Shaking...

[fire_lupine06]

Is it odd that when i get really anxious about something my body shakes some and my arm jerks...is that POTS related?

[ramakentesh]

Certainly could be and this one gets asked fairly often.

In most POTS patients the sympathetic nervous system becomes overactive to compensate for blood flow abnormalities. WHen its overactive already it doesnt take much for it to make you jumpy.

Impaired reuptake of Norepinephrine is also implicated in some patients with POTS.

[fire_lupine06]

I've noticed it only happens late at night for the most part..but i have PVC's and they are most active right before or when i lie down to sleep, so i dont know how that is connected .

[EarthMother]

I go through periods when this happens with greater or lesser intensity with POTS.

My whole body can shake, my teeth chatter and I also would get those random arm jerks and twitches.

One doctor who treated me in the hospital put me on anti-seizure meds last year because it was so pronounced. I felt terribly drugged and disoriented on the med ... and still shook. My PCP agreed to stop the trial.

Eventually, when my body comes out of a peak hyperadrenic phase, the shaking seems to subside. This spring, even with my crash in April, the shaking doesn't seem to be an issue.

Hang in there. Lots of breathing. And best you can ... let it pass through you instead of fighting against it.

[potsgirl]

You certainly aren't alone on this one. I get tremors so badly that sometimes I can barely hold a glass, and once in a while, especially at night when I'm laying down, one of my arms will jerk up quite a bit - just out of the blue. I know I have some ischemic lesions on my brain, and they can't do another MRI to check how bad it is now, because I received a pacemaker in 2006. It's very startling though. Hang in there. You're in good company.

Cheers,

Jana

[Rene S.]

Is it odd that when i get really anxious about something my body shakes some and my arm jerks...is that POTS related?

I have the shaking/trembling, teeth chattering almost always on a daily basis. I feel like there is ice running through my veins and I cannot get warm or stop my knees from knocking together. Also, what's weird, is once I shake, my b/p goes up! I may get a reprieve, feel suddenly warm (at night) and then my b/p plummets.

My handwriting has become awful due to the tremors. And sometimes I get the palpitations with the shakes.

Very frustrating.

[janiedelite]

Me too! Lately it has been interfering with my use of a computer mouse because my wrist trembles so much that the cursor often flies around the screen. I often knock things over with my arms too. Hubby and I just laugh about it because what else can we do?!

[icthus]

I have similar events to Ruekat but the frequency is only a few times per month. Had one yesterday. Usually my first sign is becoming very cold and the veins in my hands totally disappear - the color of the blue veins are not visible. That's how I know I'm headed to a possible reaction. At this point, I also cannot easily feel my pulse in the neck because it is so faint but my BP usually goes up. Doesn't make sense to me. I also have a difficult time thinking, and of course, don't want to do anything but sit reclined. I also have a difficult time breathing (don't want to inhale) and the nose is occluded - but not from the flu or cold. It just closes up. The ENT said that was an autonomic reaction. Anyway, if I don't do anything else, major shakes and jerks come and can last for several hours.

However, my neuro gave me Klonapin for these episodes, and they have remediated them. I take just 1/2 of the lowest dose right when I become bone cold and the veins disappear. If I catch it soon enough, I avoid the shakes. But I still have brain fog and lethargy. The Klonapin usually takes about 20 minutes to work. I can tell when it kicks in because my breathing becomes more regular and not occluded.

I don't understand anything, and I cannot determine a pattern or causation for these things. I'm so sorry you have to go through this.

[ramakentesh]

Yeah its an interesting thing - maybe they are more likely in the evening simply because you've been 'orthostatic' all day and the epinephrine/NE levels have built up during the day?

Its commonly believed that this symptom represents a reflex sympathetic reaction to blood pressure and blood flow abnormalities in POTS.

Your blood pressure goes up because NE and E are vaso/veno constrictors. They are probably constricting to the point that they are actually contributing to the reduced bloodflow to your brain.