Having A Cold Causes Improvement In Symptoms

[carinara]

Hello everybody,

for years i have noticed that whenever i begin having a cold my symptoms improve at first.

That means, that whenever i can just feel the cold symptoms creeping in like throat hurts, sinus problems,

sneezing and so on. My POTS symptoms improve. Then i can stand without getting sick or tachy.

i can go without food for hours without having blood sugar problems.

A few years ago (before i was diagnosed) i would go for long walks and shopping trips on these occasions

because i could stand for ages.

two days ago i started getting a cold again. Yesterday and today i felt POTS wise much better again, i could

stand without getting Tachy.

Then when the cold is at its worst (like i can feel it now) all of a sudden my HR shoots up and my POTS Symptoms

are much worse. Iam a little scared about going to sleep tonight because 8 out of 10 times my system will

do the opposite of what i usually does then. That means that an hour after i fall asleep, i wake up with a real slow

HR and i feel as if iam going to faint and cant move and cant seem to higher my HR.

I usually never have a low HR. just on them occasions.

Can anybody tell me why my POTS Symptoms improve at first and then get much worse after the cold is on its

high point? Has this something to do with the autoimmun system.

Thanks a lot

carinara

[futurehope]

Hello everybody,

for years i have noticed that whenever i begin having a cold my symptoms improve at first.

That means, that whenever i can just feel the cold symptoms creeping in like throat hurts, sinus problems,

sneezing and so on. My POTS symptoms improve. Then i can stand without getting sick or tachy.

i can go without food for hours without having blood sugar problems.

A few years ago (before i was diagnosed) i would go for long walks and shopping trips on these occasions

because i could stand for ages.

two days ago i started getting a cold again. Yesterday and today i felt POTS wise much better again, i could

stand without getting Tachy.

Then when the cold is at its worst (like i can feel it now) all of a sudden my HR shoots up and my POTS Symptoms

are much worse. Iam a little scared about going to sleep tonight because 8 out of 10 times my system will

do the opposite of what i usually does then. That means that an hour after i fall asleep, i wake up with a real slow

HR and i feel as if iam going to faint and cant move and cant seem to higher my HR.

I usually never have a low HR. just on them occasions.

Can anybody tell me why my POTS Symptoms improve at first and then get much worse after the cold is on its

high point? Has this something to do with the autoimmun system.

Thanks a lot

carinara

In my opinion, I have found that my body "knows" it's fighting something before I do. In my case, I've encountered a "vertigo" attack of 1-2 second duration, a few hours before the onset of a illness. My own conclusion is, the autonomic nervous system is already reacting before outward symptoms are displayed. Maybe, in your case, the "increased" autonomic response (maybe it's adrenalin, but that's a guess?) is helpful. Too bad you have to "provoke" your ANS with a germ or virus in order to decrease your symptoms.

[all4family]

Hi! I thought I was the only one! I had the flu just a while before Christmas this last year, and thought I was invincible. My pots symptoms seemed to go ALMOST completly away. So much so that I though I was better. I was running around with the flu doing yard work, and cleaning, and things I hadn't done in a while. My family thought I was nuts because I had the flu, and was doing so much. They didn't realize that compared to daily life with this the flu was a walk in the park. I did read something somewhere, though I can't remember where, where there were like 60 people in a hospital with an illness, it was something severe, and then they all contracted a second illness, and all the symptoms from the first illness seemed to go away. They were treated for the second illness, and recovered, and then all the symptoms from the first illness came back. And what they got from this is that maybe our body when faced with a second illness focuses on healing that illness first. Does this make any sense at all??? In another words it focuses on healing one thing at a time. My other thought is that it has something to do with autoimmunity. I don't know, but I can say I relate, and it has deffinatly happened to me.

Suzy.

[Maxine]

Sometimes after a cold I had some symptom improvement, but I wonder if the Guaifenesin has any effect. For some reason I think Robitussin actually helps more then just my cough. I used to think there was an autoimmune componet to my POTS, and that having a cold gave something else for my immune system to attack besides my ANS.

However, this last bout of viral illnesses I had since January has caused my POTS issues to be worse----especially this last flu virus. WOW----I had a horrible time. Tachy, fever, nausea, near syncope, really, really low BP---even when sitting.

I think for some symptoms may be helped-------but maybe the people who might have an autoimmune componet to their ANS dysfunction.

Maxine :0)

[Csmith3]

Yes, I have noticed this as well. 2 or 3 days of feeling better at the start of a cold, but then feeling worse. I have mentioned this to my doctor, but didn't get any answers. I think he thought I was nuts.

Although I'm one of the EDS POTS people, I start to wonder whether my immune system needs something else to occupy it and when such a thing comes along, it fights the cold instead of inducing POTS. Maybe having a fever helps? But then I suppose I have sinus infections a lot of the time and they definitely don't make me feel better.

I don't tend to catch other general infections, so I don't know if I would get the same respite if I got, say, flu or something else. The only other illness I have ever had was chicken pox as I child and I felt great!

[Rachel]

I used to be like that. I used to always feel great when I was sick with a virus of some sort. At that time the doctors believed my POTS had an autoimmune cause. I always wondered if when I caught a cold, my body started fighting the cold off, and stopped attacking me for a while.

The autoimmune condition I used to have is now gone, but my POTS and other conditions are much worse. Now when I get a cold I have the symptoms (cough, congestion, stuffy nose, etc) but I don't feel any better or worse physically. Usually the only thing that knocks me out now is a fever, and then only sometimes.

It's strange how our bodies respond!

Rachel

[ramakentesh]

I posted about this once and got no replies. Im exactly the same. I had a theory that is exaclty like above - the cold gives my immune system something to do. Its just a guess though.

I dont have the typical symptoms of the autoimmune form of POTS - I dont have blood pooling in my lower extremities - i have either normal or low flow POTS. But i still think its autoimmune and the reason I say this is because I developed Anyklosing Spond a month after I developed POTS both prettymuch out of the blue.

Im sure they are related in me - my body goes into POTS cycle, then into normal fatigue cycle, then AS back pain cycle - never both at the same time.

Im thinking of trying tumeric and other immune system regulators to see if that helps.

[carinara]

very interesting, thanks to everybody for your replies.

ramakentesh mentioned an autoimmune form of POTS.

Can somebody explain to me what this is?

thanks a lot,

carinara

[all4family]

Hi,

For me I have antibodies to the ganglia, called ACHR.neural.gangle.AB. When I was reading my paper work it said that the antibodies were consistant with autoimmune dysautonomia. My understanding is that the antibodies are attacking me is what causes my pots. About 15% of the people with this antibody have POTS.

Suzy

[calypso]

Usually, when people are just starting to become ill, blood pressure rises an average of 5 units higher both systolic and diastolic, and maybe that's what's making you feel better. After a couple days, your body is filled with inflammation, and your heart has to work harder to circulate blood through vessels that also become somewhat inflamed when you are ill. Plus, your organs and cells are working extra hard to rid your body of the virus, so that would make sense that heart rate would go up.

For me, I get a higher heart rate at the onset of illness, and it stays until I am better. I always, always feel worse when sick post-POTS than I ever did pre-POTS.

Amy

[carinara]

hello calypse,

my BP is always on the high side, i usually dont suffer from low BP.

carinara

[ramakentesh]

The autoimmune variety of POTS is characterised by positive levels of the antibody mentioned above and blood pooling in the legs. According to Dr Grubb this accounts for 90% of POTS patients, but according to the recent work by Dr Stewart that number is less. If you have blood pooling almost exclusively in your legs the theory is that your body is making antibodies that are attacking and damaging the nerves that release norepinephrine in the leg veins to vasoconstrict when the patients stands.