysautonomia / OI symptoms often result from an immune system problem, whether it's dealing with a current acute infection, or a latent, chronic long-term infection. Many people with Lyme who were able to improve substantially noticed their OI symptoms disappeared at the same time.
 
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boolybooly

Senior Member
Messages
161
Location
Northants UK
In case it helps I have just had a bout of arrhythmia with postural, activity and stress related triggers, I believe it was due to some kind of winter bug which seriously affected the tonus of my nervous system, but recovery was not progressing.

So I experimented with supplementing the four main minerals, Calcium / Magnesium and Sodium / Potassium.

Short story, I found I was in need of both sodium and magnesium.

I was also getting muscle cramps and had assumed this was Calcium deficit so took Ca which made the Mg deficit worse and brought on arrhythmia as did potassium dosing. But it wasnt low Ca causing cramps as low sodium can cause cramps as well. So I tried the other tack and took lots of salt in my water (4 to 5 g in a day) and a 2g dose of MgO and soon felt a lot better and touch-wood have not had a hint of arrhythmia nor cramps since.

Just thought I would share. I find arrhythmias are often helped by mineral supps if I can find the right ones. FYI its not always the same ones but its usually one or two of these four, also they come as pairs as they tend to compete biologically due to the charges on the ions. Mg and Ca are 2+ and Na and K are 1+.