What is POTS? Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, explained.

Christina Applegate‘s daughter Sadie lately revealed she was recognized with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS, prompting questions in regards to the situation. 

POTS causes your coronary heart to beat sooner than regular once you go from sitting or mendacity all the way down to standing up, in keeping with the Cleveland Clinic. 

“Your physique’s autonomic nervous system balances your coronary heart price and blood strain to maintain your blood flowing at a wholesome tempo, it doesn’t matter what place your physique is in. You probably have POTS, your physique cannot coordinate the balancing act of blood vessel constriction (squeezing) and coronary heart price response,” the clinic’s web site explains. “Which means that your physique cannot preserve your blood strain regular and secure.”

Throughout Tuesday’s episode of “MeSsy,” Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler’s podcast, Sadie, 13, shared when she stands up she will get dizzy and weak in her legs.

“I really feel like I am gonna cross out. I’ve fainted earlier than, and I’ve gone unconscious, however that does not normally occur. That is solely on actually unhealthy days when it is sizzling out,” Sadie mentioned.

Whereas POTS is not life-threatening, it will probably “significantly intervene with every day residing and duties,” the clinic’s web site provides. 

Different celebrities have additionally come ahead about their expertise with POTS, together with singer Halsey, who revealed her prognosis in 2022, and tv persona Bethenny Frankel, who opened up about her prognosis final yr.

This is what else to know in regards to the situation: 

Signs of POTS

POTS signs range from individual to individual, in keeping with Johns Hopkins, however generally embody:

• Fatigue
• Lightheadedness that may result in fainting
• Mind fog
• Coronary heart pounding or skipping a beat
• Nausea and vomiting
• Complications
• Extreme sweating
• Shakiness
• Challenges exercising
• A pale face and purple discoloration of the palms and ft if the limbs are decrease than the extent of the guts

Signs will also be worse in heat environments, in conditions with a lot of standing, having a chilly or an infection and after a scarcity of sufficient fluid and salt consumption, Johns Hopkins notes.

POTS and COVID

POTS usually begins after a being pregnant, main surgical procedure, trauma or a viral sickness, in keeping with the Nationwide Institute of Neurological Problems and Stroke — and there is a connection to COVID-19 too.

“The commonest set off of POTS is a viral an infection. This consists of viruses like influenza and parvovirus and COVID-19,” Dr. Svetlana Blitschteyn, a neurologist and director of Dysautonomia Clinic, beforehand instructed CBS Pittsburgh. 

Blitschteyn is without doubt one of the researchers who studied this frequent syndrome for some lengthy haulers like Jarred Arfa, who was recognized with POTS a few yr after catching COVID.

“These sufferers are younger folks of their 20s, 30s and 40s who had been wholesome or had minor medical issues that did not impression their lives earlier than and now they’re expressing excessive fatigue, dizziness, headache, lack of ability to train and a few are unable to work,” Blitschteyn mentioned.

POTS remedy

There is not any remedy for POTS, however there are a number of remedy choices — together with weight-reduction plan modifications, train regimes and medicines — that may assist with signs. 

Chatting with knowledgeable is vital in figuring out a remedy plan that’s proper to your and your signs.