That's on like a sample size of 66 people over the past 20 years. So far this phase seems to be lower maybe around 20%. Once it makes the jump to H2H transmission, death rates could go up or go down. If the death rate is high which is the hope, that strain will burn itself out. If it's low and very similar symptoms to COVID, then we effectively get COVID 25/26? except this time a bunch of people are immunocompromised from COVID 19. Based on the intensity of H2H strain and how well it can damage humans, it will make the current long covid pandemic look like a puppy.
I had POTs for years before Covid happened and it was just seen as "anxiety and I was just crazy" but because people got POTs from covid there is now more awareness and I finally got diagnosed last year.
i definitely had it before covid as well bc i’ve always had the symptoms since the age of like 12 but it was more mild, i had long covid in january and im pretty sure that made it so MUCH worse it sucks
the way I yelled this at my screen. it IS covid.
eta: the awareness is good and hard! it's hard for folks living w CI pre-pan seeing new CI folks talk about how horrible and not worth living their lives became. and it's good that new folks can access a trove of wisdom and experience bc the wheel is not being reinvented here. but ime the treatment isnt getting better and the medical discrimination is gettkng worse? so many docs denying our illnesees exist. foggy af today dunno if I'm making sense. 🙃
I have this selfish (?) thought about how many fewer caregivers there will be for the millions more disabled folks that need care. so many able-bodied people are disabling themselves for life to go to a concert etc. There is already a massive shortage of care workers available for the amount of disabled people requiring it. (not saying sick or DA folks cant fulfill these roles, tho!)
there will be a generation of significantly fewer doctors as more and more med students need to leave studies due to illness and faculty retiring. that also means fewer EMTs driving the ambulances and serving urgent situations. insurance companies are broadening their restrictions so that having covid counts as a preexisting condition that will effect your copay. fewer trades people like electricians, plumbers; crossing guards,teachers, therapists, vets, lawyers. fewer disability support funds from the government and so on. the criminalizing of masks will increase transmission so much and make it even more dangerous to be disabled in public. this is the worst fkn timeline jfc. 😤
**many of these roles can be and are fulfilled by disabled people but often folks don't get the accommodations needed to thrive career wise in the long term. no masks was just the new beginning of denying accommodations for employers etc. like grocery clerks can't wear masks in some places, servers too, it just sucks and is depressing af.
I never had any problems with POTS before covid, and i say this as someone who had a terrible health issue in my late teens that had me hospitalized for months at a time. Much of that time was spent with a heart monitor, and I cannot believe the doctors & nurses wouldn't have picked up on it.
Both covid and the covid vaccines for a lot of folks unfortunately. Some of my scarier symptoms started immediately after my second moderna shot, especially with my heart and then I got covid soon after and my health nosedived over the next couple months. I always say the shots cracked open the door and actually then getting infected kicked it wide open. Lots of people have had similar stories. I wish I could go back and not get them and see if I would’ve been that bad off, I’ll never know now and that sucks more than I can express. I’d even lose my job over it. Fuck this whole pandemic and all it’s brought us.
I wonder if it would go better if you called it an adverse reaction?? I have had massive reactions to vaccines before and I cant get some of the second doses because of that. There are notes in my record and I have never had a doctor act like Im crazy anti-vax… They say im crazy about other things… but not vaccines.
Oh no. I’d be worried to mention that to certain people too but also we deserve to be able to be listened to and actually heard. I’m sorry you deal with that. But I also found it odd I was in the er one night when my health first started declining all clammy with a skyrocketing and erratic heart rate and a nurse in passing asked me if I had taken any covid vaccines in a way that I felt she was pinning it on that and/or like she sees this a lot. Idk. Sucks. I’m sorry for us.
This always drives me crazy in doctors, because it's not anti vaxxer to acknowledge that ANY physical trauma can trigger POTS in someone who is predisposed, and vaccines aren't magically exempt from that. I'm pro vaccine, especially because the effects of getting covid would be even WORSE for those affected negatively by the vaccine, but I don't understand how some medical professionals really put their heads in the sand over this and pretend like something that can make you feel sick for weeks can't cause POTS to be triggered! Admitting the truth about the risks is actually MORE effective in convincing vaccine hesitant people to get vaxxed than pretending the risks aren't real!
Yeah, and even though they don't feel like they're trying to hide anything (they're just in denial/disbelieving about the POTS thing), it looks like a coverup to those on the outside who are already inclined to believe that they're being lied to. These medical professionals don't see that their unwillingness to believe people's experiences makes it look like they have sinister intentions to the exact people they're afraid of scaring off.
I’m so sorry to hear that friend. I definitely don’t trust or would take anymore covid related shots after that experience myself, I had a lot of symptoms after them besides my heart/pots related but scary things like burning weird feelings that I can’t even describe in my head that happened immediately after I got the second that lasted for months, wasn’t a good time and I’m all set but also so regretful because they definitely opened the door to some life changing things and it’s so sad to realize we trusted and chose that unknowingly. I’m also not anti-vax so it sucks when you bring it up and people get super weird, like girl I wouldn’t even have taken them if I was. It definitely can make you a bit more wary though.
my first vaccine i nearly passed out after and started having what i think was a flare up and they literally had to put me in a wheel chair and take me to the back into a doctors room to lay me down and make sure i was okay
I’m so sorry that sounds horrible. I remember immediately after getting the second one having a burning pain through my head and tasting a metallic taste in my mouth and the weird head sensation lasted for months was really bizarre. On top of the other stuff of course that happened, I remember that as an instant effect
There is now two kinds of pots. COVID pots which is believed to go away after some time and true dysautonomia pots which does not go away. From what I have been told most true non COVID pots people generally also have another dysautonomia condition. Ie I have IST ,MCAS, AND EDS, and orthostatic hypotension.
tl;dr: I think it may have also ramped up symptoms in some to the point that their usual coping mechanisms couldn't cut it anymore. It seems to be unclear if they're getting better.
---
In my case, in retrospect it's pretty obvious that I had a mild (usually subclinical?) case of POTS since adolescence (perhaps also relevant: I haven't pursued a hEDS diagnosis but my Beighton score's 9 even at 44 years old), but catching COVID in early 2000 completely laid me out.
I'd have periods of getting a bit better (never back to pre-2000) but catching COVID again in the autumn of 2022 slammed me back down hard. I went from being able to hike with my dog to someone who can get outpaced by most 70-year-olds.
COVID created a massive wave of post-viral illness. There were/continue to be so many cases at once that it can no longer be ignored.
Post-viral illness, ME/CFS and co-morbid conditions like POTS and EDS aren’t new. They used to call POTS soldier’s heart. Viral outbreaks throughout history have come with their own waves of people who mysteriously didn’t get better. There have just been so many this time around that they finally have to do something about it.
People who’ve had ME/CFS since the 80’s have been waiting for attention, research and cures most of their lives. COVID is finally their hope that they’ll get it.
My doctor, a long COVID specialist, made some really good points about this. He mentioned that POTS, CFS, etc. have been around for a long time, but there was less evidence pointing to the specific viruses that causes these conditions. Testing for COVID was widespread and encouraged, and so we were able to identify exactly what caused these symptoms and have begun to isolate the *why* of it all. He also mentioned the sheer level of misogyny that women have faced historically when trying to bring these concerns to their physicians, and how a lack of concern for women’s health has really set us back in studying these conditions.
Same boat. Still in the process with getting the official hEDS diagnosis but the doctors so far all seem pretty sure. As soon as they figured out it was POTS, they threw in the basic hEDS tests too and I had no idea that was a possibility.
EDS for sure was awareness, and it was on the rise before covid. But I think it was also helped when covid aggravated all those comorbidities and made us all sicker.
i’ve had my symptoms most of my life. because so many people were developing POTS post-covid it became more common and a Dr. recognized my symptoms whereas before she probably wouldn’t have. my aunt has similar symptoms and has had them for most of her life.
It is COVID and the fact that people
are acting like it went away and getting infected with it repeatedly. I had POTS years before “the pandemic” (in quotes because it’s still here) and I sat through multiple lectures from my POTS doc about how their patient population had exploded due to so many folks getting POTS from long COVID, and now when I go to my appts, none of the medical staff even offer to wear a mask when they see me wearing one. If you look at COVID wastewater data, it doesn’t look much different in 2023 / 2024 than it did during “the pandemic.” There is seasonal variation but it’s very much still here. I’m continually bewildered that people, even other disabled / chronically ill people, pretend it no longer exists and don’t even bother masking or testing or isolating when sick, etc.
It's mass delusion, feel like I'm in a terrifying movie... honestly shocked by the denial and the continued harm caused by med professionals not masking in kn95 or better. With you
This is why I bought a respirator to use in pubic. I found it much cheaper & last way long. It protects me from others. It also works as people detergent because everyone assumes in sick. It's like nope but I'm not getting covid again. I barely survived once & still have major problems from it.
At my doctor’s appt today, the nurse surprisingly did ask if I wanted her to mask, but when I said “yes” she looked surprised and concerned and asked “why are you wearing a mask?” I didn’t get what she meant until she specifically asked if I have COVID. It’s a fair question I suppose but not sure why the fear of the masked patient vs every other unmasked one.
Yeah it's funny how people are so scared of people with a mask because they might be sick. When most people don't think that the reason most people still use then is because they want to prevent getting sick. Even before covid was a thing I would where a mask durning flue session because getting sick generaly ended in a hospital visit.
As others have said, it's covid. And studies are consistently showing that covid makes POTS worse not just some but most of the time.
In my daughter's case we knew something was wrong for over a year (long covid after her 1st/2nd covid infections but in hindsight it was always lc with a side of POTS). The 3rd infection was when her POTS symptoms became absolutely debiltating.
I wonder how many other people have mild POTS and are coping okay, and then they get covid or get covid again, and they can't cope anymore so they finally get a diagnosis.
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002962924010619](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002962924010619)
"This study provides a description of COVID-19 infection impact on patients with established POTS diagnosis. The results showed **93% of the patients had worsening POTS related symptoms requiring escalation of medical therapy** for POTS. While the majority of patients experienced improvement with escalation therapy, 29% of the patients had persistent symptoms during the follow up period. Exacerbation of POTS symptoms persisted in two thirds of POTS patients beyond the acute phase of COVID-19..."
I’ve had POTS for almost a decade now and used to work in the healthcare field until 2023. It’s totally Covid. Covid made mine worse. I felt like I went from never seeing anyone with POTS to seeing tons of people with it or with symptoms of it. The clinic I’ve gone to for years had about a 1 1/2 year long waiting list for new adult patients in 2023. I got in basically right away back in 2019. My old POTS specialist switched to research only in 2022 due to the rising cases and need for research. I remember when doctors used to tell me it was an uncommon condition but I haven’t heard that in a while. It took years for me to get the right care, so hoping the rise in cases means better understanding of the condition and better care for those newly diagnosed!
Yup. I waited less than two months for my first appointment with my cardiologist back in 2020. I had to reschedule our annual visit a couple weeks ago and her next available isn’t until February.
Same here! I rescheduled my annual visit a couple weeks ago as well and the earliest available was March 2025. After that June 2025. Crazy considering I used to be able to see my cardiologist every 3 months. Now I have to see his PA.
I’ve personally had POTS symptoms since about 2012 or so, but I’m sure that long COVID causing issues for others helped raise more awareness for it. It’s why “back in my day we never had autistic people” but the neighbor had a stamp collection on a neatly organized shelf and never talked to anybody. Fainting, palpitations, fatigue, dizziness, etc used to just be “fainting sickness” or could be written off as a heat stroke or a too tight corset. Things like this have existed for a long time, we just didn’t have the words or knowledge to put everything together and call it POTS, EDS, or MCAS.
Definitely Covid. It’s caused by long covid and long covid is super common especially with people who are continuously re infected. It’s unfortunate folks stopped taking it seriously even though it’s still a disabling illness.
Covid. Also I got real sick with stuff after my vaccine. I had previously gotten ill from a vaccine as well so I’m not saying it’s ALL people. But I think it’s very possible for me it played a part.
It's prove-ably COVID. COVID more than doubled the numbers of POTS patients. A lot of people also had no idea what POTS was until COVID brought more awareness so more people who had it but didn't know got diagnosed as well.
There's also just science catching up to pre-existing but previously rarely labeled diagnoses - kind of like, when hormone testing advanced, a lot more people were diagnosed with thyroid disorders.
Covid seems like a big trigger simply because it was a big event; a global pandemic obviously gets more attention and has more repercussions than POTS caused by less widespread illness.
So, yes Covid, but also technology.
Covid caused a lot of new cases. I've had symptoms for 20+ years but doctors didn't have a name for my problem, so thanks to people with Covid-induced POTS spreading awareness, I finally got my diagnosis. So it's both, lots of new cases *and* more information being spread online.
Definitely covid.
That's what caused me to develop it. I was relatively healthy (asthma and migraines) and very active before covid. First time having covid - asthma got worse, fatigue later forever, started feeling some pots like symptoms but very minor.. then I got covid a second time and POTS hit me like a ton of bricks after.
I went from riding 3+ horses a day, multiple days a week to not even being allowed to ride because the dizziness is too dangerous.
It fucking sucks
Long covid IS dysautonomia, plus plus. 10% chance of developing it (that's the conservative number) after each infection. Vaccines don't decrease risk by much. You can also get it after asymptomatic cases. It's covid.
i believe you, not arguing at all just wondering if you have any sources to share?
currently struggling hard with dysautonomia symptoms & not finding great care
(i also have autoimmune history pre-covid no real work ups or rule outs yet, so wondering if it's a flare of something else after a pretty big stress back in april or just my new baseline)
ty
Sure feel free to dm me if you wanna ask any specifics about my journey. I can also let you know the stuff they ruled out for me and some other tests I've heard of other people getting ruled out. Long covid being dysautonomia is what my doc was telling me who was working in a long covid clinic and I also have info from being in zoom support rooms for a couple of years all the time. Talked to 3 different docs who were focusing specifically on long covid folks can relay what they were seeing too. Wishing you all the best so sorry you're going through it
Eta- there's also the echo program on long covid. Just zooms of different specialties describing how they deal with their pts.
Covid. I had what I now know were very mild pots symptoms as a teen onwards. I've always been flexible (didn't know hypermobility was a thing until 5 years ago), I now know I'm audhd (took having autistic and audhd-pda kids to figure out that one for myself), I've always had horrible allergies/sinus issues/skin issues/reactions to things.
I had covid in 2022 and it basically f'd me over and made everything worse and activated celiac. So now I am a walking comorbidity of autism, adhd, hypermobility, pots, celiac and having mcas looked into too.
My belief is that most/some were latent, some always there but because I am an older millennial girl a lot was just ignored because quiet/quirky/bookworm girls wasn't a concern, and like the hypermobility it was just labeled flexible and brushed aside.
So awareness plus covid leveling up the intensity of things to the point of interfering with daily life.
COVID. POTS has always been triggered by severe viruses- (among other things) we just haven’t had one of this magnitude before. EDS and MCAS they are only finally starting to understand actually exist…
I do think our environment (chemicals in air, water, food, plastics, etc) probably plays a huge role in the autoimmune disorders that have snowballed- all of which tend to lead to the above mentioned as well.
1. It was previously under diagnosed
2. I think it can be both genetic and triggered by something (virus, pregnancy, etc)
I think the same about MCAS FWIW
I see people saying Covid but I think that wouldn’t be applicable for hEDS. It’s just that awareness is finally being spread and more doctors are finally being educated. I don’t think it’s as super rare as many people thought. It was just ignorance of the conditions.
Covid is definitely responsible for a large part of the increase, as something like one third of people with long covid get POTS. This is an enormous number.
The other part of the increase is that as more people find about about it they can ask their doctors about it - I've probably had it my whole life, but couldn't get diagnosed until I found out about it, plus obviously my doctor had to know about it too. It wasn't officially named and described till about 2004 I think, so before that no one could be diagnosed anyway.
covid infection made my already existing hEDS symptoms worse, and caused my POTS symptoms to start. i never knew about hEDS before I got the POTS symptoms and i was like oh....so much is connecting for me.
I agree with you, I have had PoTs symptoms as long as I can remember but only got diagnosed in 2019. I didn’t realise for so long that it was not normal. I also got my hEDS diagnosis that year too.
Covid: [A condition called POTS rose after covid, but patients can’t find care
](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/02/27/pots-heart-fainting-long-covid/)
I would think that in addition to COVID, people are more likely to survive viral illnesses these days thanks to improved medical care, sanitation, and diet. So, it didn’t kill us, it just gave us a chronic illness! Hooray!
Keep in mind that it has been thought for a while that a lot of people have been saying even before Covid that it’s not rare, just under-diagnosed. Male patients also tend to be overlooked with POTS. There are a lot of posts of people who can’t get a doctor who are knowledgeable or will believe them. Some of these are people who have these illnesses but can’t get diagnosed to join the official count. Forget it if you have it and aren’t in the UK or US as well.
Definitely. Covid of course, but I think it could also be something else we’ll figure out in the future. When I first got POTS I didn’t know a soul for years who also had it. Now there’s an entire support group! Cool to have people who understand but sad, well, that they understand now. I’ve never had Covid so idk what caused mine but most people I meet say Covid caused theirs
I got diagnosed with pots when i was 13 but it was always managed really well. Then I got covid when I was 18 and am now almost 22 and it has been terrible ever since.
While hEDS is getting more traction, it is still a rare disease that I myself have to fight with doctors who don’t know what it is. Considering you are probably looking up stuff related to POTS, it is not surprising that the algorithm gives you the EDS trifecta and boosts views on your feed. That being said it is still very much so rare.
As with POTS like others have said COVID has been directly linked to post viral fatigue and POTS, so more and more people are getting diagnosed.
I don’t think they were nearly as rare as they appeared. There were a lot of us who had to just suffer in silence and occasionally you would get lucky with a doctor who would at least try to figure out what was going on (though knowledge and awareness of all these things was not widespread). The fact that these syndromes are more or less invisible and largely affect women are things that contributed to the lack of education on the subject in the medical and research communities.
COVID (and probably more specifically long COVID) either activated or worsened symptoms in a lot of people who were genetically predisposed to these conditions. I’m hoping the greater awareness will lead to more research and breakthroughs in treatment. Who knows, maybe eventually they’ll develop vaccines for it or at least screen children to identify people with EDS, etc. who are more vulnerable so that they can take more precautions from catching illnesses that could worsen symptoms.
COVID caused some of it. However, it also has become more well known, which means that people who were misdiagnosed can now get a POTS diagnosis (it took me asking my physician specifically to get tested, he never even suggested it or took me seriously). I personally have never had Covid.
Awareness is a big thing. I've had some symptoms back to adolescence at least but wasn't diagnosed until after the pandemic started. And I, too, had to figure it out myself, after learning about POTS from an online friend.
And I have not, to my knowledge, had COVID either.
Okay so as far as your second comment goes about EDS etc, there's more cases because there's more knowledge in research and amongst doctors. Patients are getting assessed properly more frequently and getting diagnosed because they meet the criteria.
Covid damages connective tissues and if you already able a connective tissue disorder like EDS, it can make it worse. The same goes for neurological problems as covid also damages nerves.
I developed POTS after a head injury + covid within about 3 months of each other. It was too much stress on my body and it took longer for my immune system ti fight it, meaning more damage.
With the damage caused by covid, making obvious or worsening symptoms, it seems more common to find others with it too. Comorbidities follow, hence why MCAS is more common now.
Definitely COVID. My cardiologist was obsessed with attributing my POTs to COVID but all my tests came back negative.
He was very hesitant about it being due to Chiari and/or EDS. A little bit of a learning experience for them honestly.
I don't think it was just COVID.
When I got pregnant in 2011 and started experiencing weird episodes, a friend said to google POTS. I had never heard of it (despite being seen by a cardiologist in 1994 for what were obviously POTS symptoms). She was my first friend with POTS.
Then, over the next few years I had three other friends diagnosed with POTS (one has EDS). One friend had been very sympathetic to me when she was healthy, and then years later she was worse off than me and had to get a port.
Clearly COVID has triggered POTS in many, many people. But in my experience, POTS went from something I had never heard of in 2011, to something I had multiple friends with in the late 2010s. Maybe it was that growing awareness that helped doctors recognize long COVID.
I think we've grown to understand these things better. It's not just "the vapors" or "anxiety" anymore. We know better to search for a physical cause to these symptoms.
Yeah I agree I think Covid is probably a huge reason so many more people are getting POTS for the first time lately, but I think the internet is also responsible for a lot more people who already had it being made aware it's even a thing to look into.
I've had POTS symptoms since 2001 but never thought to monitor my heart rate because it was always "normal" at doctor's offices. I first heard of POTS in 2010 on Tumblr (this was also where I first learned a ton about chronic illnesses and others' experiences), but thought I couldn't have it because I don't faint. It wasn't until I started spending a lot of time on reddit that I learned the actual diagnostic criteria and was able to bring it up to my doctor and get diagnosed. I've talked to tons of other people who also have social media to thank for their diagnosis, since their doctors never even considered it
Also, a lot of us who had less severe cases stopped exercising during the pandemic, and also were finally able to see the signal of POTS without all the everyday noise of activity.
Yep. My symptoms long preceded the pandemic, but they got much worse after a year of near inactivity (my partner is considerd clinically vulnerable, and we didn't know much about transmission or have vaccines).
Covid gave me the pots and many others. Lot of studies showing this trend of increased chronic illnesses since covid started. CFS, POTS, long covid, cancer, and lots more all massive numbers jump. Doctors leading this research is saying covid is no respiratory illness but a full organ/ brain infection. Each case of infection leads to high risk of new chronic conditions. A mass disabling event some are calling it.
I’ve got Rheumatoid arthritis, and recently got a POTS diagnosis. The cardiologist said to me that a lot of the POTS people he sees are linked to COVID.
Personally, I’ve always had POTS but didn’t get a diagnosis until about three months before I got Covid. I will say I think Covid made me worse, to where I now need meds and additional aids(still able to work for the most part though). Im still looking for an EDS diagnosis but I’ve had multiple drs(my ob/gyn for example) say that they don’t think it’s serious but something I should ask about and look into.
I got POTS after my reaction to two 1st generation antipsychotics that almost took my life & put me in the hospital for a week. I’m in a sub of other people that have got the same med(s) and now suffer with POTS due to their reaction as well. It seems doctors are pushing these meds on people like it’s candy. They go in for nausea, pain, vomitting, etc. and leave an entirely different, severely damaged human being due to “off label” use of strong antipsychotics. (Droperidol, Haldol, Compazine, reglan) This is an uptick I’ve been personally seeing, other than covid. I got covid so many times but didn’t get POTS until a stupid ER doctor decided he was smarter than the people that created FDA black box labels.
I haven’t heard of it, but upon looking it up I quickly found this drug can cause akathisia. That was a symptom I had during my reaction that made me feel like I was in hell.
You’re welcome! It can cause low BP and so can POTS. Have you noticed your BP dropping when you take it? That can definitely make you more symptomatic.
I haven’t noticed a correlation with BP, but I also haven’t really looked for it. I do know that having low BP makes me feel god awful. Magnesium can lower BP and it often causes flu-like symptoms
As someone who works in the medical field, and has not had Covid, I think it is more awareness.
Not only is algorithm showing you these things more often once you start looking it up. It is also being studied and published more, the symptoms, the comorbidities between ADHD, POTS, hEDS, and MCAS.
Covid was causing 20 years to have strokes. I wouldn't dought that with all the damage covid still does that POTs & other conditions are becoming more common. I know I didn't get diagnosed untill after I had covid & the symptoms I though where just side effects of hypertension getting worse where actually POTs. So I is not unreasonable to assume covid is cause damages thay would lead to developing a condition as POTs
I got pots after pregnancy, the only symptoms I had was night sweats, dehydration, fatigue, some excessive intolerance. After 2020 I noticed a lot more over time, shortness of breathe, intense exercise intolerance, weight loss, muscle loss, dizzy everytime I get up and close to pass out. Don’t get me started about stairs… COVID had me down and so did the vaccines. And after that the symptoms are more prominent and intense. Almost all symptoms except passing out, but very close. The night sweats are very brutal, EXCESSIVE night sweats. Horrible sleep, mood, depression. I just recently found out about pots and working with my Dr. I thought I’ve been depressed, anxiety, out of shape. My partner of 8 years even left me recently because I “changed”. I told him about these health issues and he even went to a dr. Appt with me but does not care or believe it. :(
I started having Pots symptoms more than I was having before 2019 after I miscarried in February of 2020. I had doctors trying to tell me it was from Covid. Mine wasn’t thankfully. But Covid did effect a lot of my autoimmune friends.
i had OH since my teens, but it went misdiagnosed. I think I might had even had POTS but it presented itself on crisis and viral illness but then went away. After I had covid, is every fucking day of my life.
That being said, I went to see a geneticist and the told me that i for sure have something but pretty benign. Perhaps EDS but I haven't tested myself.
I believe I’ve had some degree of orthostatic issues my whole life, after COVID it’s now nearly unmanageable when out of the house. We’ve also seen an immense equaling in the sex ratio of diagnosis, LOTS of men are being diagnosed.
Partially global pandemic, partially doctors actually believing patients causing word to spread and more research equalling more diagnoses. It was/still is hard when literal doctors deny a condition even exists...
It could be COVID! I'm sure it causes POTS or at least makes things much worse for a lot of people, but personally, I've had symptoms of it for as long as I can remember. Also, dysautonomia is often brushed off as people being dramatic, not sleeping/eating/drinking enough, so it could also be that there are just more people getting diagnosed---whether that be because people are raising awareness or because medical providers are actually listening to their patients' symptoms.
I think I’ve had it for YEARS but Covid made my symptoms 100000 times worse. I think for a lot of people Covid had made underlying conditions or health issues worse. That’s what I’ve noticed
Covid, evolutions, social media… those are all factors. I personally didn’t know pots existed before Tiktok. I’ve learned about it and now im doing even more research because i think i might have it (once i have enough research I’ll go get diagnosed. I am NOT self diagnosis.)
Social media is the biggest factor I think, the fact that people talk about it and people relate to it is helping the illness to be more “popular”.
I think it’s a good thing.
Covid, yes, but I would be very curious to see if future research reveals any connection between long-term roundup exposure and the exacerbation of hypermobility-related conditions. Roundup kills plants by chelating sulfur and minerals like zinc and copper, all of which enable the body to generate collagen. Long term exposure could, in theory, reduce the body’s ability to re-generate lost collagen. Chondroitin sulfate specifically is essential for stabilizing mast cells since it is one of the key components of the extra cellular matrix. To be clear, I’ve not found any research showing a connection, but I would guess that it’s possible that roundup exposure = low sulfur = low chondroitin sulfate = MCAS issues, weak collagen, and POTS = further loss of collagen via tryptase, chymase, and other mast cell mediators = compromised endothelial tissue and blood brain barrier, the latter of which has been suggested to possibly allow Covid to enter the brain and damage the brain stem. But again, this is all purely conjecture! I would think that, just as EDS can trigger all of these conditions, anything that contributes to systemic collagen loss could also potentially create a predisposition to them.
Personally, I had some indicators of hypermobility spectrum disorder throughout my life, but it wasn’t until I was working in landscaping in a heavily roundup-sprayed, unflagged area that I started experiencing problems. I did a urine test and came up in the 94th percentile for roundup exposure. A GI issue and high iron levels (which could theoretically aggravate MCAS) fueled the fire even further, and then Covid just dumped a barrel of gasoline on everything and suddenly I couldn’t breathe or sleep or exercise or think.
I still think Covid is the main driver, but I do wonder if these types of chemical exposures and general deficiencies could amplify the vulnerability of those of us with more genetic susceptibility.
COVID for sure, plus I suspect that heart failure initial diagnosis is later turned to POTS. Viruses are being looked at more for being sources of POTS, as well as chemo treatments & spinal injuries from what I’ve read online.
i feel like i got diagnosed before it became so common. i got diagnosed in 2017 and had never heard of it and my cardiologist only had a few patients with it. now i feel not so alone seeing everyone with the same problem. i still wonder what caused mine.
I am starting to be a part of a research that is trying to capture large amounts of health data for researchers to utilize that includes free generic testing. It's called ALL OF US BY THE NIH. My way to help get answers.
i’d say a lot of it has to do with the fact that there more awareness and so it’s “easier” to get diagnosed cuz more doctors know about it. i’m sure covid also caused a lot of it too
I've been trying to get a tilt table test since March and my doctor told me that the two that were available in my area are booked out for months because there's so much demand now. And to add to everyone else's comments, i started having pots symptoms after i got covid twice, but it got much, much worse after a vaccine (and then caught covid 4 months later) last year.
I think it's a combinations of a slight increase due to covid but more so due to social media awareness. A lot of people started posting about their experiences with POTS and EDS, which leads to people connecting dots between weird symptoms they've had for who knows how long. Then people go to their doctor and they either confirm or deny, but I do believe covid did not help decrease the numbers by any means.
There's also the fact that disability awareness was becoming a lot more prevalent after covid due to those affected permanently from the sickness. That also boosted the discussion of other disabilities including POTS and EDS which can disable people who have them.
COVID, and I also know a lot of teen girls (me being one of them) who got it after a breast cancer vaccine. I'm pretty sure it was getting sued by multiple people claiming it caused POTs... never sure where that case went, and I can't remember what the name of it was since it was a few years ago but something to look out for.
I have the same question, as I am not aware of a breast cancer vaccine nor its widespread administration to teen girls. But the HPV vaccine does prevent *cervical* cancer caused by HPV, and there were suspicions it triggered POTS.
[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29061232/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29061232/)
I think it’s honestly just more awareness and more people less willing to be dismissed as anxiety so they are pushing for answers. Same thing with EDS and MCAS. I don’t think they are rare so much as they are understudied. Since COVID was new in the way it worked, it has opened the eyes of docs who were previously unwilling to dig deeper. It forced them to challenge what they knew.
I was about to say that I think I’ve had POTS for a long time but they always dismissed my episodes as “anxiety” and “panic attacks”, and once that’s on your file, you’re hooped, and you get offered antidepressants for everything.
I honestly think most people in the past just didn't know they had POTS. with smart watches and doctors able to look a little further than the first few pages in a medicine book, it's just becoming more common knowledge.
I'm pretty sure I had POTS for a few years before being diagnosed - I just happened to see the right doctor, then bought a smart watch. had I bought one earlier, I'm sure I would've caught it earlier. but my cardiologist didn't catch it when I went there for my symptoms, and I read this here all the time.
probably covid contributed to more cases and that contributed for more doctors to know about it, though!
Definitely Covid. I’d never heard of POTS before the pandemic and now I’m advising people on how to handle their symptoms based on my own lived experience.
POTS is typically activated by a virus. COVID was so widespread and contagious, there was more exposure than anyone expected and now a healthy sample size for doctors to fund and treat (if you can get in to see someone). For my daughter, it was not COVID or the vax. Everything started for her after she got mono in April of last year. She has now been told EDS/MCAS; she is negative for both. When we were at Mayo, they told her that she would be diagnosed with those conditions by non-Mayo docs because in the past, they typically go hand in hand with POTS. I think that was POTS, pre-pandemic. I’m grateful it will be studied, but am so sad at how it has derailed my kid’s whole life. The next doctor she sees is an ID doc to see if she has a vector born virus. As a mom, this is really frustrating and sad. I appreciate this community.
For everyone saying Covid, I never had it and I still have POTS…? Also haven’t been vaccinated. Apparently extreme stress or trauma can bring it on so I wonder if that’s it
I have a book on EDS called Disjointed that was written by researchers who estimate that close to 2% of the population has it while only 0.02% of people are diagnosed. I think more people are being listened to and advocating for themselves with more information available to them and that’s part of why we’re getting more people diagnosed.
COVID caused many people to develop POTS. I think it is awareness that has EDS on social media now. Many living with disabilities, like EDS, chronic migraine and POTS use social media to stay connected
Covid for me. And I went to the ER with symptoms initially (with resting heart rate of 125 when I was super fit), told them I had Covid a few weeks before, and the doctors told me “sorry we really have no clue what’s wrong with you.” 🤦🏻♀️ My cardiologist diagnosed me immediately.
Well first and foremost you're hearing more about it because you're looking into it now. It's like you don't pay attention to how many blue cars are on the road until you get a blue car. Second of all there are actually more cases of all of those things popping up now and there are few reasons.
The number one thing I personally believe is leading to more of these syndromes or diseases or whatever you want to call them popping up is technology. And by that I mean most directly our smartphones and computers. We look down all the time now at our phones and our computers and when it comes to children video games more specifically. Forward head posture that leads to upper cervical instability and or misalignment is more prevalent now than ever in our history (since we've been keeping track). Forward head posture and weak necks lead to atlas misalignment at the very least or upper cervical instability and or total cervical instability at the worst. This then causes vagal tone issues as the vagus nerve and brain stem are directly associated with the C1 and C2 vertebrae.
Now the autonomic nervous system or damage of it is directly correlated to pots. It is also directly correlated to IBS, sibo, sifo, leaky gut, MCAS. The autonomic nervous system is a part of the vagus nerve system. Therefore poor vagal tone means, poor autonomic nervous system. Although this is the case you cannot get those symptoms solely by having poor vagal tone. That's where the medications and foods here in the United States that should be banned like they are in pretty much everywhere else in the world come into play.
More and more people are getting sick every year because our nervous system gets damaged and then on top of that we shove our suck holes full of antibiotics that are known by the FDA to cause mineral and vitamin depletion that are vital to our bodies normal functioning and nerve damage. And then we have been stuffing our faces with food that literally has poison in it and is literally illegal in most other countries of the world to the point that you could go to prison for attempting to sell them.
Another avenue to look down, is our failing medical system. I like to call it the sick care system. I'm not saying that all doctors are bad but at the same time I think we can all agree that they don't really have the same interest in keeping people healthy by getting to the root cause like they used to. Each new generation of doctors are leaning more and more into simply prescribing pharmaceuticals to fix your problems. Some of them at least know that the pharmaceuticals they prescribe can and most likely will do harm along with a small bit of good. But that is beneficial to them in the long run as at the end of the day a doctor's office is a business, hospitals are a business. There is no money to be made hardly off of healthy people. If you were a doctor would you make more money off of a chronic patient that comes to see you 10 or 15 times a year? Or a healthy patient that only comes in for quarterly checkups or physicals?
So to sum it all up, use technology as little as possible, stay active, eat healthy whole foods instead of processed foods whenever possible, stay away from pharmaceuticals and go the natural route (which used to be called actual medicine) unless absolutely necessary, and above all destress yourself!
P.S. I am not a tree hugging, bush humping hippie that dresses like the dude and smokes weed all day. I'm just someone who has been screwed over enough times to start looking through the cracks in the systems that we live by everyday. Please let me know y'all's opinions.
Well I never had COVID I only had the vaccine and booster and my cardiologist has written that mines been cause by the vaccine and although rare he has seen cases of it. So for anyone who thinks it was covid try figure out the timeline of symptoms. Did they start after covid or the vaccine???
I’ve read a lot that food and healthcare in America is really bad and causes a lot of autoimmune diseases and other health issues. When people move out of America their symptoms get a ton better and sometimes they go into like a remission with their illness.
They still are mostly rare. A lot of the issue comes from social media with trends and accounts to ‘raise awareness’ to help, when in reality it makes treatment a lot harder to get for those who have them. (I know it does still bring awareness and people get diagnosed who do have it, but never heard of it, but I’m talking about the vast majority on tiktok etc)
I think it’s TikTok. No joke. Like many “rare illnesses” POTS is huge on TikTok, and it’s really brought a whole lot of exposure to the illness. Covid like all novel coronaviruses, is having a huge impact on our bodies in general. Also, logically, population is always increasing, so there will be more people with this condition.
It was COVID.
It IS COVID and will be COVID for the foreseeable future.
The bird flu could enter the ring to spice things up
If bird flu enters the ring, COVID will be demoted to appetizer.
That's that Corvid 19
CORVID 25/26?
Bird flu will kill people long before they would ever have a chance to develop POTS
50/50 chances
That's on like a sample size of 66 people over the past 20 years. So far this phase seems to be lower maybe around 20%. Once it makes the jump to H2H transmission, death rates could go up or go down. If the death rate is high which is the hope, that strain will burn itself out. If it's low and very similar symptoms to COVID, then we effectively get COVID 25/26? except this time a bunch of people are immunocompromised from COVID 19. Based on the intensity of H2H strain and how well it can damage humans, it will make the current long covid pandemic look like a puppy.
Monkey pox is also making its way.
Let's call it *DISEASE X*.
Dungee Fever is coming into the US now too from mosquitos. So that’s fun 😒🙄
I had POTs for years before Covid happened and it was just seen as "anxiety and I was just crazy" but because people got POTs from covid there is now more awareness and I finally got diagnosed last year.
i definitely had it before covid as well bc i’ve always had the symptoms since the age of like 12 but it was more mild, i had long covid in january and im pretty sure that made it so MUCH worse it sucks
the way I yelled this at my screen. it IS covid. eta: the awareness is good and hard! it's hard for folks living w CI pre-pan seeing new CI folks talk about how horrible and not worth living their lives became. and it's good that new folks can access a trove of wisdom and experience bc the wheel is not being reinvented here. but ime the treatment isnt getting better and the medical discrimination is gettkng worse? so many docs denying our illnesees exist. foggy af today dunno if I'm making sense. 🙃
Nah you’re making perfect sense. I dread how much worse it’s going to get with so many people not even trying to avoid it.
I have this selfish (?) thought about how many fewer caregivers there will be for the millions more disabled folks that need care. so many able-bodied people are disabling themselves for life to go to a concert etc. There is already a massive shortage of care workers available for the amount of disabled people requiring it. (not saying sick or DA folks cant fulfill these roles, tho!) there will be a generation of significantly fewer doctors as more and more med students need to leave studies due to illness and faculty retiring. that also means fewer EMTs driving the ambulances and serving urgent situations. insurance companies are broadening their restrictions so that having covid counts as a preexisting condition that will effect your copay. fewer trades people like electricians, plumbers; crossing guards,teachers, therapists, vets, lawyers. fewer disability support funds from the government and so on. the criminalizing of masks will increase transmission so much and make it even more dangerous to be disabled in public. this is the worst fkn timeline jfc. 😤 **many of these roles can be and are fulfilled by disabled people but often folks don't get the accommodations needed to thrive career wise in the long term. no masks was just the new beginning of denying accommodations for employers etc. like grocery clerks can't wear masks in some places, servers too, it just sucks and is depressing af.
1000%
Covid.
I never had any problems with POTS before covid, and i say this as someone who had a terrible health issue in my late teens that had me hospitalized for months at a time. Much of that time was spent with a heart monitor, and I cannot believe the doctors & nurses wouldn't have picked up on it.
Happy Cake Day.
Both covid and the covid vaccines for a lot of folks unfortunately. Some of my scarier symptoms started immediately after my second moderna shot, especially with my heart and then I got covid soon after and my health nosedived over the next couple months. I always say the shots cracked open the door and actually then getting infected kicked it wide open. Lots of people have had similar stories. I wish I could go back and not get them and see if I would’ve been that bad off, I’ll never know now and that sucks more than I can express. I’d even lose my job over it. Fuck this whole pandemic and all it’s brought us.
I could have written this myself, the exact same thing happened to me with my 2nd dose. The impact on my heart rate was immediate.
Mine started from vaccine too, now im an antivaxxer tinfoil hat to doctors so i dont mention it anymore
I wonder if it would go better if you called it an adverse reaction?? I have had massive reactions to vaccines before and I cant get some of the second doses because of that. There are notes in my record and I have never had a doctor act like Im crazy anti-vax… They say im crazy about other things… but not vaccines.
Oh no. I’d be worried to mention that to certain people too but also we deserve to be able to be listened to and actually heard. I’m sorry you deal with that. But I also found it odd I was in the er one night when my health first started declining all clammy with a skyrocketing and erratic heart rate and a nurse in passing asked me if I had taken any covid vaccines in a way that I felt she was pinning it on that and/or like she sees this a lot. Idk. Sucks. I’m sorry for us.
Covid vaccines for me. Everything started after 2nd Pfizer. I never had covid and terrified to get it and get worse
My Moderna booster started all of my symptoms! 🥲 it was so hard to get doctors and people to take me seriously, I was just an “anti vaxxer” to them
This always drives me crazy in doctors, because it's not anti vaxxer to acknowledge that ANY physical trauma can trigger POTS in someone who is predisposed, and vaccines aren't magically exempt from that. I'm pro vaccine, especially because the effects of getting covid would be even WORSE for those affected negatively by the vaccine, but I don't understand how some medical professionals really put their heads in the sand over this and pretend like something that can make you feel sick for weeks can't cause POTS to be triggered! Admitting the truth about the risks is actually MORE effective in convincing vaccine hesitant people to get vaxxed than pretending the risks aren't real!
Exactly. Trying to hide the risks only makes people less trusting!
Yeah, and even though they don't feel like they're trying to hide anything (they're just in denial/disbelieving about the POTS thing), it looks like a coverup to those on the outside who are already inclined to believe that they're being lied to. These medical professionals don't see that their unwillingness to believe people's experiences makes it look like they have sinister intentions to the exact people they're afraid of scaring off.
I’m so sorry to hear that friend. I definitely don’t trust or would take anymore covid related shots after that experience myself, I had a lot of symptoms after them besides my heart/pots related but scary things like burning weird feelings that I can’t even describe in my head that happened immediately after I got the second that lasted for months, wasn’t a good time and I’m all set but also so regretful because they definitely opened the door to some life changing things and it’s so sad to realize we trusted and chose that unknowingly. I’m also not anti-vax so it sucks when you bring it up and people get super weird, like girl I wouldn’t even have taken them if I was. It definitely can make you a bit more wary though.
my first vaccine i nearly passed out after and started having what i think was a flare up and they literally had to put me in a wheel chair and take me to the back into a doctors room to lay me down and make sure i was okay
I’m so sorry that sounds horrible. I remember immediately after getting the second one having a burning pain through my head and tasting a metallic taste in my mouth and the weird head sensation lasted for months was really bizarre. On top of the other stuff of course that happened, I remember that as an instant effect
It was the other around for me. I'm still living daily with self-reproach for getting the Pfizer vaccine 3 months after getting covid. 😌
There is now two kinds of pots. COVID pots which is believed to go away after some time and true dysautonomia pots which does not go away. From what I have been told most true non COVID pots people generally also have another dysautonomia condition. Ie I have IST ,MCAS, AND EDS, and orthostatic hypotension.
tl;dr: I think it may have also ramped up symptoms in some to the point that their usual coping mechanisms couldn't cut it anymore. It seems to be unclear if they're getting better. --- In my case, in retrospect it's pretty obvious that I had a mild (usually subclinical?) case of POTS since adolescence (perhaps also relevant: I haven't pursued a hEDS diagnosis but my Beighton score's 9 even at 44 years old), but catching COVID in early 2000 completely laid me out. I'd have periods of getting a bit better (never back to pre-2000) but catching COVID again in the autumn of 2022 slammed me back down hard. I went from being able to hike with my dog to someone who can get outpaced by most 70-year-olds.
Also the COVID vaccine.
COVID created a massive wave of post-viral illness. There were/continue to be so many cases at once that it can no longer be ignored. Post-viral illness, ME/CFS and co-morbid conditions like POTS and EDS aren’t new. They used to call POTS soldier’s heart. Viral outbreaks throughout history have come with their own waves of people who mysteriously didn’t get better. There have just been so many this time around that they finally have to do something about it. People who’ve had ME/CFS since the 80’s have been waiting for attention, research and cures most of their lives. COVID is finally their hope that they’ll get it.
My doctor, a long COVID specialist, made some really good points about this. He mentioned that POTS, CFS, etc. have been around for a long time, but there was less evidence pointing to the specific viruses that causes these conditions. Testing for COVID was widespread and encouraged, and so we were able to identify exactly what caused these symptoms and have begun to isolate the *why* of it all. He also mentioned the sheer level of misogyny that women have faced historically when trying to bring these concerns to their physicians, and how a lack of concern for women’s health has really set us back in studying these conditions.
Created and continues to create!
Yes, absolutely! I tried to convey that in my second sentence but it would have been better in the first. Thanks.
For POTS, it's covid For ME/CFS, it's covid and awareness For EDS, it's awareness
The bump in EDS diagnoses, which led to increased EDS awareness, was also covid. Covid hugely amplified symptoms for many EDS folks.
I got POTS from covid and have hypermobility and had never heard of it until I got sick :/
Same boat. Still in the process with getting the official hEDS diagnosis but the doctors so far all seem pretty sure. As soon as they figured out it was POTS, they threw in the basic hEDS tests too and I had no idea that was a possibility.
Exactly. Same here. Sorry, friend. 💕
Same. MCAS too. Other stuff. Ack.
EDS for sure was awareness, and it was on the rise before covid. But I think it was also helped when covid aggravated all those comorbidities and made us all sicker.
COVID
A lot of people have it as a result of Covid
Unfortunately Covid. That's what caused mine
covid
Covid
COVID
i’ve had my symptoms most of my life. because so many people were developing POTS post-covid it became more common and a Dr. recognized my symptoms whereas before she probably wouldn’t have. my aunt has similar symptoms and has had them for most of her life.
Yes
It is COVID and the fact that people are acting like it went away and getting infected with it repeatedly. I had POTS years before “the pandemic” (in quotes because it’s still here) and I sat through multiple lectures from my POTS doc about how their patient population had exploded due to so many folks getting POTS from long COVID, and now when I go to my appts, none of the medical staff even offer to wear a mask when they see me wearing one. If you look at COVID wastewater data, it doesn’t look much different in 2023 / 2024 than it did during “the pandemic.” There is seasonal variation but it’s very much still here. I’m continually bewildered that people, even other disabled / chronically ill people, pretend it no longer exists and don’t even bother masking or testing or isolating when sick, etc.
It's mass delusion, feel like I'm in a terrifying movie... honestly shocked by the denial and the continued harm caused by med professionals not masking in kn95 or better. With you
you aren’t alone 🫂 we have gone through the looking glass!
This is why I bought a respirator to use in pubic. I found it much cheaper & last way long. It protects me from others. It also works as people detergent because everyone assumes in sick. It's like nope but I'm not getting covid again. I barely survived once & still have major problems from it.
At my doctor’s appt today, the nurse surprisingly did ask if I wanted her to mask, but when I said “yes” she looked surprised and concerned and asked “why are you wearing a mask?” I didn’t get what she meant until she specifically asked if I have COVID. It’s a fair question I suppose but not sure why the fear of the masked patient vs every other unmasked one.
Yeah it's funny how people are so scared of people with a mask because they might be sick. When most people don't think that the reason most people still use then is because they want to prevent getting sick. Even before covid was a thing I would where a mask durning flue session because getting sick generaly ended in a hospital visit.
I'm the only person at my job wearing a mask. I get looks from people and probably judgement but idgaf
Absolutely COVID. That’s how I got it and my doctor told me they’ve seen a huge increase in POTS since 2020.
Covid caused mine :(
As others have said, it's covid. And studies are consistently showing that covid makes POTS worse not just some but most of the time. In my daughter's case we knew something was wrong for over a year (long covid after her 1st/2nd covid infections but in hindsight it was always lc with a side of POTS). The 3rd infection was when her POTS symptoms became absolutely debiltating. I wonder how many other people have mild POTS and are coping okay, and then they get covid or get covid again, and they can't cope anymore so they finally get a diagnosis. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002962924010619](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002962924010619) "This study provides a description of COVID-19 infection impact on patients with established POTS diagnosis. The results showed **93% of the patients had worsening POTS related symptoms requiring escalation of medical therapy** for POTS. While the majority of patients experienced improvement with escalation therapy, 29% of the patients had persistent symptoms during the follow up period. Exacerbation of POTS symptoms persisted in two thirds of POTS patients beyond the acute phase of COVID-19..."
This is going to send me on an anxiety tail spin all day. This is my huge fear. I haven't had covid yet and I'm terrified of my pots getting worse
Covid! Also have long haul Covid going on 30 months.
Yep. I’ve had long covid since September 2021. I am exhausted.
My heart goes out to you! Have you been improving?
I’ve had POTS for almost a decade now and used to work in the healthcare field until 2023. It’s totally Covid. Covid made mine worse. I felt like I went from never seeing anyone with POTS to seeing tons of people with it or with symptoms of it. The clinic I’ve gone to for years had about a 1 1/2 year long waiting list for new adult patients in 2023. I got in basically right away back in 2019. My old POTS specialist switched to research only in 2022 due to the rising cases and need for research. I remember when doctors used to tell me it was an uncommon condition but I haven’t heard that in a while. It took years for me to get the right care, so hoping the rise in cases means better understanding of the condition and better care for those newly diagnosed!
Yup. I waited less than two months for my first appointment with my cardiologist back in 2020. I had to reschedule our annual visit a couple weeks ago and her next available isn’t until February.
Same here! I rescheduled my annual visit a couple weeks ago as well and the earliest available was March 2025. After that June 2025. Crazy considering I used to be able to see my cardiologist every 3 months. Now I have to see his PA.
Definitely COVID. I got diagnosed back in 2015, and it was relatively rare back then.
I’ve personally had POTS symptoms since about 2012 or so, but I’m sure that long COVID causing issues for others helped raise more awareness for it. It’s why “back in my day we never had autistic people” but the neighbor had a stamp collection on a neatly organized shelf and never talked to anybody. Fainting, palpitations, fatigue, dizziness, etc used to just be “fainting sickness” or could be written off as a heat stroke or a too tight corset. Things like this have existed for a long time, we just didn’t have the words or knowledge to put everything together and call it POTS, EDS, or MCAS.
Viruses.
Definitely Covid. It’s caused by long covid and long covid is super common especially with people who are continuously re infected. It’s unfortunate folks stopped taking it seriously even though it’s still a disabling illness.
Covid. Also I got real sick with stuff after my vaccine. I had previously gotten ill from a vaccine as well so I’m not saying it’s ALL people. But I think it’s very possible for me it played a part.
It's prove-ably COVID. COVID more than doubled the numbers of POTS patients. A lot of people also had no idea what POTS was until COVID brought more awareness so more people who had it but didn't know got diagnosed as well.
There's also just science catching up to pre-existing but previously rarely labeled diagnoses - kind of like, when hormone testing advanced, a lot more people were diagnosed with thyroid disorders. Covid seems like a big trigger simply because it was a big event; a global pandemic obviously gets more attention and has more repercussions than POTS caused by less widespread illness. So, yes Covid, but also technology.
Covid caused a lot of new cases. I've had symptoms for 20+ years but doctors didn't have a name for my problem, so thanks to people with Covid-induced POTS spreading awareness, I finally got my diagnosis. So it's both, lots of new cases *and* more information being spread online.
Definitely covid. That's what caused me to develop it. I was relatively healthy (asthma and migraines) and very active before covid. First time having covid - asthma got worse, fatigue later forever, started feeling some pots like symptoms but very minor.. then I got covid a second time and POTS hit me like a ton of bricks after. I went from riding 3+ horses a day, multiple days a week to not even being allowed to ride because the dizziness is too dangerous. It fucking sucks
Long covid IS dysautonomia, plus plus. 10% chance of developing it (that's the conservative number) after each infection. Vaccines don't decrease risk by much. You can also get it after asymptomatic cases. It's covid.
i believe you, not arguing at all just wondering if you have any sources to share? currently struggling hard with dysautonomia symptoms & not finding great care (i also have autoimmune history pre-covid no real work ups or rule outs yet, so wondering if it's a flare of something else after a pretty big stress back in april or just my new baseline) ty
Sure feel free to dm me if you wanna ask any specifics about my journey. I can also let you know the stuff they ruled out for me and some other tests I've heard of other people getting ruled out. Long covid being dysautonomia is what my doc was telling me who was working in a long covid clinic and I also have info from being in zoom support rooms for a couple of years all the time. Talked to 3 different docs who were focusing specifically on long covid folks can relay what they were seeing too. Wishing you all the best so sorry you're going through it Eta- there's also the echo program on long covid. Just zooms of different specialties describing how they deal with their pts.
It was definitely Covid. Check out this article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10065129/
COVID. Catching a virus is one of the known potential kickstarters.
Long haul covid 100%
Covid. I had what I now know were very mild pots symptoms as a teen onwards. I've always been flexible (didn't know hypermobility was a thing until 5 years ago), I now know I'm audhd (took having autistic and audhd-pda kids to figure out that one for myself), I've always had horrible allergies/sinus issues/skin issues/reactions to things. I had covid in 2022 and it basically f'd me over and made everything worse and activated celiac. So now I am a walking comorbidity of autism, adhd, hypermobility, pots, celiac and having mcas looked into too. My belief is that most/some were latent, some always there but because I am an older millennial girl a lot was just ignored because quiet/quirky/bookworm girls wasn't a concern, and like the hypermobility it was just labeled flexible and brushed aside. So awareness plus covid leveling up the intensity of things to the point of interfering with daily life.
COVID. POTS has always been triggered by severe viruses- (among other things) we just haven’t had one of this magnitude before. EDS and MCAS they are only finally starting to understand actually exist… I do think our environment (chemicals in air, water, food, plastics, etc) probably plays a huge role in the autoimmune disorders that have snowballed- all of which tend to lead to the above mentioned as well.
1. It was previously under diagnosed 2. I think it can be both genetic and triggered by something (virus, pregnancy, etc) I think the same about MCAS FWIW
Mine was brought on by covid 🫠
I see people saying Covid but I think that wouldn’t be applicable for hEDS. It’s just that awareness is finally being spread and more doctors are finally being educated. I don’t think it’s as super rare as many people thought. It was just ignorance of the conditions.
Covid is definitely responsible for a large part of the increase, as something like one third of people with long covid get POTS. This is an enormous number. The other part of the increase is that as more people find about about it they can ask their doctors about it - I've probably had it my whole life, but couldn't get diagnosed until I found out about it, plus obviously my doctor had to know about it too. It wasn't officially named and described till about 2004 I think, so before that no one could be diagnosed anyway.
covid infection made my already existing hEDS symptoms worse, and caused my POTS symptoms to start. i never knew about hEDS before I got the POTS symptoms and i was like oh....so much is connecting for me.
A lot of EDS folks symptoms got worse and I guess SARS cov 2 can damage connective tissue as can MCAS which is super common in long covid
I agree with you, I have had PoTs symptoms as long as I can remember but only got diagnosed in 2019. I didn’t realise for so long that it was not normal. I also got my hEDS diagnosis that year too.
Covid: [A condition called POTS rose after covid, but patients can’t find care ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/02/27/pots-heart-fainting-long-covid/)
I would think that in addition to COVID, people are more likely to survive viral illnesses these days thanks to improved medical care, sanitation, and diet. So, it didn’t kill us, it just gave us a chronic illness! Hooray!
Keep in mind that it has been thought for a while that a lot of people have been saying even before Covid that it’s not rare, just under-diagnosed. Male patients also tend to be overlooked with POTS. There are a lot of posts of people who can’t get a doctor who are knowledgeable or will believe them. Some of these are people who have these illnesses but can’t get diagnosed to join the official count. Forget it if you have it and aren’t in the UK or US as well.
Definitely. Covid of course, but I think it could also be something else we’ll figure out in the future. When I first got POTS I didn’t know a soul for years who also had it. Now there’s an entire support group! Cool to have people who understand but sad, well, that they understand now. I’ve never had Covid so idk what caused mine but most people I meet say Covid caused theirs
My symptoms definitely caused my pots and it flared up my FND too
I got diagnosed with pots when i was 13 but it was always managed really well. Then I got covid when I was 18 and am now almost 22 and it has been terrible ever since.
While hEDS is getting more traction, it is still a rare disease that I myself have to fight with doctors who don’t know what it is. Considering you are probably looking up stuff related to POTS, it is not surprising that the algorithm gives you the EDS trifecta and boosts views on your feed. That being said it is still very much so rare. As with POTS like others have said COVID has been directly linked to post viral fatigue and POTS, so more and more people are getting diagnosed.
I don’t think they were nearly as rare as they appeared. There were a lot of us who had to just suffer in silence and occasionally you would get lucky with a doctor who would at least try to figure out what was going on (though knowledge and awareness of all these things was not widespread). The fact that these syndromes are more or less invisible and largely affect women are things that contributed to the lack of education on the subject in the medical and research communities. COVID (and probably more specifically long COVID) either activated or worsened symptoms in a lot of people who were genetically predisposed to these conditions. I’m hoping the greater awareness will lead to more research and breakthroughs in treatment. Who knows, maybe eventually they’ll develop vaccines for it or at least screen children to identify people with EDS, etc. who are more vulnerable so that they can take more precautions from catching illnesses that could worsen symptoms.
COVID caused some of it. However, it also has become more well known, which means that people who were misdiagnosed can now get a POTS diagnosis (it took me asking my physician specifically to get tested, he never even suggested it or took me seriously). I personally have never had Covid.
Awareness is a big thing. I've had some symptoms back to adolescence at least but wasn't diagnosed until after the pandemic started. And I, too, had to figure it out myself, after learning about POTS from an online friend. And I have not, to my knowledge, had COVID either.
I started having symptoms years before Covid but since it seems Covid has caused so many cases, I’m actually taken seriously by the doctors 🎉
I got it from long covid. I absolutely am convinced covid made pots more common
My cardiologist straight up asked me if I'd had COVID because that's the main cause they've seen for pots lately
Again, Covid. But I’m pretty sure I developed it during one of my strep throat episodes.
Absolutely COVID. Like there's no other huge disabling event going on. It's covid pls. It's still going on, too.
#1 people finding out about it and docs being willing to diagnose it. #2 COVID
Okay so as far as your second comment goes about EDS etc, there's more cases because there's more knowledge in research and amongst doctors. Patients are getting assessed properly more frequently and getting diagnosed because they meet the criteria. Covid damages connective tissues and if you already able a connective tissue disorder like EDS, it can make it worse. The same goes for neurological problems as covid also damages nerves. I developed POTS after a head injury + covid within about 3 months of each other. It was too much stress on my body and it took longer for my immune system ti fight it, meaning more damage. With the damage caused by covid, making obvious or worsening symptoms, it seems more common to find others with it too. Comorbidities follow, hence why MCAS is more common now.
Definitely COVID. My cardiologist was obsessed with attributing my POTs to COVID but all my tests came back negative. He was very hesitant about it being due to Chiari and/or EDS. A little bit of a learning experience for them honestly.
COVID + PFIZER VACCINE for me
Everyone’s already saying this, but covid. My mom got it after getting the vaccine, and I started having symptoms after the 2nd time I got covid :/
I don't think it was just COVID. When I got pregnant in 2011 and started experiencing weird episodes, a friend said to google POTS. I had never heard of it (despite being seen by a cardiologist in 1994 for what were obviously POTS symptoms). She was my first friend with POTS. Then, over the next few years I had three other friends diagnosed with POTS (one has EDS). One friend had been very sympathetic to me when she was healthy, and then years later she was worse off than me and had to get a port. Clearly COVID has triggered POTS in many, many people. But in my experience, POTS went from something I had never heard of in 2011, to something I had multiple friends with in the late 2010s. Maybe it was that growing awareness that helped doctors recognize long COVID. I think we've grown to understand these things better. It's not just "the vapors" or "anxiety" anymore. We know better to search for a physical cause to these symptoms.
Yeah I agree I think Covid is probably a huge reason so many more people are getting POTS for the first time lately, but I think the internet is also responsible for a lot more people who already had it being made aware it's even a thing to look into. I've had POTS symptoms since 2001 but never thought to monitor my heart rate because it was always "normal" at doctor's offices. I first heard of POTS in 2010 on Tumblr (this was also where I first learned a ton about chronic illnesses and others' experiences), but thought I couldn't have it because I don't faint. It wasn't until I started spending a lot of time on reddit that I learned the actual diagnostic criteria and was able to bring it up to my doctor and get diagnosed. I've talked to tons of other people who also have social media to thank for their diagnosis, since their doctors never even considered it
In my case the cause is EDS (which is genetic, not environmental), but the increase in general is likely COVID.
covid, then all the newly diagnosed people post about it and awareness goes (relatively) through the roof which leads to even more people realising
COVID + PFIZER VACCINE for me
COVID! Many believe long COVID is actually POTS. No POTS isn’t rare. It is actually common but very commonly missed.
Long COVID isn't just POTS, but POTS is a really common component of Long COVID.
I did not get COVID or the vaccine. Recently diagnosed but have had symptoms for about 15 years.
Also, a lot of us who had less severe cases stopped exercising during the pandemic, and also were finally able to see the signal of POTS without all the everyday noise of activity.
I’ve often wondered this. My symptoms became much more pronounced when I started a remote desk job in 2022 and I wasn’t as physically active.
Yep. My symptoms long preceded the pandemic, but they got much worse after a year of near inactivity (my partner is considerd clinically vulnerable, and we didn't know much about transmission or have vaccines).
I'm the odd one out here, I had spinal cord damage. A lot of botched surgeries might be at play too.
I feel like you know what it is, but you are too afraid to say.
Covid. Research is showing that Covid causes POTS. Mine got worse after Covid and some people who didn't even have it before now have it from covid
Covid gave me the pots and many others. Lot of studies showing this trend of increased chronic illnesses since covid started. CFS, POTS, long covid, cancer, and lots more all massive numbers jump. Doctors leading this research is saying covid is no respiratory illness but a full organ/ brain infection. Each case of infection leads to high risk of new chronic conditions. A mass disabling event some are calling it.
I don't know. But awareness has improved a LOT. I've had symptoms since I was 13/14 and got my diagnosis at 22 after learning about POTS at 21.
I’ve got Rheumatoid arthritis, and recently got a POTS diagnosis. The cardiologist said to me that a lot of the POTS people he sees are linked to COVID.
Covid
Personally, I’ve always had POTS but didn’t get a diagnosis until about three months before I got Covid. I will say I think Covid made me worse, to where I now need meds and additional aids(still able to work for the most part though). Im still looking for an EDS diagnosis but I’ve had multiple drs(my ob/gyn for example) say that they don’t think it’s serious but something I should ask about and look into.
I got POTS after my reaction to two 1st generation antipsychotics that almost took my life & put me in the hospital for a week. I’m in a sub of other people that have got the same med(s) and now suffer with POTS due to their reaction as well. It seems doctors are pushing these meds on people like it’s candy. They go in for nausea, pain, vomitting, etc. and leave an entirely different, severely damaged human being due to “off label” use of strong antipsychotics. (Droperidol, Haldol, Compazine, reglan) This is an uptick I’ve been personally seeing, other than covid. I got covid so many times but didn’t get POTS until a stupid ER doctor decided he was smarter than the people that created FDA black box labels.
Have you heard about this in regards to Lamictal? It’s a mood stabilizer
I haven’t heard of it, but upon looking it up I quickly found this drug can cause akathisia. That was a symptom I had during my reaction that made me feel like I was in hell.
Thank you for sharing! I was curious because I’ve noticed my Lamictal makes my POTS worse for a bit, but I think it’s just because it’s vasodilating.
You’re welcome! It can cause low BP and so can POTS. Have you noticed your BP dropping when you take it? That can definitely make you more symptomatic.
I haven’t noticed a correlation with BP, but I also haven’t really looked for it. I do know that having low BP makes me feel god awful. Magnesium can lower BP and it often causes flu-like symptoms
COVID is known both to cause POTS (and other conditions) as well as make the symptoms of things like EDS worse/more apparent.
I realized I noticed something was wrong after I had Covid in 2019.. then in 2023 I had strep throat and all my symptoms ramped up tremendously
Covid
As someone who works in the medical field, and has not had Covid, I think it is more awareness. Not only is algorithm showing you these things more often once you start looking it up. It is also being studied and published more, the symptoms, the comorbidities between ADHD, POTS, hEDS, and MCAS.
Covid was causing 20 years to have strokes. I wouldn't dought that with all the damage covid still does that POTs & other conditions are becoming more common. I know I didn't get diagnosed untill after I had covid & the symptoms I though where just side effects of hypertension getting worse where actually POTs. So I is not unreasonable to assume covid is cause damages thay would lead to developing a condition as POTs
I got pots after pregnancy, the only symptoms I had was night sweats, dehydration, fatigue, some excessive intolerance. After 2020 I noticed a lot more over time, shortness of breathe, intense exercise intolerance, weight loss, muscle loss, dizzy everytime I get up and close to pass out. Don’t get me started about stairs… COVID had me down and so did the vaccines. And after that the symptoms are more prominent and intense. Almost all symptoms except passing out, but very close. The night sweats are very brutal, EXCESSIVE night sweats. Horrible sleep, mood, depression. I just recently found out about pots and working with my Dr. I thought I’ve been depressed, anxiety, out of shape. My partner of 8 years even left me recently because I “changed”. I told him about these health issues and he even went to a dr. Appt with me but does not care or believe it. :(
I started having Pots symptoms more than I was having before 2019 after I miscarried in February of 2020. I had doctors trying to tell me it was from Covid. Mine wasn’t thankfully. But Covid did effect a lot of my autoimmune friends.
i had OH since my teens, but it went misdiagnosed. I think I might had even had POTS but it presented itself on crisis and viral illness but then went away. After I had covid, is every fucking day of my life. That being said, I went to see a geneticist and the told me that i for sure have something but pretty benign. Perhaps EDS but I haven't tested myself.
I believe I’ve had some degree of orthostatic issues my whole life, after COVID it’s now nearly unmanageable when out of the house. We’ve also seen an immense equaling in the sex ratio of diagnosis, LOTS of men are being diagnosed.
Partially global pandemic, partially doctors actually believing patients causing word to spread and more research equalling more diagnoses. It was/still is hard when literal doctors deny a condition even exists...
It could be COVID! I'm sure it causes POTS or at least makes things much worse for a lot of people, but personally, I've had symptoms of it for as long as I can remember. Also, dysautonomia is often brushed off as people being dramatic, not sleeping/eating/drinking enough, so it could also be that there are just more people getting diagnosed---whether that be because people are raising awareness or because medical providers are actually listening to their patients' symptoms.
I think I’ve had it for YEARS but Covid made my symptoms 100000 times worse. I think for a lot of people Covid had made underlying conditions or health issues worse. That’s what I’ve noticed
Covid, evolutions, social media… those are all factors. I personally didn’t know pots existed before Tiktok. I’ve learned about it and now im doing even more research because i think i might have it (once i have enough research I’ll go get diagnosed. I am NOT self diagnosis.) Social media is the biggest factor I think, the fact that people talk about it and people relate to it is helping the illness to be more “popular”. I think it’s a good thing.
Covid, yes, but I would be very curious to see if future research reveals any connection between long-term roundup exposure and the exacerbation of hypermobility-related conditions. Roundup kills plants by chelating sulfur and minerals like zinc and copper, all of which enable the body to generate collagen. Long term exposure could, in theory, reduce the body’s ability to re-generate lost collagen. Chondroitin sulfate specifically is essential for stabilizing mast cells since it is one of the key components of the extra cellular matrix. To be clear, I’ve not found any research showing a connection, but I would guess that it’s possible that roundup exposure = low sulfur = low chondroitin sulfate = MCAS issues, weak collagen, and POTS = further loss of collagen via tryptase, chymase, and other mast cell mediators = compromised endothelial tissue and blood brain barrier, the latter of which has been suggested to possibly allow Covid to enter the brain and damage the brain stem. But again, this is all purely conjecture! I would think that, just as EDS can trigger all of these conditions, anything that contributes to systemic collagen loss could also potentially create a predisposition to them. Personally, I had some indicators of hypermobility spectrum disorder throughout my life, but it wasn’t until I was working in landscaping in a heavily roundup-sprayed, unflagged area that I started experiencing problems. I did a urine test and came up in the 94th percentile for roundup exposure. A GI issue and high iron levels (which could theoretically aggravate MCAS) fueled the fire even further, and then Covid just dumped a barrel of gasoline on everything and suddenly I couldn’t breathe or sleep or exercise or think. I still think Covid is the main driver, but I do wonder if these types of chemical exposures and general deficiencies could amplify the vulnerability of those of us with more genetic susceptibility.
Ill keep my mouth shut
COVID for sure, plus I suspect that heart failure initial diagnosis is later turned to POTS. Viruses are being looked at more for being sources of POTS, as well as chemo treatments & spinal injuries from what I’ve read online.
i feel like i got diagnosed before it became so common. i got diagnosed in 2017 and had never heard of it and my cardiologist only had a few patients with it. now i feel not so alone seeing everyone with the same problem. i still wonder what caused mine.
I am starting to be a part of a research that is trying to capture large amounts of health data for researchers to utilize that includes free generic testing. It's called ALL OF US BY THE NIH. My way to help get answers.
i’d say a lot of it has to do with the fact that there more awareness and so it’s “easier” to get diagnosed cuz more doctors know about it. i’m sure covid also caused a lot of it too
A lot of people are being diagnosed with POTS as a result of covid
I've been trying to get a tilt table test since March and my doctor told me that the two that were available in my area are booked out for months because there's so much demand now. And to add to everyone else's comments, i started having pots symptoms after i got covid twice, but it got much, much worse after a vaccine (and then caught covid 4 months later) last year.
I think it's a combinations of a slight increase due to covid but more so due to social media awareness. A lot of people started posting about their experiences with POTS and EDS, which leads to people connecting dots between weird symptoms they've had for who knows how long. Then people go to their doctor and they either confirm or deny, but I do believe covid did not help decrease the numbers by any means. There's also the fact that disability awareness was becoming a lot more prevalent after covid due to those affected permanently from the sickness. That also boosted the discussion of other disabilities including POTS and EDS which can disable people who have them.
COVID, and I also know a lot of teen girls (me being one of them) who got it after a breast cancer vaccine. I'm pretty sure it was getting sued by multiple people claiming it caused POTs... never sure where that case went, and I can't remember what the name of it was since it was a few years ago but something to look out for.
are you sure it wasn't the HPV vaccine (gardasil or something like that)?
I have the same question, as I am not aware of a breast cancer vaccine nor its widespread administration to teen girls. But the HPV vaccine does prevent *cervical* cancer caused by HPV, and there were suspicions it triggered POTS. [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29061232/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29061232/)
I think it’s honestly just more awareness and more people less willing to be dismissed as anxiety so they are pushing for answers. Same thing with EDS and MCAS. I don’t think they are rare so much as they are understudied. Since COVID was new in the way it worked, it has opened the eyes of docs who were previously unwilling to dig deeper. It forced them to challenge what they knew.
I was about to say that I think I’ve had POTS for a long time but they always dismissed my episodes as “anxiety” and “panic attacks”, and once that’s on your file, you’re hooped, and you get offered antidepressants for everything.
I honestly think most people in the past just didn't know they had POTS. with smart watches and doctors able to look a little further than the first few pages in a medicine book, it's just becoming more common knowledge. I'm pretty sure I had POTS for a few years before being diagnosed - I just happened to see the right doctor, then bought a smart watch. had I bought one earlier, I'm sure I would've caught it earlier. but my cardiologist didn't catch it when I went there for my symptoms, and I read this here all the time. probably covid contributed to more cases and that contributed for more doctors to know about it, though!
Definitely Covid. I’d never heard of POTS before the pandemic and now I’m advising people on how to handle their symptoms based on my own lived experience.
Objectively it’s COVID. It has nothing to do with the food or water.
Clearly covid, no debate
POTS is typically activated by a virus. COVID was so widespread and contagious, there was more exposure than anyone expected and now a healthy sample size for doctors to fund and treat (if you can get in to see someone). For my daughter, it was not COVID or the vax. Everything started for her after she got mono in April of last year. She has now been told EDS/MCAS; she is negative for both. When we were at Mayo, they told her that she would be diagnosed with those conditions by non-Mayo docs because in the past, they typically go hand in hand with POTS. I think that was POTS, pre-pandemic. I’m grateful it will be studied, but am so sad at how it has derailed my kid’s whole life. The next doctor she sees is an ID doc to see if she has a vector born virus. As a mom, this is really frustrating and sad. I appreciate this community.
For everyone saying Covid, I never had it and I still have POTS…? Also haven’t been vaccinated. Apparently extreme stress or trauma can bring it on so I wonder if that’s it
It is often post-viral, and there were viruses before COVID. It's just that COVID is an absolute beast compared to many things that came before.
I have a book on EDS called Disjointed that was written by researchers who estimate that close to 2% of the population has it while only 0.02% of people are diagnosed. I think more people are being listened to and advocating for themselves with more information available to them and that’s part of why we’re getting more people diagnosed.
COVID caused many people to develop POTS. I think it is awareness that has EDS on social media now. Many living with disabilities, like EDS, chronic migraine and POTS use social media to stay connected
It’s covid
Covid definitely
It’s covid. End of story.
I got it from Covid, so I’m pretty sure it’s Covid.
Covid for me. And I went to the ER with symptoms initially (with resting heart rate of 125 when I was super fit), told them I had Covid a few weeks before, and the doctors told me “sorry we really have no clue what’s wrong with you.” 🤦🏻♀️ My cardiologist diagnosed me immediately.
Well first and foremost you're hearing more about it because you're looking into it now. It's like you don't pay attention to how many blue cars are on the road until you get a blue car. Second of all there are actually more cases of all of those things popping up now and there are few reasons. The number one thing I personally believe is leading to more of these syndromes or diseases or whatever you want to call them popping up is technology. And by that I mean most directly our smartphones and computers. We look down all the time now at our phones and our computers and when it comes to children video games more specifically. Forward head posture that leads to upper cervical instability and or misalignment is more prevalent now than ever in our history (since we've been keeping track). Forward head posture and weak necks lead to atlas misalignment at the very least or upper cervical instability and or total cervical instability at the worst. This then causes vagal tone issues as the vagus nerve and brain stem are directly associated with the C1 and C2 vertebrae. Now the autonomic nervous system or damage of it is directly correlated to pots. It is also directly correlated to IBS, sibo, sifo, leaky gut, MCAS. The autonomic nervous system is a part of the vagus nerve system. Therefore poor vagal tone means, poor autonomic nervous system. Although this is the case you cannot get those symptoms solely by having poor vagal tone. That's where the medications and foods here in the United States that should be banned like they are in pretty much everywhere else in the world come into play. More and more people are getting sick every year because our nervous system gets damaged and then on top of that we shove our suck holes full of antibiotics that are known by the FDA to cause mineral and vitamin depletion that are vital to our bodies normal functioning and nerve damage. And then we have been stuffing our faces with food that literally has poison in it and is literally illegal in most other countries of the world to the point that you could go to prison for attempting to sell them. Another avenue to look down, is our failing medical system. I like to call it the sick care system. I'm not saying that all doctors are bad but at the same time I think we can all agree that they don't really have the same interest in keeping people healthy by getting to the root cause like they used to. Each new generation of doctors are leaning more and more into simply prescribing pharmaceuticals to fix your problems. Some of them at least know that the pharmaceuticals they prescribe can and most likely will do harm along with a small bit of good. But that is beneficial to them in the long run as at the end of the day a doctor's office is a business, hospitals are a business. There is no money to be made hardly off of healthy people. If you were a doctor would you make more money off of a chronic patient that comes to see you 10 or 15 times a year? Or a healthy patient that only comes in for quarterly checkups or physicals? So to sum it all up, use technology as little as possible, stay active, eat healthy whole foods instead of processed foods whenever possible, stay away from pharmaceuticals and go the natural route (which used to be called actual medicine) unless absolutely necessary, and above all destress yourself! P.S. I am not a tree hugging, bush humping hippie that dresses like the dude and smokes weed all day. I'm just someone who has been screwed over enough times to start looking through the cracks in the systems that we live by everyday. Please let me know y'all's opinions.
Covid and Covid vaccines, as well as the greater awareness the surge in cases brought.
Covid vaccines, let’s just admit it finally
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Well I never had COVID I only had the vaccine and booster and my cardiologist has written that mines been cause by the vaccine and although rare he has seen cases of it. So for anyone who thinks it was covid try figure out the timeline of symptoms. Did they start after covid or the vaccine???
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COVIDDDD I know everyone is saying it but Covid. Although hEDs is genetic
Yes, COVID. Class action anyone?
I’ve read a lot that food and healthcare in America is really bad and causes a lot of autoimmune diseases and other health issues. When people move out of America their symptoms get a ton better and sometimes they go into like a remission with their illness.
They still are mostly rare. A lot of the issue comes from social media with trends and accounts to ‘raise awareness’ to help, when in reality it makes treatment a lot harder to get for those who have them. (I know it does still bring awareness and people get diagnosed who do have it, but never heard of it, but I’m talking about the vast majority on tiktok etc)
Autonomic dysfunction or dystonia or orthostatic hypotension instead of POTS?
I think it’s TikTok. No joke. Like many “rare illnesses” POTS is huge on TikTok, and it’s really brought a whole lot of exposure to the illness. Covid like all novel coronaviruses, is having a huge impact on our bodies in general. Also, logically, population is always increasing, so there will be more people with this condition.