Pots Exaggerated Response

[Sophia3]

Question, I thought POTS was an exagerrated response of ANS. Autonomic FAILURE or Shy Drager syndrome was a lessoned response.

I know somebody that was told by some ANS expert they would improve as they only had "exaggerated response" not a lessened response. Could somebody here clear this up for me. Granted this person was very ill with a horrible documented sudden illness a few years ago AND IS GETTING BETTER.

I have had POTS (my whole life as I examined things after my 1998 ttt) This person was active and for instance, could blow up balloons.

I could NEVER BLOW UP BALLOONS even as a kid without getting sick headaches or nauseated. Also tried playing harmonica and would get ill. so, anyway, I would like some feedback on this subject and if you have links to articles on this please list or pm me.

I thought all POTS was an exaggerated response. i know when we ruled out Meniere's Disease (after some motion sickness inducing ear tests, I was told my brainstem over reacted to visual stimuli)

Thanks for any feedback.

Soph

Edited July 16, 2008 by MightyMouse
fixed title

[bjt22]

POTS is often thought to be caused by the body trying to compensate. That compensation can be "exaggerated" for a variety of reasons. For instance, if one has lived with POTS due to neuropathy or possibly a connective tissue disorder, its reasonable to believe that the compensatory responses of POTS can become exxagerated due to hypersensitivity of the undamaged receptors or even the scarred receptors.

Like you, I've had some deficits for as long as I can remember. Could never blow up a balloon...heck, I could never even blow a bubble with bubble gum. I thought everyone had blackouts/greyouts on a regular, if not daily, basis. What sets it off to worsen? Who knows? And why do some get better? Again, who knows?

[MightyMouse]

I have an exaggerated response and I've had this all my life--my body pumps out catecholes like crazy to keep my heart rate up as my bp is falling and then the catecholamine well runs dry, my heart rates slows down to something in a normal range, but by then my bp is so low that a normal heart rate wont keep me conscious.

The lessened response that the doc in question may have been referring to is when the body's ANS is being damaged by infection, autoimmunity, or disease--anything that is progressively damaging your autonomic nervous system certainly wont get better over time, but might stabilize at a certain level if the disease process is interrupted.

[Guest tearose]

I think of it as exaggerated in my case with some dysfunction that appears to make things like they are slow. For example, I know if it is cold outside it will take my body much longer to warm up.

Maybe you can think of it more like dysfunctioning ANS.

What caused the POTS in the person who got better? How did they get better?

I have hyperadrenergic POTS and have not improved.

Surgical menopause helped regulate hormonal triggers but I still struggle.

I am trying hard to fight to preserve what I can but I have had a rocky path since 1991. I kept hoping for improvement but recently realized it was better to accept things as they are.

best regards,

tearose

[ajw4790]

Hi,

Are you talking about like with HYPERadrenergic POTS there is an exaggerated response of adrenaline etc., whereas with neuropathic POTS there can be the opposite due to the destruction of nerve pathways etc? Shy-Drager and Autonomic Failure also have the neuropathic component to a much larger degree. The neuropathy is causing the symptoms (decrease in response). Whereas with the hyperadrenergic response the ANS is exaggerating its response and the excessive catacholamines are causing the symptoms.

I don't know if that made sense. The scary thing is that it made sense in my head... Is it true???